Podnews

Podnews is the weekday trade paper. James Cridland writes it from Brisbane. You get a short email every weekday, a matching daily audio briefing you can play on a walk, and a Friday sit-down with Sam Sethi. It is news, jobs, and events for people who make and sell shows. It is not a show finder. It is not a host. You still publish the episode where the apps already read your show.

It fits a host who wants to know what Apple, Spotify, and the networks did this week before a client asks. It fits an editor, a sales lead, and a vendor watching the same letter. Stephanie Fuccio, on the homepage, calls the daily scan a head start in both indie and network space. The Podcast Host called it an essential briefing. It does not fit a listener looking for something to follow this weekend. It does not fit a host who only wanted a ranked directory to drop a new show into.

What people keep doing is making it the first tab. Podchaser reviews talk about a morning walk, a four-minute listen, and clicking a couple of links from the notes. One reviewer said other podcasting news shows seem to get their news from James too. The about page, opened today, puts the list at 33,363 active subscribers with an open rate around 43 percent. Named inboxes there include PRX, BBC, NPR, Acast, Libsyn, Buzzsprout, Omny, Oxford Road, Magellan AI, Apple Podcasts, and Edison Research. That is the room you are walking into.

The later catch is how the paper stays free. Supporters pay so everyone can read. Classifieds sit in the letter. Title sponsors buy a month at the top. A paid editorial feature is your copy, and sometimes your art, in the middle of the briefing. That is not James covering you. Editorial policy is blunt: they do not seek payment to cover a story, and they still do not guarantee a mention. When time or space is short, they prioritise stories from supporters. They also skip gated research forms, most award-nomination blasts, and shows that only live behind a paywall or on one closed app.

Start by putting your work email on the free list. Skim it for a week before you pitch anything. If you have a real launch, send editor@podnews.net one email with the Apple Podcasts link, the date people can actually hear it, and a trailer marked in the feed the apps read. Write like their Podcast News section. Coverage is still a maybe. If you need the mention, that is a conversation with Kristy at sales@podnews.net, not a press release trick. A personal Patreon pledge is thanks. A Silver or Gold logo is a billboard at the bottom of every page.

Podnews is a trade paper with a tip jar and a classifieds desk, not a discovery app. The deal is a global weekday scan you can finish with coffee. If you needed listeners to find the show, people already use Apple and Spotify. If you needed to know what the industry did yesterday, this is the usual vote.