• Wall Street Journal, Thursday, September 8, 2016 8:42 AM

Marketers and ad buyers can add a new upfront to their busy calendars: an upfront for podcasts. This week marked year two for the podcast event which was run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB). "Podcast producers including Midroll Media, WNYC, HowStuffWorks, PodcastOne, Panoply, NPR, ESPN, Time Inc. made their case at an all-day event," according to a Wall Street Journal report. "Ira Glass and Marc Maron, have become stars through the medium, while others, like Katie Couric, Malcolm Gladwell and Shaquille O’Neal, are among a growing group of celebrities drawn to podcasting....About 57 million people, or 21% of Americans over the age of 12, listen to a podcast monthly, according to an Edison Research report from May.... Still, the podcast industry is contending with a series of advertising hurdles like a difficulty in measuring how many people are downloading—and then actually listening to—episodes. As a result, most podcast ads are from direct-response marketers that more easily track their investment through promotional codes."

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