Indiewire is one of the leading trade publications in the movies/tv space, and they just named one episode from my Wondery podcast Inside Psycho as one of the 50 best of the year (so far). It’s #10 on the list, and I couldn’t be prouder. Here’s their writeup: We’ve sung the praises of Mark Ramsey’s six part Wondery series about the origins of the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Psycho.” It’s worth repeating again how fully and eerily this opening episode places any listener in the ps

Sure, it’s smaller than radio. But it’s growing. And revenue is growing fast. I’m talking about podcasting. And one of the hot new companies native to the space is Wondery, an audio on-demand company that just celebrated its first anniversary. It’s also the company I’m working with on my new series, Inside Psycho. Hernan Lopez is the CEO/Founder of Wondery. Listen to our conversation and you’ll learn a lot about the space and its development. Hear how the business of podcasti

Last week I told you about the new podcast I am producing for Wondery: Inside Psycho. This week I am proud to announce that Inside Psycho is now #1 on iTunes in the TV & Film category (#46 overall at this writing). It’s also featured by Apple as “New and Noteworthy,” which is a special privilege. Now, these are dynamic lists and rankings to be sure. Stuff changes. And iTunes rankings aren’t the whole story. But even so, with the zillions of podcasts in distribution every day

Today, I am proud to announce that my company, Mark Ramsey Media, has signed an agreement to develop content for on-demand audio publisher Wondery. The first show created under that agreement launches today. It’s called Inside Psycho, and it’s the first audio graphic novel in the podcast space. It’s a six-part deep dive inspired by the making of the classic movie Psycho. A special sneak preview is available today wherever you listen to podcasts. So what’s the show about? It’s

Oh but so much more than that. From MediaPost: The New York Times will launch a new daily podcast hosted by Michael Barbaro called “The Daily.” The show, which is billed as “a reimagining of a daily audio report for a digital audience,” will debut on February 1. It will include a text messaging component and will be available on Alexa-enabled devices. Each 15-20 minute weekday show will publish at 6 a.m. and will focus on the news of the day, featuring two to four stories. BM

According to a new global media habits study from Kantar Millward Brown, if you think your audience hates advertising now, just wait. It is about to get a lot worse. The study spanned 39 countries and 23,907 interviews, including populations representing Gen X (35–49), Gen Y (20–34) and Gen Z (16–19). According to the report: It’s particularly tricky to get Gen Z to engage, because they are highly discriminating and more averse to advertising in general. In the online space G

The power of audio is more than just music or even “spoken word.” With his partner Larry Fessenden, Glenn McQuaid is the co-creator of the extraordinary contemporary audio drama series “Tales from Beyond the Pale,” featuring voices you’ll recognize from artists like Vincent D’Onofrio, Sean Young, and the late, great horror legend Angus Scrimm. In addition to writing and directing many episodes of Tales, Glenn is also well known for his feature film work – he was writer/direct

How can radio and other media brands do social media right? Why not ask the expert whose clients include NBC Universal, News Corp, and several OTT video players? Todd Beck is CEO & Founder of Beck Media & Marketing, the agency dozens of TV, OTT, and Tech companies look to for potent digital strategies that get results. Beck Media’s areas of focus span content creation and exploitation on TV, web, mobile, and social media, and whatever medium comes next. Todd was one of the fe

Andy Bowers is the Chief Content Officer of Panoply, a leading podcast network and an innovator in the space. In this Q&A from hivio 2016, the audio future festival, I talk with Andy about Panoply’s business model, how the company works with advertisers and brands, and the future of podcasting as a business. Among the questions Andy addresses: Describe Panoply For advertisers, Panoply is more about impact than scale. How is that distinction important and how does it work for

If ever there was a brand built on proprietary content, that brand is ESPN. Across all platforms, ESPN Audio offers more than 9,000 hours of talk and event content annually, reaching nearly 24 million listeners per week on more than 450 stations. Traug Keller is ESPN’s Senior Vice President, Production, Business Divisions, and he leads three business units at the company: ESPN Audio, ESPN Local and the ESPN Talent Office. For ESPN Audio, Traug oversees all aspects of the busi

Recently I was working on a project for a cable TV network involving digital content. They had only one rule: No audio, no way, no how. Why? Mostly because of their belief that of all the digital content elements they could present – text, images, video – the one that is least likely to be shared is audio. And the less the content is shared, the less impact it will have, and the less tune-in potential to their TV content they will see. In TV, as in radio, it’s all about ratin

From Radio Ink: While the radio industry grapples with what it should be doing about the connected car, there may be some comfort in knowing consumers are still a bit baffled by the connected car as well. Nielsen’s new AutoTECHCAST report shows that nearly one-third of consumers have never heard of these technology-enabled vehicles. “These consumers don’t know what connected cars do, and are not associating vehicle brands with infotainment badging.” Both the auto and radio in

Tweet this: Quality news is dying. And… Twitter growth screeches to a halt – at 52 million users! Plus, rants and raves about the “connected lawn” and proof that Donald Trump’s hands are not as HUUGE as he says they are. It’s episode 48 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! Click the play button below: And if you’re reading this by email, click here for the audio. Sample

There’s lots of chatter about podcasting today – from hobbyists, from fans, and from the companies deeply embedded in the space. But all that is nothing compared to what’s coming. Every year comes another statistic about the growth of podcasting among consumers, but even that doesn’t touch what’s coming. What’s coming is that podcasting is going to be big business, and it’s going to happen sooner than you think. ART19 is one of the new companies at the center of that transfor

Lizzie Widhelm is Pandora’s Senior Vice President of Ad Product Sales & Strategy where she spearheads the team that brings advertising products to life and to market. At this Q&A from hivio, the audio future festival, Lizzie talks about the evolving Pandora platform and how it’s changing its sales strategy to meet the future head-on. Here are some of the questions we cover: Why is this evolution of Pandora so important? How is the new shape of Pandora likely to be different f

Think digital and radio are two separate worlds and digital learnings can’t make audio content across platforms better and more popular? Think again. Anya Grundmann is NPR’s Vice President for Programming and Audience Development. She leads NPR’s programming center and its strategy for program acquisition, evaluation, and development. In this remarkable presentation from hivio, Anya shares what NPR has learned from its digital efforts and how those digital efforts have enhanc

Kim Kardashian has great talent after all. And… Publishers spanked by Facebook’s changing newsfeed algorithm. It’s episode 45 of Media Unplugged with branding authority Tom Asacker and media strategist Mark Ramsey. Plus, rants and raves about the grand opening of Kelloggs All Day Cereal Cafe, PBS’s Capitol Fourth TV fakery, Lyft’s “Ghost Mode,” and an easy way to put your podcast on YouTube. Listen as we go inside media to reveal the ugly truth! Click the play button below: A

Millennials are the future, but how do they really use audio platforms: Radio, online radio, podcasting, etc? And how do these platforms fit into their fast-changing lives? We recruited a special panel of Millennials at hivio 2016 so you could hear from 20-somethings themselves, and some of what attendees heard was shocking. When asked if anyone has an actual radio in their home, one panelist compared that idea to owning a laserdisc player! Among the questions these Millennia

Estimates vary, but the consensus seems to be that we’ll see a meaningful number of self-driving cars replacing the human-powered ones by 2020, less than four years hence. Personally, I think that’s a bit optimistic, but I have no doubt that the future of cars is a self-powered one. While we fret about the future of radio in fast-changing conventional dashboards, we’re missing the much bigger worry: What happens when all the tech sacrifices made to cater to the driver’s atten

hivio 2016 is history now, but if you missed the live stream of day 2, you can catch up on a spectacular recording of it here (Day 1 is at that same link): Who will you see? Andy Bowers, Panoply’s Chief Content Officer, and a man at the center of the podcasting revolution Howard Lapides, talent manager to Dr. Drew and many others who have made the transition from radio to TV – with some pointed words for radio broadcasters Peter Kafka, Re/code’s Senior Editor/Media on what th