This story initially ran in Scorching Pod Insider, a publication from The Verge on podcasting and the audio business. Sign up here.
American Public Media and Audacy’s Cadence13 will exit a multiyear promoting partnership on the finish of August — roughly a yr earlier than its supposed finish date, Scorching Pod has discovered from APM. Neither firm has disclosed the precise causes for the contract’s termination or its timing, although APM cited “altering market dynamics” and Audacy referred to the deal as “onerous.” The general public radio broadcaster will take advert gross sales and model partnerships for its podcasts in-house because of this.
“Given the altering market dynamics, APMG, Audacy and Cadence13 have mutually determined to finish their partnership, efficient August thirty first, 2023. Shifting ahead, APMG will conduct all gross sales and model partnerships of our award-winning slate of podcasts and branded content material, in addition to handle advert gross sales for all podcast stock. We’ve deliberate for this operational shift to make sure a seamless transition for our audiences and underwriters. We stay dedicated to creating the way forward for public media by amplifying voices to tell, embody, and encourage,” wrote APM’s supervisor of govt communications, Tsering Yangchen, in an e-mail.
When contacted by Scorching Pod, Audacy’s director of company communications, David Heim, wrote that the corporate had no touch upon the matter.
When American Public Media and Audacy’s Cadence13 announced a three-year “strategic” partnership in the summertime of 2021, it appeared like an ideal union between public and industrial radio. The podcasting arm of APM would workforce up with Cadence13 to develop and produce new reveals, whereas Cadence13 would function the general public radio big’s sole podcast advert gross sales rep. The general public radio community’s premium podcast programming, which incorporates Market Minute and In Deep, may gain advantage from the attain and scale of Audacy’s audio and advert networks. However that’s not what occurred.
“We imagine exiting this settlement may have a Positive affect on our Podcast margins.”
In a quietly printed earnings release final week, Audacy CEO David J. Subject revealed that the corporate exited an “onerous Podcast advert illustration contract,” costing the corporate roughly $10.4 million throughout the second quarter — however didn’t disclose the title of the corporate related to the contract. “In June, we efficiently negotiated an early exit to an onerous Podcast advert illustration contract, which resulted in a restructuring cost of $5.9 million within the quarter and the accelerated recognition of $4.5 million of pay as you go content material expense. We imagine exiting this settlement may have a Positive affect on our Podcast margins, with out materially impacting our future Podcast income progress alternative,” wrote Subject in an announcement.
Throughout its prior earnings calls, Audacy solely referred to its contract with APM twice within the span of two years — in accordance with transcripts on CapEdge. The primary time was instantly following the official announcement of the deal throughout the firm’s second quarter earnings call in 2021. And the second time was throughout the next quarter after the deal went into impact. In the meantime, the corporate continued to tout podcast income progress and partnerships with the likes of Amazon, HBO, Main League Baseball, and Netflix to buyers.
However the firm’s monetary outlook took a grim flip. In July 2022, Audacy’s inventory value started creeping under $1 a share — lastly reaching a brand new low of 31 cents in October. Throughout that very same month, Axios reported that Audacy had employed bankers to discover a sale of Cadence13.
Audacy misplaced a variety of giant clients that it acquired because of its 2019 acquisition of Cadence13 — together with Crooked Media and Pushkin Industries. Chief monetary officer Richard J. Schmaeling briefly cited these losses throughout a November 2022 earnings name. “[…our podcast business has been rough because we’ve had a number of large clients that we acquired as part of Cadence13 that have exited over the years because we really [couldn’t] meet their expectations for added income share. And we’ve suffered the lack of these revenues,” Schmaeling advised buyers. Podcasting income dipped a staggering 23 p.c for this quarter, according to the Radio+Tv Enterprise Report.
By 2023, Audacy’s accelerated podcast bills drew questions from buyers. Main media and know-how firms all took successful because of the yr’s comfortable promoting market. Whereas Audacy didn’t promote Cadence13, it did make some main restructuring adjustments. Cadence13’s co-founder Chris Corcoran departed the corporate in March, and Pineapple Road Studios’ Jenna Weiss-Berman was promoted to Audacy’s govt vp of podcasts — overseeing each Pineapple Road and Cadence13.
“Podcasting is clearly laggard in the mean time. We’ve discovered quite a bit actually, frankly since we acquired Cadence13, and the corporate is quite a bit smarter as we speak about how we’re going to take part within the podcast house going ahead,” Schmaeling advised buyers throughout a Could 2023 earnings name.
The New York Inventory Change suspended buying and selling on Audacy’s inventory this spring and started proceedings to delist it, citing its “abnormally” low inventory value. The corporate introduced a 1-for-30 stock split on the finish of June, and its inventory value has crept up since then. On the time of publication, Audacy’s inventory is listed at $1.21 — assembly the threshold for staying on the NYSE alternate.