Streamline Publications has sold Podcast Business Journal to the owner of the newsletter Podnews, The Desk has learned.
The sale will allow Podnews to integrate the editorial content of the Podcast Business Journal into its industry newsletter, which has more than 26,000 subscribers.
“I’m delighted to welcome Podcast Business Journal into the Podnews family,” James Cridland, the editor of Podnews, said in a statement on Monday. “We’re pleased to continue to document the growth of the podcast industry, and maintain Podcast Business Journal’s role of independent coverage for serious podcasters.”
Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. KMG Capital advised Streamline Publications on the sale of the website to Podnews, which will take full editorial control of the Podcast Business Journal later this week.
Podcast Business Journal started up in 2018 and was the third media-focused publication operated by Streamline Publications. Throughout much of its existence, the website mainly repurposed podcast-related stories found on Streamline’s other properties, Radio Ink and the Radio and Television Business Journal, though it occasionally published unique articles that weren’t available on the other two websites.
The crown jewel of Podcast Business Journal was a daily newsletter that counted thousands of industry experts among its subscribers. The website itself, published by Deborah Parenti and edited by Ed Ryan, operated at a financial loss over the last few years, according to people familiar with the matter.
The sale of the Podcast Business Journal is part of a broader editorial realignment at Streamline that began earlier this year. As part of the change, the Podcast Business Journal was to be shut down, with coverage of the podcast industry moved to the Radio Ink website.
The shift would also see Ryan move away from editing the Radio Ink website and focus exclusively on the print and digital editions of Radio Ink Magazine. Streamline eventually hired Cameron Coats, a former Kentucky morning show host, to serve as the online editor of Radio Ink.
The deal between Streamline and Podnews focused mostly on Podcast Business Journal’s e-mail subscriber list, which will be integrated into that of Podnews later this month, a person familiar with the transaction said. Under Podnews ownership, Podcast Business Journal will convert to a once-weekly newsletter, aggregating the week’s best podcast-related business news.
“We’re pleased to continue to document the growth of the podcast industry, and maintain Podcast Business Journal’s role of independent coverage for serious podcasters,” Cridland said in a statement. “As Podnews continues to grow, with our series of networking events called Podnews Live, the in-depth weekly podcast Podnews Weekly Review and other plans in the works, we see great benefit in an additional brand to focus on those in business.”
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Disclosure: The author of this story contributed to Radio Ink, Radio and Television Business Report and Podcast Business Journal from November 2022 to February 2023.
