Audacy has announced a promotion for Jenna Weiss-Berman to Executive Vice President of Podcasts for the company.

With the new role and title, Weiss-Berman will report to Auadacy’s Chief Digital Officer and President of Podcast and Streaming J.D. Crowley.

Weiss-Berman will oversee Audacy’s podcast network and studios, which include Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Studios. She’ll also work with the company’s sports and news programming leaders to develop and grow original podcasts for the company’s 2400Sports studios and the 28 local newsrooms across the nation.

“I’m excited to help bring together the world-class podcast businesses that already exist under the Audacy umbrella,” said Weiss-Berman. “We have a real opportunity to build a cohesive podcast brand that is greater than the sum of its parts, and I look forward to all that’s ahead.”

Previously, Weiss-Berman was the head of audio for BuzzFeed before joining Pineapple Street Studios, which Audacy acquired in 2019.

“As we commit to accelerating our digital growth and enhancing performance, we’re thrilled to expand Jenna’s role to further unify and streamline our content and business efforts across our leading podcast portfolio, enabling even more rapid development of new and original IP and better leveraging our talent across the entire Audacy portfolio,” said Crowley.

“Jenna’s strong leadership and deep industry relationships will propel us forward on our mission to be a leading partner of audio creators while super-serving listeners of all backgrounds and interests and enabling our sales teams to better serve our customers and partners with unique and compelling podcast opportunities.”

Weiss-Bermann steps into the role vacated by the departure of Chris Corcoran.

“His leadership, passion, and dedication are the creative force that successfully launched and built Cadence13 into the business that it is today, while also helping to position Audacy as a leading podcast company,” Crowley said of Corcoran. “I wish him continued success in his future endeavors.”

Radio technology company Quu has launched a new product called Content Partnership, which integrates visual advertising directly into radio programming. The new tech allows radio stations to display messages and images on vehicle dashboards for 30 seconds while a song or other programming is playing.

The process works as follows: when a song starts on a Quu-enabled station, the vehicle dashboard shows the song title, artist, and cover art for the first 90 seconds. Afterward, the visual switches to an ad for one of the station’s content partners for 30 seconds, displaying the advertiser’s name and a brief message. The display then reverts to the song title and artist for the remainder of the song, with the station name always present.

Quu positions the product as a new revenue opportunity that provides a broad reach through an exclusive ad unit. Generally, only two content partners will run at a time, with a content partner’s ad appearing on screen 4,000 times a month, resulting in 2,000 minutes of screen time per month, according to Inside Radio.

“With the Content Partnership, we’re taking radio to new levels of engagement, enabling advertisers to reach a captive audience in a way that has never been possible before,” said Quu CEO Steve Newberry.

Some of the first audio brands to adopt Content Partnership are Audacy, Beasley Media Group, Radio FM Fargo.

According to the 2023 Infinite Dial report released by Edison Research, two key audio trends have emerged that indicate a need for a larger advertising budget allocation to both audio streaming and in the podcast space.

An analysis of these trends by Westwood One’s weekly blog shows that for audio streaming, the number of people reporting listening in the last month and last week has increased significantly since 2018.

Specifically, the proportion of people who reported listening to streaming audio or podcasts in the last month rose from 64% to 73%, while the proportion who reported listening in the last week rose from 57% to 70%. The second trend is the proportion of the monthly audience who also reported listening weekly has gone up from 89% to 93% in the same time frame.

“Basically, people are absolutely in the habit of listening to audio streaming, and virtually everybody that’s listened last month has listened last week,” says Pierre Bouvard, the Audio Active Group Chief Insights Officer at Cumulus Media/Westwood One.

These trends have significant implications for advertisers. As more people turn to audio streaming and podcasts for their entertainment needs, advertisers will need to follow suit to reach their target audiences. This may require a shift in advertising budgets away from traditional platforms, such as television and radio, and toward digital platforms.

However, the shift toward digital platforms also presents an opportunity for advertisers. By targeting consumers through audio streaming and podcasts, advertisers can reach a more engaged audience that is actively seeking out content in their niche. This can lead to more effective advertising campaigns and a higher return on investment.