8/16/2023 0 Comments Shifty jelly pocket casts![]() In January, Current’s Tyler Falk reported that, less than a year after raising additional funds from BBC Studio Americas, the consortium agreed to sell off Pocket Casts to a new buyer. Despite strong initial optimism and a stated emphasis on experimentation - “We want to help make podcast discovery a better experience for listeners and its delivery and distribution more valuable to podcast creators,” Thomas Hjelm, then holding the role as NPR’s Chief Digital Officer, told me at the time - it never ended up being entirely clear what the consortium strategically had in mind with the app, which, in my understanding, continued to enjoy a strong following. The original participants of the consortium were NPR, WNYC Studios, Chicago Public Media, and This American Life, with BBC Studios Americas stepping in last March as a new investor. Originally created about a decade ago when Ivanovic and Simpson were operating as the independent Australian mobile development firm Shifty Jelly, the app was eventually acquired by a consortium of public-radio organizations in the summer of 2018. That we’re seeing a change in ownership for Pocket Casts shouldn’t come as a surprise. A spokesperson for Automattic noted that the company had no additional details to share beyond what’s mentioned in the official blog post on the matter, and a message by Ivanovic and Simpson sent out to its user base yesterday morning stated that they expect to share more details on what this transition for the app means over the coming weeks, and that they don’t expect users to notice any immediate changes to Pocket Casts for now. The terms of the deal were not made public. ![]() The move was announced early Friday, with Automattic stating that the co-founders of the popular podcast app, Russell Ivanovic and Philip Simpson, will continue to lead the product after the change in ownership. Some news, in case you missed it: Pocket Casts acquired by Automattic, parent company of Wordpress. It seems clear that the intention of the acquisition is less around controlling the app, and more about learning more about the habits and scale of podcast listening to better inform their own content choices.This article first ran in Hot Pod, an industry-leading trade newsletter about podcasting by Nick Quah. The “FAQ” on their website is trademark fun from Shifty Jelly but also makes it very clear nothing is going to change with the app – though you could expect perhaps some tweaks here and there. That’s why when a combined group comprised of WNYC, NPR, WBEZ and This American Life approached us with the goal of partnering for the good of the entire podcast industry, we knew that this opportunity was something else entirely.” You see we care so damn deeply about what we’ve built and our relationship with each and every one of you that we know deep down inside that would just eat away at us. “In talking to each of them it was obvious that they didn’t have the best interests of our customers or us at heart and as much as cashing out and walking off into the sunset is a nice ideal, it’s a crummy outcome for all of you and in turn for us. We’ve had a lot of companies in the past contact us about acquiring us and or Pocket Casts and we’ve always had one simple answer for them: thanks, but no thanks.” In a blog post today, founder Russell Ivanovic spoke about the deal : “ Today we’re excited to announce a partnership with some of the biggest producers of podcasts in the world to take Pocket Casts to the next level. A group of American public radio networks have joined together to purchase popular Podcasting app Pocket Casts in what is a big deal for the podcasting industry.Ĭreated by Russell and Philip in South Australia under their crazy company “Shifty Jelly” the Pocket Casts app is one of the most popular apps for listeners to podcasts and is famous for it’s focus on listeners, as well as their light hearted app update notes.
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