Wednesday 4th May: Facebook pulls the plug on podcasts

May 04, 2022

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Facebook's podcast support didn't last long (two Quibis or 12 CNN+'s, for those counting). Last April, it announced a suite of new audio products like Live Audio Rooms, voice messages, and support for playing podcasts from Pages.

At the time, I noted this was long overdue. What I didn't predict is how quickly they would ditch it. In fact, it doesn't feel like it ever really got started. We implemented it on our own Facebook Page but never actually saw it working.

Nor can I think of any good reason why audio would be ditched so quickly. Perhaps the company's dive into the so-called metaverse has now become all-consuming. Or perhaps its self-imposed feedback loop of Reels has led it to dismiss the growth potential. Whatever the reason, this feels like a missed opportunity to introduce podcasts to a vast number of people who may not have yet accessed them.

In early April, the 78-year-old French news publisher Le Monde announced the launch of its first-ever English-language product. A week after its launch, the product has 1,000 new digital subscribers. By the end of the year, they hope to reach 30,000. Key to that goal is the US, which pits it directly against some of the biggest subscription giants in the world.

A Periodic Table is a simple way of getting the fundamental elements onto a single page. Michelle Goodall applies this to community strategy, with some useful points in this article. "The most successful communities create a culture of 'we' and understand what broadly motivates people to join, engage and stay. Advanced community strategy looks at distinct individual motivations and how to meet those needs."

Read this for the second half of the piece about behaviour mapping and ad placement. "Too often, we force ads on users without considering the likelihood that they’ll stay or leave," AMO writes. "But if we assessed our products and understood what the user is doing and might expect at different parts of their journey, we’d be able to identify better advertising experiences... Find what fits your product."

Podcast Awards

Huge congratulations to all the winners and shortlisted publishers in our 2022 awards. The standard this year was incredibly high, and a number of our categories were very near deadlock. If you're looking to discover a great listen, we can recommend all the podcasts on this list as a starting point.

We may be on Easter break from the podcast, but you may have noticed it's not much of a break! We've needed a LOT of coffee this week. If you're able to contribute anything either as a one-off or a subscription to keep us going, we really appreciate it.

The podcast will be back next Monday featuring an interview with Snigdha Sur, Founder & CEO of The Juggernaut.