The latest from our daily newsletter at podnews.net with Red Circle. The Webby Awards ceremony took place last night in New York. Webby Award for Podcast of the Year went to the hosts of the Meidas Touch podcast for groundbreaking contributions to digital, political commentary and cultural advocacy will link to all of the winners today. iHeart Media released its quarter one 25 earnings. Podcast revenue was $116 million, up 28% year on year.
The company still has debt of $4.6 billion though. And it does plan $150 million of cost savings this year, most of which will come from the legacy broadcast division. In analysis that we linked to today, Chris Peterson says podcasting is driving the company. Buzzsprout has integrated its paid subscription tool with Apple Podcast subscriptions, making it easier to produce premium or ad-free episodes.
Podscribe released its May 2025 rankings for podcasts, publishers and podcast advertisers. The IAB and MRC are working on attention measurement guidelines and the document is open for public comment. Meanwhile, a pending patent from Disktopia's Patrick Hill was published in January, we've learned. The patent describes a system for distribution of content and analysis of content engagement. It claims to measure how engaged a user is with the content they're consuming.
Flight Path has been selected by Impressions.fm for predictive analytics across its podcast portfolio. Podcast app Metacast has a new look as well as some new features. And Michael Tobin, the non-exec chairman of Audioboom, has bought another $2.6 million worth of Audioboom shares. He now owns about 5.4% of the company. In people news, Libsyn has hired a new VP of technology. He's Andy Wright, joining from digital innovation firm Robots and Pencils.
And in podcast news, in one-minute podcast tips this week, host Danny Brown shares why you shouldn't panic about the new public plays on Spotify, what data you should be looking at and why you should educate sponsors about those numbers. In Calm History this week, you'll learn that the earliest female aviators weren't airplane pilots, they were balloon pilots.
Let's hear all about the high-flying adventures, dangers and wild journeys of Gertrude Bacon in the latest episode of Calm History. I assume that they go up, diddly up, up, and then they go down, diddly down, down. While Ben Shapiro's height is hotly debated online, his length isn't. The Ben Shapiro show is normally about 50 minutes long. Until now, that is, because the Daily Wire has just announced that it's now 30 minutes longer, as of this week.
And in Gents Talk this week, host Samir Murani sits down with ex-spy JJ Brunn, who reveals how to control any conversation. And this podcast is sponsored by Red Circle, trusted by Fiji Water, Nerd Wallet, and Bandai Namco to run their podcast ads. Are you next? Get a free campaign plan from Red Circle. You'll find a link in the show notes. And that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe for free, we're at podnews.net.