On a recent webinar titled Podcasting for Publishers: How Podcasts Can Deliver Qualified Leads and Bottom-Line Revenue for Minimal Investment, Lynn Freer, president of Spidell Publishing, told about running into a tax accountant listener at one of her events. He kidded her about his wife wondering who that woman with the great voice is who he's conversing with every Sunday morning.

According to the findings of a new study from PodcastOne and Edison Research, 60% of super listeners—people who spend at least five hours a week listening to podcasts—view advertisers positively on their favorite podcasts, appreciating the support they offer. Nearly half of respondents, 44%, have a more positive opinion of a company when it is mentioned in a podcast they listen to.

"I feel like [synergy in an organization or company] is overlooked a lot when it comes to marketing podcasts," Blake Althen of podcast-producing company Human Factor told me recently. "At least with organizations I've done work for, the magazine/newsletter department might be doing their thing, the email people might be doing their thing and the events people are doing their thing, but there's not a lot of synergy. And we tried to close that gap and have done it really well.

"Who do you want to be listening?" asked Kate Super, founder and executive producer, Sidford House Media, during a session on Creating Successful Podcasts this morning at Association Media & Publishing's annual conference here in Washington, D.C. "That will tell you a lot about what your content should be."

Two years ago, the Book Industry Study Group, with all of its 138 members, had to make some money. So Brian O'Leary, BISG executive director, decided to do webinars—more specifically sponsored webinars. 33 of them. In one year. All sponsored.

Long gone are the days when a B2B editor could be a platform specialist. A typical day for today’s b2B journalist runs the gamut from breaking news to in-depth features to data-driven content to webcast to podcast to event programming to awards programs and more, with social media tying in at every turn.  

The 2019 Jesse H. Neal Awards, which recognize the best in B2B journalism, provided no shortage of highlights at this year’s ceremony in New York City on March 29.

One session at SIPA Annual 2019 June 3-5 in Washington, D.C., that already has my attention is How 3 Publishers Became Award-Winning Podcasters starring Joseph Coleman, director of content, Coleman Publishing, Lynn Freer, president, Spidell Publishing Inc. and Stephanie Williford, CEO, EB Medicine.

We should not be intimidated by podcasts (myself included). We should be excited. Get a good guest, ask questions for 2 or 4 or 20 or 38 minutes and put it out there. If you can keep it going, you can build up quite an archive.

At the start of an AM&P Lunch and Learn talk that Chris Blose, VP of content for Imagination, gave here a couple weeks ago, he asked the audience of about 30—a fairly diverse group in most categories—how many had listened to a podcast that day.