We’ve finally reached the end of June, and Fourth of July weekend is soon underway! I have a short and sweet issue of Hot Pod for you today. I reached TWiT Podcast Network CEO Lisa Laporte yesterday and asked her for more details on recent show cancellations, which you’ll find below. Also, I have my usual lightning round of end-of-the week announcements. 

Also, quick programming note: Hot Pod will skip next week’s Tuesday issue due to the holiday weekend. You can expect a larger-than-usual Thursday issue in lieu of our usual two paid editions of Hot Pod. We’ll return to our regular publishing schedule right after that. 

As I wrote about in Hot Pod yesterday, the nearly 20-year-old tech news podcast network TWiT.tv opted to cancel two of its podcasts, Hands-On Photography and All About Android. It also announced it would be signing up with a new ad network, Libsyn’s AdvertiseCast, and leveling up its game on YouTube by posting content on YouTube Shorts.

TWiT Podcast Network CEO Lisa Laporte has been pretty candid about what led to the cuts, urging fans on Twitter to follow the shows they love and support the network’s sponsors. She expanded on some recent changes at the podcast network with Hot Pod over email, and the details seemed pretty illustrative of challenges facing the audio industry at large. 

TWiT.tv hasn’t been immune to this year’s soft ad market, which has led to layoffs throughout many industries — including audio. Premium memberships have helped soften the blow, but for most businesses, they can’t replace ad revenue. Laporte told Hot Pod that advertising remains the bulk (90 percent) of the company’s annual gross revenue, while its premium membership Club TWiT accounts for just 10 percent. 

Here’s a lightly edited transcript below. 

Is the partnership with Libsyn in response to recent TWiT.tv show cancellations? Did TWiT.tv not have dynamic ads prior to this? 

No, we were looking for a new [dynamic ads insertion] partner as we were with Megaphone for a few years, and they never had all of our audio feeds. We decided to partner with AdvertiseCast because they have a higher fill rate than Megaphone, and they can send us clients for our host-read ads portion of our business. These are very effective and what we offer here at TWiT.tv. We do not prerecord our ads, we cater to a highly qualified audience, and our longform ad reads stand out. 

You tweeted that the audience "just wasn't there" for All About Android. How did the numbers for All About Android and Hands-On Photography compare to your other shows?

There is softness across all shows this year after significant growth last year. [...All About Android] has been on our network for 13 years, and the downloads diminished significantly over the last two years. I believe it’s due to Android not being as interesting as it once was, and a dwindling audience is a sign to pivot. 

I'm unsure of why the Hands-On Photography audience declined. It’s a crowded space, and that may be what happened here. We have successfully launched over the last few years a number of shows, including This Week in Space, which is thriving, as well as Hands-On Windows, Hands-On Mac, Home Theater Geeks, and The Untitled Linux show, and we are currently working on another show now. 

Shondaland Audio and iHeart Podcasts this week debuted The Flaky Biscuit Podcast, a baking podcast hosted by artisan baker Bryan Ford. The first episode features André Mack, the first Black wine professional to be named the Best Young Sommelier in America. Listeners can catch new episodes every Tuesday on all podcast platforms. 

Audible announced a slate of new original titles that will debut in July. Hip-hop artist Yasiin Bey is behind A Dynamic Career in Communications (arriving on July 7th), which covers his Brooklyn roots and spirituality, as well as features remixes and original performances from his catalog. The Audible Original Impact Winter, which follows a pair of vampire sisters as they navigate the apocalypse, returns for a second season on July 13th. Host Leon Neyfakh will helm the sixth season of Fiasco: Vigilante (premiering on July 27th), a narrative podcast that documents a 1984 New York City subway shooting. 

Billy Mann will host Yeah, I F*cked That Up, a new podcast on the perils of conversing with celebrity guests by Interval Presents, the in-house podcast network of Warner Music Group. The first two guests will be Kelly Rowland and Steven Van Zandt.

SCOTUS has issued a series of monumental decisions on affirmative action, voting rights, state legislatures and more this month. Slate Podcast Group’s resident SCOTUS expert Dahlia Lithwick and her team have put out a slew of emergency episodes of Amicus to accompany each ruling, which you can listen to here. 

Sony Music Group’s in-house podcast group announced three new podcasts to debut this summer. There’s Drapetomaniax, hosted by Michael Harriot, which will feature key figures from Black American history that have been wiped from history textbooks and feature guests such as comedian Roy Wood Jr., actress Yvette Nicole Brown, journalists Nikole Hannah-Jones and Roland Martin, and more. The first episode launches on all podcast platforms on July 11th. Cover Up: The Pill Plot, hosted by T.J. Raphael, covers the drug smuggling scheme that bought the abortion pill to America and debuts on July 1st. And finally, Smokescreen (produced by both Sony and Neon Hum Media) follows the story of DEA Special Agent Chad Scott and his controversial methods of ensnaring drug dealers in New Orleans. Hosted by Jim Mustian and Faimon Roberts, the first episode drops on August 1st. 

Stampede Ventures is rolling out three new unscripted podcasts, which it announced this week. REALLY?!, hosted by actor Dave Foley and Tom Wheeler, will focus on UFOs, AI, and similar topics. There’s also Multiple Talking Women, a satirical talk show by The Groundlings improv group. Also, how about another royal podcast? Princess Sarah Culberson will interview other modern royals in a new podcast, Modern Royalty. 

And that's all for now, folks. Enjoy the holiday weekend. Hope you take the time to do what makes you happy — whether that's watching fireworks and a backyard barbecue with loved ones or holing up in your isolation chamber and not speaking to another person until next week. Just do you!

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