KQED buys studio behind Glynn Washington’s Snap Judgment and Spooked

That is Scorching Pod, The Verge’s publication about podcasting and the audio business. Join right here for extra.

Obtained a really packed difficulty of Scorching Pod for you at present. To start out off, I’ve a scoop for you about KQED’s acquisition of Snap Judgment Studios, which produces the exhibits Snap Judgment and Spooked. I’ll additionally dive into why Apple Podcasts bought fined by a courtroom in Moscow. Additionally, Audacy held an earnings name final week however very a lot stored it on the down low — I’ll break it down under. 

Lastly, make sure you try my story in The Verge about The Unwell Community, a brand new Gen Z-focused podcast enterprise by Name Her Daddy’s Alex Cooper. Cooper’s controversial podcast typically will get criticized for being mild on substance — however the present repeatedly beats Joe Rogan’s podcast within the rankings. Now Cooper is trying to flip TikTok stars and influencers into podcasters. We’ll see how that goes.

KQED snatches up Snap Judgment and Spooked

An Oakland public radio favourite is coming dwelling. The Bay Space’s KQED, an NPR and PBS member station, has acquired the Oakland-based Snap Judgment Studios, Scorching Pod has realized. The acquisition contains the studio’s titular podcast collection and public radio program, Snap Judgment, and the podcast Spooked.

Hosted by Glynn Washington, Snap Judgment has had a few properties thus far — the general public radio program was previously below WNYC after which PRX. The weekly present, which airs on over 460 NPR stations throughout the nation, will nonetheless be distributed by PRX. As will Spooked, a podcast about supernatural tales first launched by Snap Judgment Studios in 2017. Below the settlement, the entire of Snap Judgment Studios (which produces each exhibits) has turn out to be part of Snap Studios LLC, a subsidiary of KQED. 

The acquisition was an intentional transfer to maintain each exhibits within the public sphere

“Our new KQED partnership permits us to dream larger than ever about the way forward for Snap storytelling. We’re thrilled to take listeners into worlds they haven’t even imagined,” Washington wrote to Scorching Pod in an electronic mail. 

No layoffs will happen on account of the acquisition, Washington confirmed to Scorching Pod. He and Mark Ristich will proceed to function government producers of Snap Judgment Studios, whereas KQED will present organizational assist, together with HR, authorized, and viewers intelligence. The studio expects to launch a recreation show-style podcast hosted by Lupita Nyong’o later this 12 months. 

Spooked can be planning on a dwell occasion tour, which kicks off on October thirteenth on the Fox Theater in Oakland. 

Spooked was initially part of the subscription podcast community Luminary, which put its unique podcasts behind a paywall. As we’ve seen with lots of Spotify’s authentic productions, the exclusivity mannequin for podcasts significantly limits their attain. Spooked left Luminary in April and partnered with each KQED and PRX to distribute, produce, and monetize the present, reported Bloomberg. In accordance with Washington, taking Spooked public was all the time the plan. The present, which focuses on an encounter with the supernatural in each episode, repeatedly ranked because the primary most listened-to title on Luminary’s community. 

In a cellphone dialog with Scorching Pod, Washington and KQED’s chief content material officer, Holly Kernan, stated the acquisition was an intentional transfer to maintain each exhibits within the public sphere. As companies like Spotify reduce their spending on narrative, journalistic podcasts, public radio gives a pure dwelling for such content material. 

“I imply, Snap is particular. And we wish to preserve it in public media and never go business and never be behind a paywall,” Kernan stated. 

Washington says that Snap’s acquisition by a public radio station will let the studio preserve a way of stability. “The media enterprise, particularly the podcasting enterprise, modifications each six months. It’s so arduous proper now to take care of a company that wishes to do deep-dive storytelling….We feared that if we had gone on to companion with a business group, that kind of labor would haven’t been a precedence.”

Public radio has been on a little bit of a shopping for spree lately, buying native media properties and tech startups. Again in 2018, public radio stations WNYC, KPCC, and WAMU collectively acquired Gothamist — together with LAist and DCist. Chicago Public Media final 12 months purchased the beleaguered Chicago Solar-Instances, kicking off a partnership between the newspaper and CPM’s WBEZ Chicago radio station. After shopping for up LAist’s archives, Southern California Public Radio just lately rebranded its 89.3 KPCC station to LAist 89.3.

Whereas the acquisitions supplied a lifeline to struggling properties, they don’t all the time work out. SCPR laid off greater than 12 p.c of its workers this 12 months, and LAist Studios was compelled to halt plenty of its podcasts. A gaggle of public radio firms, together with NPR, WNYC, and WBEZ, purchased Pocket Casts in 2018 — solely to promote it to WordPress proprietor Automattic a mere three years later. 

How Apple Podcasts bought caught in the course of Russian censorship

The Russian impartial information outlet Meduza reported that its weekly information recap podcast, What Occurred, together with a information podcast by impartial Russian outlet Holod, was yanked from Apple Podcasts on August fifth — solely to return to the platform a day later. The removing got here two days after a Moscow courtroom fined Apple roughly $4,274 for not deleting what it claimed was inaccurate data on Ukraine from its podcasts and apps. The courtroom additionally fined Wikipedia for holding “false” details about the battle in Ukraine, although Wikipedia has maintained that its data is well-sourced and correct. 

Scorching Pod has reached out to Apple for touch upon the incidents.

Russian legislation has prompted a chilling impact on most in-country battle reporting

Meduza, as one of many few English-language Russian information properties not below state management, is an important supply of knowledge on the nation for these within the West. The outlet’s staff had been compelled to flee Russia final 12 months following a Kremlin crackdown on impartial reporting on the battle in Ukraine. The operation’s headquarters is in Latvia, which permits it to publish freely. Again in January, the Kremlin banned Meduza fully and declared it an unlawful and “undesirable group.” The Russian information journal Holod has reported in regards to the murders of homosexual people in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in addition to how Russian troopers are promoting cattle to afford army gear — all subjects seemingly to attract the ire of the Kremlin. Final 12 months, the nation handed a legislation that may criminalize reporting inaccurate data on the Russian army and impose a most jail time of 15 years in jail for offenders. The legislation has prompted a chilling impact on most in-country battle reporting. 

Apple has repeatedly complied with takedown requests from governments everywhere in the world. The Info reported that Apple took down greater than 47,000 apps to adjust to new Chinese language rules on playing and in-app purchases again in 2020. However the firm has additionally eliminated apps associated to human rights points, privateness instruments, the Hong Kong protests, Tibetan Buddhism, and different subjects on the Chinese language authorities’s request, a separate evaluation by the Tech Transparency Mission discovered. In Russia, greater than 2,754 apps had been lacking from Apple’s App Retailer that had been obtainable worldwide as of November 2022, famous free speech advocacy group Nice Fireplace. But it surely’s unknown what number of of these apps had been taken down as a result of authorities requests — builders might have eliminated them for unrelated causes.  

A lot of apps have been deleted from the Russian App Retailer this summer time, together with Tinder, an app for the Boston Celtics, plenty of VPN apps, a Toyota navigation app, and an LGBTQ social networking app, based on Nice Fireplace’s database that paperwork Apple’s app removals. It’s essential to notice that the database doesn’t specify whether or not apps had been eliminated as a result of authorities’s request. 

Audacy terminates a $10 million podcast settlement

Audacy has seen higher days. The corporate quietly posted its second quarter earnings final Friday, which indicated a dip in each digital and internet income. It reported $298.5 million in internet income for the second quarter, which is a 6.6 p.c decline 12 months over 12 months. Income from each nationwide and native spot promoting is down — nationwide is down 16.6 p.c from what it was final 12 months. 

The New York Inventory Alternate suspended buying and selling and commenced the delisting course of for Audacy this summer time, which the corporate is interesting. Final month, the radio firm put its 1-for-30 reverse inventory cut up into impact. Put merely, Audacy shareholders will personal one share of sophistication A or class B frequent inventory for each 30 shares they held. On Monday morning, Audacy’s share value was $1.21 — which meets NYSE’s threshold for staying on the change. 

Audacy started streamlining operations at Pineapple Road Studios and Cadence13

“Second quarter internet revenues had been down 6.6% according to our quarterly steerage, reflecting difficult advert market circumstances. In the course of the quarter, we noticed accelerated progress throughout sure of our key efficiency metrics together with radio income share, station viewers scores, and digital platform utilization. We additionally made significant progress on our advert tech and advert product roadmap as we work to develop essential new swimming pools of digital demand and progress,” stated Audacy CEO David J. Area in an announcement supplied to buyers. 

The corporate famous that $10.4 million in fees got here from terminating certainly one of its two largest podcast agreements. “In June, we efficiently negotiated an early exit to an onerous Podcast advert illustration contract, which resulted in a restructuring cost of $5.9 million within the quarter and the accelerated recognition of $4.5 million of pay as you go content material expense. We consider exiting this settlement could have a optimistic impression on our Podcast margins, with out materially impacting our future Podcast income progress alternative,” wrote the corporate in its earnings report.

Scorching Pod has reached out to Audacy with extra questions in regards to the settlement and can replace if we hear again. 

Audacy started streamlining operations at Pineapple Road Studios and Cadence13 this April in an effort to chop prices. This was solely a month after it signed a multi-year cope with Lacking Richard Simmons podcast host Dan Taberski. In June, Pineapple Road Studios additionally shaped a brand new management group — Bari Finkel and Je-Anne Berry now function co-heads, and Jenna Weiss-Berman (certainly one of Pineapple Road’s co-founders) was tapped to go Audacy’s podcast division as government vice-president. Max Linsky was promoted to senior podcast technique for Audacy’s podcast division. The radio firm additionally partnered with TuneIn final month, making its whole podcast library obtainable on TuneIn’s platforms.

Simply final week, Audacy laid off three staff from Pineapple Road Studios. “We’re heartbroken to share that @AudacyCorp has chosen to layoff 3 of our @pineapplemedia union colleagues. We stand with our comrades impacted by this decision-3 hardworking gifted individuals who have contributed deeply to our office, and whose absence might be harshly felt,” posted Pineapple Road Union on X / Twitter final Friday afternoon.