The Future of Podcasting: Stability for Whom?
Resilient, valuable, and beautiful, even when overlooked. They don't ask for a space; they just grow - everywhere!
As someone who has been in podcasting for nearly two decades, building community, championing independent creators, and working every day to keep this space inclusive and sustainable, I’ve been following the recent Podcast Movement, Sounds Profitable, and Podnews merger situation with a mix of professional interest and truth be told, a bit of personal concern.
Please forgive the lack of polish in what follows; these are my cobbled-together thoughts on a complex issue. When I read through them, I know the logic isn't always perfect, but the feeling behind them is real. Also, bless you for reading if you get all the way until the end, because...reading is so old school.
NOTE: If the google alert crawlers, crawl and this article is found by Podnews, I would appreciate no coverage. Sometimes coverage isn’t helpful. TY!
The announcement, shared on the Sounds Profitable website, celebrates this consolidation as a "supercharging" of the business, a move designed to help creators "continue learning, growing, and supporting one another." These are laudable goals. But as my respected colleague Twila Dang so powerfully pointed out in a series of impactful and widely-read LinkedIn posts, we must pause and ask the crucial question: stability for whom?
If you are at all part of the podcasting industry or just a human that wants to see authenticity in action, follow Twila, in fact, click here, here and here to read her thoughts first. I’m building a bit on what she said.
Now, let's be clear about what this means: one of the podcast industry's most influential research hubs, its daily podcasting news source, and one of the biggest event platforms are now controlled by a single entity. When so much of the narrative, the data, and the stage are owned by the same small group, the risk to equity, and balance is immense.
As Twila rightly noted, we must "say the quiet part out loud" and look at the leadership of this new structure. Does it reflect the vibrant, creative, diverse, and innovative industry it aims to represent?
This moment feels less about the individual companies involved and more like a tipping point for the entire industry. This merger has compelled many of us to voice long-simmering frustrations, not just with this specific news, but with the direction of other influential conferences and companies as well.
Let's start with one of the key promises made in this announcement: access. Making the event virtual sessions free, based on the principle that "Education and insights should be accessible and free in a growing market," is a positive step, absolutely.
But we must not confuse access with equity.
Access without representation in leadership, ownership, and decision-making is a hollow victory. It allows us into the building, but keeps us out of the rooms where the blueprints are drawn. True equity means having a hand in designing the future, not just a ticket to watch it unfold.
As a co-founder of She Podcasts, I was behind the scenes and watched my partner, Jessica Kupferman, fight tooth and nail to create an innovative, inspiring, and non-hierarchical experience through She Podcasts Live. I saw firsthand the immense personal cost - to her physical, mental, and economic health - of building a truly representative community while being under-resourced.
And she is not the only one. I have seen friends, colleagues, and people I admire create communities, education, programs, and businesses that seek to serve the need that we all see, only to disappear or become so depleted that it's hard for them to connect with the why they started in the first place.
I know what it takes to serve a community authentically. It is not easy, even when the mission is clear. In fact, I’ve already written about all of this before.
It requires time, attention, and strong, unwavering, humble leadership. It also requires money, resources and education to create a sustainable business. That lived experience makes the current landscape all the more concerning.
Voicing these concerns is not without its own complexities, and frankly, its own fear. When so much of the industry’s infrastructure is intertwined, it creates a landscape where critical discourse feels risky - risky because speaking out can be perceived as a liability by a corporate employer, or it could mean being passed over for the sponsorships and funding that makes a creator or community leader’s work possible.
Many of us are a paycheck away from financial ruin or are already fighting an uphill battle to find work in a precarious industry. We have mouths to feed. Part of the challenge is the dichotomy of our position: we are asking for support from the industry above us, while also asking for it from the community around us. The risk, then, isn’t just from the top; it’s in the ways we can let each other down. On top of that, we are only human; we all carry biases based on our personal histories with people and companies that color our responses.
At times, the industry can feel more like Gossip Girl than a community of wise, grown professionals. This dynamic - where our livelihoods and personal histories are connected to the very entities we must be able to question - can stifle the open dialogue necessary for a healthy ecosystem. Yet, these questions must be asked, precisely because the future of the independent creator and the business of creative media depends on a space where power is distributed and dissent is not just possible, but valued.
This isn't just an abstract concern; it's a reality I know intimately because I have lived the alternative. My journey in audio began as a direct response to feeling very stifled creatively within the Hollywood machine, searching for a way to express myself and claim space outside the confines of traditional media. When I found podcasting, it felt so attainable... so empowering... like there were no gatekeepers. I felt that it was a haven for independent creators, folks of marginalized genders, creators of color who built thriving communities from the ground up.
But as the industry grew, a troubling disconnect emerged. As I discussed with Andrea Klunder on The Creative Impostor, I watched as the foundational, independent voices started to be "discounted, not acknowledged," and dismissed with a wave of the hand as "'just an indie podcast.'" This trend is a symptom of a larger issue I spoke about with Cynthia Bemis Abrams on Advanced TV Herstory: while the diversity of creators is phenomenal, there remains "a big lack of representation in the executive levels." The boardrooms are still largely the same, and I "still continue to experience... an element of tokenism" on panels and stages.
And even within our own independent creator community, there are biases. There's an unspoken hierarchy that often values those with formal training—broadcast degrees, public media backgrounds, or journalism credentials - over those of us who learned everything by doing. The self-taught creators who mastered recording, editing, storytelling, and troubleshooting on their own - who truly know what it takes to produce and sustain a show because they’ve lived it - are often not taken as seriously because they lack the traditional bonafides.
And the video of it all? Lord have mercy.
This brings us to a fundamental point: you cannot be all things to all people.
This new Podcast Movement entity must be explicit about who it serves.
The slant is clearly toward the business of podcasting, an extraordinarily important vertical that merits focus! Building sustainable businesses and focusing on revenue is vital for an industry. But in that vertical, equity and representation are sorely lacking. While the independent creator space is a kaleidoscope of diverse voices - albeit not all receiving the same visibility or resources - the business side is not.
This history fuels my work. My mission has always been to protect and amplify the voices of those who are so often overlooked in the rooms where strategy and profit are decided.
I share Twila’s pragmatic optimism.
I believe this industry has the capacity to grow in ways that reflect its full creative and diverse force, not just in humans but in technology and ideas.
But that growth will not happen by default.
It requires intentional, and sometimes uncomfortable, action from all of us.
It’s not enough to use the word inclusive. If the room is not intentionally built to support everyone, it fails. For example, inviting someone that has chosen to be vegan to your family dinner because "everyone is welcome" but not providing any vegan options might be technically inclusive, but that person will not feel seen, heard, or supported. It certainly won't make them want to come back.
Why do I say this? Because I made these mistakes. I wanted to be inclusive and invite all the people but my own unconscious biases didn't let me see that in wanting to be helpful I created more harm. We must always make sure that the most vulnerable are taken care of…first.
We must actively make space at the top. We must mentor and hire with intention. We must help people have access to education to build sustainable businesses and careers! We must challenge ourselves to look beyond the established names and invest in the new, the different, and the overlooked.
I've been humbled by leading community and ending up as an advocate in many rooms. I did not seek the role. I took it on because I felt in my bones that fighting for a space where every creator has a chance to be heard was the right thing to do. What I found is that even with crystal clear intention, deep caring, and choosing to learn from critical feedback, the path is challenging and hard as all get out.
And it takes TIME to be mindful and intentional. Deep, meaningful change is slow. My wish for those that are now in this powerful, privileged position is that you take the time to do the work.
And listen, y’all don’t have to be posting about all the things, just do the things.
Leadership is all about unsung actions. No one will see you doing the thing, and most of the time you will have zero public acclaim. The responsibility is heavy and unwavering. EVERY ACTION YOU TAKE MATTERS. May you be supported, and may you meet the challenge with integrity, humility, and strength.
We, the people, the creators and creatives, will keep on creating. We will keep building. We will keep on creating our own spaces that will thrive and serve our communities, regardless. It's what we've always done.
A Note on Process & Authenticity
The thoughts, opinions, and experiences expressed in this article are entirely 100% my own. The foundation of this piece comes from my personal reflections on Twila Dang’s words and from public conversations I've had on podcasts like The Creative Impostor and Advanced TV Herstory.
