A simple way to visualize the shift is to think about an orange. The fruit itself doesn’t change, but once squeezed, what was solid begins to flow. The value isn’t created by producing more oranges, but by understanding how and where the juice can be used.

That metaphor matters because it reframes the challenge. The work is no longer finished when something is published.

Today’s letter is about what’s actually changing, and why some media organizations are already operating fluidly while others still assume the work ends when an episode is published.

Why Media Has Become Liquid

Liquid content isn’t just about serving an existing audience. It’s about making ideas discoverable wherever attention happens to land.

Across media, content is breaking free from the boundaries of a single feed or platform. Podcast episodes are clipped, quoted, embedded, searched, recommended, and resurfaced in places far removed from where they were originally published. Increasingly, people encounter ideas in fragments long before they ever listen to or watch a full episode. What reaches them first is rarely the complete work, but a quick take, a point of view, or a recognizable voice.

In that environment, discovery no longer follows a linear path. The assumption that audiences will start at the beginning, move through content in order, and remain engaged throughout no longer reflects how people actually find and consume media.

Where We See Liquid Content Working Best

One of the clearest examples of liquid content flow is The New York Times.

The Times no longer treats an article as the end of the audience journey. Reporting now lives across text, audio, podcasts, video, newsletters, alerts, apps, and social formats. Importantly, these are not duplicates. Each version is shaped intentionally for the context in which it appears. For example, remarkable graphics that would not work well in the printed paper are used to augment an online story.  We see reporters talking about their work in clips and on the website.

Wherever someone enters—through a headline, a narrated article, a podcast segment, or a short video—the work holds together. The underlying reporting remains consistent even as the form changes.

This reflects a clear understanding that discovery now happens across many entry points, not one prescribed path.

Television has arrived at a similar place. Programs such as late‑night shows or Saturday Night Live often reach larger audiences on YouTube than on linear broadcasts. This isn’t simply a distribution shift. Segments are increasingly structured, so they function as complete, self‑contained experiences, regardless of where they are encountered, and are designed to feature advertising.  And importantly, the segments can be monetized. 

What “Liquid Content” Actually Means

At its core, liquid content is an editorial mindset.  How can we maximize this “piece” of content? 

A podcast episode might live as a written analysis on Substack. A reported story might appear as audio, video, a newsletter item, or a visual explainer.  These are deliberate packagings of the same idea, shaped to fit different environments.

What This Means for Podcasting

For podcasting, adapting to liquid content has become essential for growth and relevance.

People rarely discover podcasts in order anymore. The days of announcing a new show with a simple link on Twitter (or whatever it’s called now) are long gone.

Audiences may encounter a quote, a short video, a social post, or a newsletter mention before they ever realize they’re engaging with a podcast at all.

I work with a political commentator whose writing performs exceptionally well on Substack but has yet to find the same traction on YouTube. The issue isn’t the quality of the thinking or the strength of the voice. It’s interpretation. The same ideas need to be shaped differently to align with each platform. That is the work.

How Time-Starved Audiences Are Adapting

A recent piece by Bloomberg’s Ashley Carmen captures a growing tension in podcasting. Faced with an oversaturated landscape and limited time, many listeners are no longer consuming shows start to finish. Instead, they’re relying on transcripts, summaries, chapters, clips, and AI tools to surface key ideas. This raises understandable concerns about whether this kind of partial consumption could cannibalize full listening.

But Ashley’s reporting suggests something more nuanced is happening. These behaviors aren’t a rejection of long-form content so much as an adaptation to the sheer abundance of it. For many time-starved listeners, the choice is often between some engagement or none at all. In that light, making podcast ideas more adaptable doesn’t necessarily diminish the core experience rather it can add to relevance, preserve discovery, maintain connection, and keep audiences engaged when full attention isn’t always available.

In my Thought Letter, I talk often about limited “shelf-space.”  To add a podcast to my regular rotation means something else has to go.  I’m out of time. 

A Strategy Shift, Not a Marketing One

This is important.  Liquid content is not about producing more work or flooding platforms. It’s about making deliberate decisions with your strongest ideas and ensuring they travel well.

In practice, this often means doing less, not more. We regularly advise clients to resist over-clipping or over-publishing, because too much exposure can unintentionally signal that the best moments have already been given away. An axiom I use is “E2=0, when you emphasize everything, you emphasize nothing.” When everything is highlighted, nothing feels essential.  My NYU students, whose radar is finely tuned, know 3 or 4 clips of a show means the producer has published its best moments and thus no need to go to the full episode. 

This doesn’t require being everywhere or doing everything. Not every creator has the time, budget, or appetite for that. It requires deciding how a key argument, insight, or moment should appear when it shows up as a clip, a quote, or a written post.

The Big Picture

The next phase of podcasting, and media more broadly, will reward clarity over volume, thoughtfulness over output, and adaptation.

People won’t discover your content the way you intend them to. They will find it in fragments, across platforms, and in moments.

Liquid content leans into that reality.

And that’s where things are headed.

Let’s talk about it.

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The post Understanding Podcasting’s Liquid Content Era first appeared on CMB.

The post Understanding Podcasting’s Liquid Content Era appeared first on CMB.

If you’re a podcaster, your discoverability is on the chopping block.

This isn’t a cosmetic change. It’s the great Google reset. 

You know the familiar experience of typing a query into Google and getting a clean list of 10 blue links? That’s going away. Fast.

Instead, we’re getting AI-generated answers, floating summaries, voice results, and zero-click interfaces that answer questions without sending users to your content. No more guaranteed links. No more free clicks. No more automatic discovery.

If your podcast episode pages aren’t getting as much traction, or your blog posts aren’t driving the same traffic, it’s not just you. The decline is from a structural shift that’s breaking the foundations of traditional SEO. For podcasters trying to get discovered, that shift changes everything.

What’s Actually Happening

Search as we know it is changing. The traditional playbook of ranking high on Google, appearing in keyword results, and driving clicks to your website is being replaced by AI-generated summaries and voice-based answers. Many have tiny links to the original source or no link at all.

It’s called Answer Engine Optimization (AEO), and it’s altering how content gets surfaced and consumed.

Here is a telling stat: According to SimilarWeb, 69% of Google searches in the U.S. now end without a click.  That’s up 13 points in one year.

Tech analyst Shelly Palmer recently wrote about this transformation from SEO to AEO. Neil Patel, arguably one of the smartest voices in search, has also been sounding the alarm. The big takeaway is we’re no longer optimizing for search engines. We’re optimizing for answer engines.

What AEO Means for Podcasters

Most people don’t discover podcasts by landing on a website and clicking play. They find new shows through friends, social media, algorithms, and increasingly, AI tools that answer questions instead of serving up links.

That means your show’s visibility depends less on clever SEO tricks and more on how answerable your content is.

If your show notes are an afterthought, or worse, if you skip transcripts, you’re not just missing accessibility opportunities. You’re opting out of the next wave of discovery.

Here’s the good news: AI favors clarity, structure, and intent. And podcasters, more than most, know how to tell a great story.

Now it’s about formatting that story so AI can understand and elevate it.

If your content is structured, summarized, and AI-readable, you’re ahead of the curve. If not, it’s time to adapt.

Your Transcript Is Now Your Most Valuable Asset

Transcripts are the new front door to your podcast.

If you want your content to show up in AI-driven search, your transcript must:

• Exist (yes, many podcasts still skip this)
• Be clear and easy to scan
• Be formatted for AI comprehension
• AI tools can’t (yet) listen to your episode and fully grasp its meaning. But they can read a transcript. A transcript with clear speaker labels, logical segments, and highlighted key takeaways is:
• AI-indexable
• Quote-worthy
• Discoverable in new ways

5 Things Smart Podcasters Should Do Right Now

Here’s how to stay visible in the age of answer engines.

1. Structure Your Show with Intent
   In episode planning and execution, start strong with a question or bold insight. Don’t bury the lede. AI tools prioritize crisp, answerable content that is easy to quote.
2. Publish a Clean Transcript
   Make it skimmable. Use speaker labels and break it into readable chunks. Treat your transcript like a blog post.
   
   3. Add Bullet Summaries and FAQs
   Include a TL;DR section or key takeaways section. It helps AI instantly grasp the value of your episode. Bonus: humans like them too.
   
   4. Use Chapters and Segment Your Video
   If you publish video podcasts, YouTube is your second front door. Add chapters with clear titles and repackage key moments for TikTok, Reels, or YouTube Shorts.
3. Optimize Your RSS, Metadata, and Titles
   AI and search engines rely on structured, clear metadata. Tags matter less now, but episode titles and descriptions carry more weight than ever. Make them descriptive and specific. Avoid generic titles. They will get crushed.

You’re No Longer Fighting for a Top Spot. You’re Fighting to Be the Answer.

The SEO collapse isn’t just another tech cycle. It’s a rewriting of the rules of digital discoverability.

The audience is listening and watching. The machines are reading. Let’s make sure they both know where to find you.

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The post The SEO Collapse: What Podcasters Need to Do Right Now first appeared on CMB.

The post The SEO Collapse: What Podcasters Need to Do Right Now appeared first on CMB.

Disney’s struggles reflect a common challenge for creators across all platforms: too much content competing for too few eyeballs and ears. For Disney, it is what many call the end of “Peak TV.” This term refers to the explosive growth of television programming, mainly driven by streaming platforms. In the past year, the number of scripted television series in the U.S. dropped by 14%, signaling a big retreat from what is apparently an unsustainable flow of content.

Somewhat counterintuitively, that feels like a good thing for creators, viewers, and listeners.

In today’s media landscape, fewer shows seeking the same fragmented audience and looking for attention in a crowded market are likely to do better.

The podcast bubble

The podcasting world has experienced its own saturation and contraction. During the height of the pandemic in 2020, we saw the launch of over 1 million new podcasts. This surge, fueled by people stuck at home with time on their hands, led to a flood of content, much of it lacking in quality. The majority of these “Covid-casts” were short-lived. The number of new podcasts created in 2022 was 67% lower than in 2021, and the decline continued into 2023 with a further 10% drop, according to Listen Notes. Last year, there were 248,000 new podcasts.  That’s not nothing. 

Moreover, it’s not just the number of new podcasts that matter but also the number of active ones. Only 8% of the shows tracked via Podcast Index have produced a new episode in the last 30 days. While that number sounds small, it represents 345,000 shows. That’s a firehose of content to discover and listen to, especially considering the average listener tunes into roughly nine podcasts per week. 

Major companies involved in podcasting, including Spotify, may be ahead of Disney, having already scaled back aggressive investments after not seeing significant listener growth and a handful of dud podcasts. This has rippled to other podcast companies in the form of layoffs and show cancelations.

Apple’s change in how it counts podcast downloads is also a factor here, as the significant drop in reported download numbers affected ad sales and the perceived reach of podcasts.

And yet, as we know from Edison Research’s latest Infinite Dial report, podcast listening is incredibly healthy and on the rise.

Choice Fatigue

What’s driving the pullback of content creation is complicated by social media and the vast amount of time spent scrolling Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. For many, the endless stream of content has fundamentally changed consumption patterns, leading to a whole lot of skimming and a sharp increase in choice fatigue.

Maybe you find some decision paralysis in your habits, whether it’s finding a TV show or a podcast. When inundated with many options, people often struggle to make any choice at all, leading to decreased overall engagement or reverting to shows they already know — which is another reason why many of the shows at the top of the podcast charts have so much tenure. 

What To Do

Adjust your thinking. In an era where attention spans are shrinking, offering fewer but higher-quality choices is likely to enhance user engagement and satisfaction.

Here are five moves you can make now that will set you up for growth in this changing environment:

1. 1. Prioritize quality: Serve up less content. Consider dumping marginal and underperforming titles and focus your efforts and energy on quality podcasts with the most potential. 
2. Focus on effective promotion: Working with fewer titles gives you more bandwidth to promote them effectively. How much exposure does it take to have an impact these days? That’s easy.  More than ever.
3. Adapt to skimming: Structure content to cater to skimmers. Use clear headings, bullet points, concise paragraphs, compelling clips, and crisp graphics to enhance engagement. If it makes sense, offer shorter versions of content to appeal to a larger audience.
4. Be different: Much of the content produced today is similar, making it difficult for audiences to differentiate between options. Do we need more true crime podcasts? Clear differentiation is essential for helping audiences make choices and for content to stand out in a crowded market. Consider a tough rethink if your content isn’t standing out from the pack.
5. Review the economics: Just like Disney, focus on the time involved in leveraging so much content and the economics behind it. Then, adjust your strategy accordingly.

We are all drowning in content choices. Focusing on quality over quantity can create more meaningful and engaging experiences for our audiences.

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The post Quality Over Quantity is a Growth Strategy first appeared on CMB.

The post Quality Over Quantity is a Growth Strategy appeared first on CMB.

1. Broaden the podcast listener base

The key to growth is not fighting for current ears but attracting new ones. With spoken word audio gaining traction, there’s potential to convert more music-based audio listeners to podcast fans. It’s about expanding the podcast market, not just sharing it with radio, streaming, and audiobooks.

While video isn’t overshadowing podcasts, it’s an unmissable opportunity to grow. With YouTube leading in podcast discovery, integrating video content is a solid strategy to attract a fresh audience. More people are showing interest in watchable, video-inclusive podcasts. Video and podcasting have a symbiotic relationship. There are new eyes and ears in YouTube land. 

2. Earn space “on the shelf”

Data shows the average podcast listener takes in 9 episodes across roughly 5 shows weekly. That’s five shows out of 442,000  currently being produced in the last 90 days. For you math fans, the odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 292 million. What about adopting your podcast?   5 of 442,000 represents 0.001131%  of all active podcasts. 

The math gets worse. For your podcast to gain a spot on a listener’s playlist or queue, it probably needs to replace an existing one. Securing a coveted position in a listener’s regular rotation often means displacing an existing favorite. This scenario underscores the intense competition for what can be termed ‘auditory real estate.’  

3. Cultivate light podcast listeners

From a recent Cumulus/Signal Hill study, ‘newcomers’ to podcasts typically tune into 4.1 shows per week,. Focusing on these lighter listeners and understanding their preferences can unlock new growth avenues.  Find them and market to them. Niche podcasts chasing a specific audience have an advantage here.

4. Create uniquely compelling content

Let’s face it: a lot of mediocre content has been launched into the podcast space. Most of it ended with a whimper or a thud. The era of “throwing spaghetti against the wall” is over. Today’s podcast success demands strategic thinking, focusing on unexplored niches, and a commitment to quality over quantity. If your podcast isn’t high-value content, its mortality is limited. Strong, clear, and compelling differentiation is the name of the game. 

Maintaining a place on a listener’s metaphorical shelf means evolving with their tastes and preferences and continuously offering something other podcasts don’t. Whether through exclusive interviews, groundbreaking insights, or captivating narratives, standing out in the podcasting world is about creating an experience that listeners deem indispensable. If you are putting out mediocre content, you’ve already lost.

Standing out is crucial. We call this ‘scaling the grid of pain.’

5. Embrace retention strategies

In this crowded marketplace, podcast creators must not only capture new listeners but retain the attention of current listeners. To be successful, you need to focus on trial and retention on multiple platforms. This requires a blend of innovative content, compelling storytelling, appealing packaging, and, perhaps most importantly, a deep understanding of listener preferences and trends. Building a loyal audience in a saturated space demands that podcasters not only entice audiences with unique angles or perspectives but also consistently deliver quality content that keeps an audience. 

The levers for podcast marketing changed a great deal last year. You need to market your podcast consistently across owned, earned, and paid media not just seeking new listeners, but engaging current listeners who have endless choices available.  

Audio is doing well.  While four hours of listening time may be a static number, more people are spending time with audio, and specifically podcasts. That is exciting and rewarding.  Our business is looking towards 2024 with dual ambitions; growing and retaining audience. 

For the win, podcasters must navigate this zero-sum game with strategies that encompass originality, relevance, and sustained engagement while embracing new platforms for distribution and marketing to expand listenership.

Make every minute of your listener’s weekly audio listening truly impactful.

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The post 5 Strategies for Podcast Expansion in a Zero-Sum Audio World first appeared on CMB.

The post 5 Strategies for Podcast Expansion in a Zero-Sum Audio World appeared first on CMB.