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.

With soft music and staff writer Ryan Ermey's clear voice, Kiplinger launched its first podcast series, Your Money's Worth last week. The first episode was titled, How to Score Holiday Deals on Black Friday and All Season Long, and features an interview with Andrea Browne Taylor, online editor at Kiplinger.com.

"As you develop a podcast concept, expect it to morph and change. 'Our original thought with the podcast was to fill a gap in how IBM Cloud educated sellers and partners about new features,' say the hosts. 'We were going to do episodes on the new stuff. We quickly realized that 1) we couldn't keep up, and 2) episodes about new capabilities were really boring; like Ian and Steve fell asleep.'"

Matt Priest, president and CEO of Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, would attend events throughout the world and have entertaining, informative, off-the-cuff talks with cool people in the industry. It made him think. “If we can just take these conversations we’re having with executives and bring them to other people who aren’t CEOs, we would have something special.” Thus the Shoe-In podcast came to be. More than 100 episodes later, and the weekly "shoe" is going stronger than ever. Described as “covering the ins and outs of all things footwear, from sneakers to heels, loafers to slippers and every type of shoe in between," it’s hosted by Priest and a longtime friend. “My host is a little off the walls,” Priest said. “Who knew two suits from D.C. could be so funny?” Though he admits to it being “a little out of my comfort zone,” Priest also said it’s “a huge creative out ...

According to a new study by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the American podcast industry brought in an estimated $314 million in advertising revenue in 2017, up 86% from the $169 million reported the year before. It beat projections established in the previous revenue study, which predicted that the ad business would grow to around $220 million in 2017. The study further predicts that podcast advertising will hit $659 million by 2020.   Other findings from IAB's podcast study:   Pre-produced ads make up a third of all ad types among the companies doing podcasts. Host-read ads make up the dominant remainder. In the podcasts that I've listened to, those host-read ads come off very effective. Usually they're at the beginning when the music has just ended, some playful banter has begun, and the atmosphere feels breezy—but in a good-content-to-come way.   Branded podcasts grew from 1.5% to 6.5% of all ad revenue between 2016 and 2017, disp ...