The latest from our daily newsletter at podnews.net with CoHost's Analytics. YouTube is adding a dedicated podcast tab on the main screen of its Android TV app, thus highlighting more podcast content to YouTube's biggest number of users. TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the US. As with its podcasts page on the web though, it contains plenty of content which appears to have been automatically marked as being a podcast, including news reports.
YouTube is currently the US's preferred podcast service, said Edison Research in October. It unveils its latest Infinite Dial study this Thursday in a free webinar, co-presented by Edison's Megan Lazovic and podnews editor James Cridland. That's me, and one of us doesn't own a single pair of Bluetooth headphones. Podscribe rankings for March show that the Meidas Touch podcast has almost twice the number of downloads and views of Joe Rogan, 121 million versus 64 million.
Edison Research has launched a Downloads Metrics service partnering with Soundstack. Edison says that the service works alongside its Edison Podcast Metrics survey to provide deeper information to subscribers, especially for smaller and short-run shows. The solution is IAB version 2.2 compliant. Podcast superfans are super spenders, suggests a new report from Audacy. We'll link to that today from our show notes and our newsletter at podnews.net.
PRX's Dovetail has added support for the upcoming podcast follow tag. You can see it in the feed for Radiotopia Presents. We'll support the tag in a few weeks. Pocket Casts appears to be considering generating its own transcripts for its app. Part of the release notes for the forthcoming version 7.85 of the app adds a remote feature flag for generated transcripts, allowing that feature to be turned on later.
Pushkin Industries has a ratified union contract, says the Writers Guild of America East. It includes a minimum salary of $73,000 and protections against AI. Michelle Obama's new podcast is called IMO, but your web reports on a UK podcast called In My Opinion, the hosts of which are grumpy at the same name being used. They have trademarked the name, but only in the UK. The podcast index has 261 shows called My Opinion, 75 shows called In My Opinion, and 30 called IMO.
Our odd podcast downloads for this show are still occurring. Seemingly automated audio files, all being requested by Android devices, all being requested in Malaysia or Indonesia, and all connected somehow to Google's News Audio Briefing. We found the right department in Google. They say they're looking into it, but they haven't asked for any further detail. And Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella doesn't listen to podcasts like you do. GeekWire quotes him on the Minus One podcast, saying...
The best way for me to consume podcasts is not to actually go listen to it, but to have a conversation with the transcript on my commute using my copilot. It is more convenient because of the modality, the fact that I can speak to it, I can interrupt it. Isn't that funny? Because I've found the best way to experience Microsoft products isn't to use them either.
In People News, Kelly Turner, who's been acting as interim president and CEO for Audacy since January, is now permanently in that role. Audacy has announced Chris Oliviero has been hired as chief business officer and Bob Phillips as chief revenue officer. The Audacy changes also mean some leave the company. Chief digital officer and president of podcast and streaming, J.D. Crowley, says, It's time to move on to my next chapter.
Also announced as leaving, our chief operating officer, Susan Larkin, chief marketing officer, Paul Zuckman, and executive vice president and general counsel, Andrew Souter. Additionally, digital sales manager in the West, Yvonne Lacey, says her position has been eliminated. We don't normally mention our tips and tricks section in this podcast version, but it's with PodPredictor. We're grateful to them for their support.
And a couple of things that we mention includes podcast discovery, writing how to choose between dynamic ads and host red ads for your podcasts. Podcast strategy, which gets an extra 4,000 downloads by just changing the publish date of an old episode to today's date, which we think is either clever or tricking your audience. And are you smiling in your podcast artwork?
Ads for hotels and hospitality show a 21% increase in sales when you have a picture of a smiling person rather than serious people. Would the same work for your show, we wonder? And in podcast news, why shouldn't a podcast app have a podcast? Fan Zone is your bite-sized guide to getting the most out of the TrueFans podcast app. In each episode, Sam Sethi and Claire Waite Brown discuss an aspect of the app and answer any questions you might have about it.
And when you listen to Fan Zone in TrueFans, this is clever, you can earn as you listen and use those earnings to support your favourite podcasters like this one. Verdicts with Ted Cruz has a special guest of Elon Musk. It's a discussion about Doge and the first 50 days of the Trump administration. They talk about issues related to waste and fraud being apparently addressed by DOGE, the challenges Musk faces in this new role, the future with AI and robots, and more.
The US Manufacturing Today podcast is your go-to hub for manufacturing and distribution industry news, we're told. In Possible Now, the global president and co-founder of Possible talks with the brightest visionaries who are redefining the worlds of marketing, culture, and technology. And F1 is back. And Grand Pricks, see what they did there? Gets up to speed with the 2025 F1 season.
Nav, Izzy, and Ream react to the first race of the year, the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, with a rundown of the qualifying session in qualifying time, and then deep dive into the chaotic race that took place in Albert Park over the weekend. New episodes will be available after every race this season. And this podcast is sponsored by Co-Host. Podcasters need better analytics.
Discover where downloads are coming from, how listeners are resonating, and who your audience is with Co-Host. Sign up today for a free trial. There's 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.