Quick Hits
- Adam Davidson's The Passion Economy is the latest show to leave paywalled podcast network Luminary. Clearly, a lot has changed during the 15 months since Adam penned this 11-part thread on why he was choosing the platform. In his closing tweet, the audio entrepreneur wrote, "So if you love podcasts, jump for flipping joy about subscriptions."
- On Thursday or Friday of this week (not yet nailed down by press time), OSM Audio's Shima Oliaee and Jad Abumrad will release their newest project into the Radiolab feed. Shima tells me that it's "another investigative look into America." (She sounds VERY excited about it, so keep your eyes peeled.)
- True crime review podcast Crime Writer's On has partnered with Facebook Watch to bring fans a video version of the show (pictured above). Fans can now participate in the fun by "viewing along with others, interacting within Facebook pages and even connecting directly with show creators and talent." As with the audio version, the show is hosted by New Hampshire power podcaster Rebecca Lavoie, with licensed investigator Lara Bricker, crime noir author Toby Ball, and Rebecca's crime-reviewing husband Kevin Flynn chiming in from the panel.
- SiriusXM has agreed to purchase Stitcher — a podcast app, advertising outfit (via Midroll), and podcast network (via Earwolf), all rolled into one — for an estimated $300 million. The company was formerly owned by E.W. Scripps Co., and prior to that, Deezer. Nick Quah thinks the deal "makes considerable sense." In related news, Sirius, which also owns Pandora, has recently expanded its partnership with Fox News, making the network's conservative talk-show content available on both its broadcast and podcast properties.
- Reveal from PRX and the Center for Investigative Reporting has launched American Rehab, its first serialized podcast. The eight-part series is a result of three years of investigative work, in which the Reveal team "uncover[ed] a type of rehab that is flourishing by turning tens of thousands of people desperate for treatment into an unpaid, shadow labor force." (Um, what?) The first two episodes are available now.
- E! News reporter Lilliana Vasquez is the host of newly-launched DNA of a Maker, which highlights "individual traits that set high-achieving women apart." The show's first two episodes feature Civil rights expert and creator of the #SayHerName movement Kimberlé Crenshaw, and #MeToo founder Tarana Burke.
- ICYMI: WNYC is facing backlash after announcing that former San Francisco Chronicle editor Audrey Cooper, a white woman without audio experience, has joined as editor-in-chief. The news arrived after multiple listening sessions with executives, in which staffers demanded they hire "a person of color, someone who deeply understood New York and who had experience in public radio."
- Reality-star-turned-margarita-mogul Bethenny Frankel, who got her start on a spinoff of The Apprentice, will launch Just B in September. Evidently it'll deliver "unfiltered, polarizing conversation with self-made moguls."
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