How to Get Your Podcast Reviewed by the Media

Although the transcription is largely accurate, in some cases it may be incomplete or inaccurate due to inaudible passages or transcription software errors.

Jeff Umbro: Hey folks, this is Jeff Umbro. Thanks for tuning in. One of the most common questions that we get at the Podglomerate is how to pitch your podcast to get noticed by the press. As the industry has grown, publications like The New York Times, The Guardian and Vulture have expanded their coverage of podcasting, alongside their eyes of dozens of influential podcast newsletters.

This week on Podcast Perspectives, we have a real treat. Podglomerate SVP of Marketing and Audience Development Joni Deutsch sat down with Alice Orr, editor of the Podcast Review, in order to discuss how to secure media coverage for your podcast, including things like how to find and contact journalists, how to pitch your show more effectively, and how to use press attention to grow your audience.

We hope you enjoy this webinar, which was put on by the Podglomerate and the Podcast Review. Make sure to check out podglomerate.com/media to find resources for how to pitch your show in a lot of other ways to grow your audience.

Alice Florence Orr: So Joni, where do you find podcast writers and critics like myself? Um, and how do you find our contact details?

Joni Deutsch: Yeah so let me say that, podcast critics and writers are not necessarily installed in every single outlet out there, right? There are definitely some, you can find them at The New York Times or The Guardian, Vulture or, you know, newsletter writers as well, whether through Substack, MailChimp, what have you.

But to be honest, some of these tactics for how to find writers or critics or people simply in journalism press who would like to feature your podcast. It's really just a matter of searching them, a good old fashioned fashioned Google search, uh, or even a search on social media for specific terms relevant to podcasts, podcast review, podcast interview, podcast feature, uh, to be able to see who are the folks that are writing about.

This kind of podcast, this kind of topic, because again, I encourage everyone here, your show that you work on or the episode that you're releasing. Uh, might have something that ties into a writer out there. Even if though that writer might not necessarily be a podcast writer per se, maybe they occasionally do podcasts as part of their general meet beat. So try to find the hooks of what your show or episode is about. Maybe the USP or Unique Selling Proposition is a prominent guest and you wanna reach out to writers that had previously featured blurbs or quotes. From interviews like this of that guest type and, uh, you can find 'em that way.

But there's a few other ways that you can find not just who you're wanting to pitch to, but also the contact information for that individual. So I'm gonna rattle off a few things that we, I've done at the Podglomerate that, uh, have been tried and true tactics.

So, one thing is that if we're getting to the middle of the year of 2025. And as we get to the end of the year, 2025, you will see the biannual, uh, twice every year list of the best podcast of 2025 or the best podcast of 2025 so far. Um, and they're great wrap up lists that writers of all shapes and sizes do. If you do a quick Google search for exactly that phrase, best podcast of 2025, best podcast of 2024 even, or maybe a genre, so if you're doing a business podcast, best podcast, uh, or best business podcast, you will find the writers and outlets that have covered that topic or beat, and you can put them in a spreadsheet, keep track of them for future reference as you're building at your, your media pipeline, if you will.

Other ideas for you. There are podcast newsletters, including the podcast review that do frequently cover show launches. Or even feature specific episodes. So between podcast review, there's also Podnews, um, which some of you may have already subscribed to, which is how you found out about our webinar today. Um, Vulture's 1.5 x speed, and actually we are gonna be publishing a comprehensive list of podcast newsletters on the Podglomerate website in the next week. So we'll be able to share that link to you and that way you can bookmark that and subscribe to all those newsletters in the coming weeks.

There are some paid databases that we actually use at Podglomerate, um, MuckRack being one of them. Um, MuckRack, which takes from, um, MuckRack or Muckraker, which was basically a term used for journalists, uh, back in the turn of the century. Um, it is a paid database where if you type in a topic, a beat, a reporter. It will not only give you people who have written about that subject, it'll actually give you their contact information that's publicly available or available, maybe behind a paywall of sorts.

So if you're really hard pressed, if you can't find a reporter's email address and you wanna pay for this service, MuckRack can do that for you. Rocket Reach is another one that could do the same. Um, Rocket Reach does give like five free searches a month I believe. So if you wanna do that, the free level, you can do that and just do it five times a month and then make another account with another email.

I will also say that if you're looking for something free and very podcast specific, there is a great website and newsletter called Great Pods. Comes with the title, um, and the writer there, Ron, actually compiles podcast critics and writers that interview or review podcasts. Uh, so if you're wanting to find those more immediately, check it out there.

And then a couple other notes here, 'cause Alice, this is a great question. If you can't find someone's email address immediately, then one way to work around that is find that person on social media like LinkedIn or even, you know, Meta or Twitter, X, wherever the profiles are for that person and see if they may have it on their bio or they may have it on their personal website. Um, and that way you can see if, you know what is the best way to contact them. And if all us fails, you have the right person in mind, but you just do not know how to reach them.

Try to see if you can find the format of the email address for their company. So for instance, for the New York Times, if it were, uh, insert first name, dot insert last name@nytimes.com, then you can just fill in the blanks with the first and last name of the person you wanna reach out to. So try that out.

Usually it works. Pro tip, it also works for celebrities, so if you wanna try to get in touch with a celebrity, it's very likely it is first name, last name@gmail.com. But that's a different topic.

Alice Florence Orr: That's great. I was going through that going, yep. You'd find me that way. Yep. You'd find me that way. Mm-hmm. So I can definitely attest these will work.

Joni Deutsch: Yeah.

Alice Florence Orr: So now that you've found these contact details and you're writing your pitch, are there any, um, sort of keys to success or errors that you would recommend avoiding when framing a podcast and, and say you're sending it to me or, or one of my colleagues?

Joni Deutsch: Yeah. And actually Alice, your ideas here are, are probably gonna be a little bit different just because you're in it day in and day out.

I will say I've been on the other side of receiving pitches in my previous public media NPR work. I received tons of them, but, uh, things have changed since then. Um, so I'll say some dos and I'll say some don't. So one thing you should do out there is if you are planning on sitting on a pitch.

And you have someone that you think is the right fit, just take the time, take a moment or two double check. Is that person really the right fit and or their outlet, the right fit for what you're pitching them. Um, for instance, if you find someone and they wrote about podcasts or a podcast like yours back in 2023, amazing. It's great. They wrote about it back then. Are they still writing about it in 2025? Have they left the outlet or pursued another beat? Maybe they got a promotion and they don't do podcast writing anymore and they're now an editor at the paper. Um, just double check before you send that out. Otherwise, they may send a response to you being like, Hey, uh, I actually work at a nonprofit focused on dogs. I'm not gonna write about your podcast. So keep that in mind.

Another do is that you should think of timing, so I know as a podcast rather, you're probably working on seven different things all at once. Marketing may be the last thing on your plate, although it shouldn't be. And if that's the case, it's very likely you're wanting to promote the podcast immediately.

But the night before your episode or show comes out, lemme just tell you people like Alice and other writers and media outlets want as much time as possible to be able to know what you're planning on, you know, wanting coverage around and how they can plan for it accordingly, fit, fits their needs and audience needs.

So try to plan a pitch and sending it out to someone two to four weeks in advance of that audio launch, so again, that's very important, two to four weeks. Don't send a pitch out the night before and expect an immediate response from someone or an immediate feature from someone.

Another do is when you're creating an email to pitch, use that pitch vehicle. Uh, try to keep your subject line for the email relatively short, like seven words. I think that's around 30 to 40 some characters, um, with information in it that's eye catching and relevant to the writer. Don't use a subject line that's misleading or is super long because if anyone has an email inbox, you know that it'll get cut off at a certain point, which is why we say concise.

And then just some general notes about the pitch. Um, shorter is better than longer, so if you have a lot of details just. Put them in like a Google Link or Google Drive and make that be like a supplementary item in there. Um, personalize the podcast or personalize the pitch for the podcast. So say, Hi Alice. I saw your recent piece that you did on Pride Month podcast and I actually discovered a new one from it. So thank you so much for compiling it. Find a way to kind of segue you, recognize their work as a writer, critic, reporter, and how that segues into what you would like to send to them for consideration.

And that way shows that you, you actually took the time to read their work and you respect it, to that note, don't botch their name. If my pitch is going to someone named Alice, I should make sure that I'm not addressing it to someone named, uh, Joe, right? Otherwise, that person's gonna be very confused if they're opening up my email.

Basic things, but believe me, it happens and reporters and critics will remember. Um, and other little things for pitch purposes, make sure that whatever you're sending is timely or newsworthy. Reporters and critics are thinking of what is happening this month? Why is their audience gonna click on this?

What is, you know, the unique value of this that's different from the rest? You need to be the one that's telling them everything and making it in a way that is digestible and interesting. So you need to be the one to answer the who, what, when, where, why immediately. Don't make your writer be the one to guess at it. Um, and make it clear what is the call to action as the writer reader is reading your pitch. Is it that you want them to listen to embargoed audio for episode review consideration? Do you want them to consider, uh, doing an exclusive interview with, uh, you as the host talking about the premier of this new series you're launching? Make it very clear what that person, we'd, I ideally would like them to do. Um, and of course, put a link to your podcast if it's publicly available, or share that embargoed audio for them to listen to.

And at the end of the day, follow-ups are key. Um, it's almost like reminders. If Alice has an inbox right now of a thousand emails, maybe sending her a follow-up email in a week's time is a good way for her to be able to see, oh yeah, like, Hey Alice, you probably were busy last week. It was the winter holiday season. I just wanna make sure this was at the top of your inbox and I'm really excited. We actually have a cool update to share. It's gonna be featured in the New York Times, and if you wanna feature it as well, let us know. That's the kind of thing that can really move the needle.

So follow up once or twice about a week or two after you do the initial pitch. Don't be pushy, be polite, but uh, you know, be human. You know, at the end of the day, that's what we all are. It's human.

Alice Florence Orr: That is very true. I do need follow up sometimes. My inbox is packed and I do appreciate them, so I know it can be a pain to send them. But thank you.

This, let me just cut the thing to go. Every time I, uh, I write in the chat, it freezes the PowerPoint. So. Hello. There we go. Okay.

So say you found your dream writer, your dream publication, how do you then build that relationship with the writer?

Joni Deutsch: I think it's just like building a relationship with anyone, right? So with a potential client, um, a peer, maybe a partner, even in real life, you know, you wanna come at it from a place of respect and openness. And it is not a one side street where it's only you getting the things you need out of it. It's actually a conversation and one where you know, you wanna actually promote the other person in the process. So some tenets of this relationship building, and to be honest, for the 15 years I've been in this career path, relationships have bent the world to me and helping me get to where I am today and the collaborators along the way. So I, I really wanna underline this slide.

Follow the writer or the reporter outlet on social media show that you're actually in tune with what they're doing and you're engaging with them. So maybe when they post something, actually comment like it, engage with it. And by the way, try not to be overly self-promotional all the time because they will remember you, but not in a great way if you're the person who's always spamming links to your podcast in the chat.

So, yeah. Someone who's not always shouting about yourself. You know, be open-minded to how you're engaging, of course also subscribe to their email newsletter or a Substack or what have you. And that way you can stay in the, know about what they're writing about and even reply to an email to say, Hey, I really like today's edition. Thanks for opening my mind to a new podcast out there. People like compliments, who knew. Other things you can do though for relationship building. You know, if that person you can see they're maybe going to a city or a conference or event that you're also gonna be attending, reach out to them and say, Hey, it looks like we're gonna be in the same city.

I'm speaking at this session that day, but do you wanna grab some coffee before or afterwards? I've done that many a times. I've also expensed that many a time. It's always great to be able to see someone in person and build a relationship from the ground up there.

And also for relationship building, I also wanna just hone in on if, when a feature occurs. So if you happen to know that the writer is interested in featuring your show or writing it up, amazing. Here are the things you should be doing. Keep your communication polite, professional, optimistic, friendly. What you don't wanna do is in that process come across as negative, demanding, you know, you wanna be respectful and appreciative that they're gonna be featuring your show when they could be featuring any show out there, right? When the feature is published, do your best to not only thank the writer, but amplify it, right? Because at the end of the day, a lot of writers, their goals from their department heads are that they need clicks.

They need eyes, they need shares on that podcast writing or feature. So amplify it across your channels, put in your email newsletter, put it on social media.Tag them on those channels so that way they know that you appreciate it and you want others to see and appreciate it too. And about a month or two after a feature takes place, follow up with the writer and say, Hey, it's been a while.

I just wanted to check in, see how you're doing, what are you writing, what are you up to? And if you have something you wanna share with them about your show or production, let them down in the process too. But it's, again, it's not like a one time only endeavor. A relationship grows over time. So maybe make a calendar, reminder for yourself of, you know what, in three months time, I'm gonna check in with this writer, and that'll be like a continual thing moving forward.

Alice Florence Orr: Absolutely. This is kind of like having my horoscope read because I'm like, yeah, this absolutely is exactly how I would approach it myself from the other perspective. And I think the thing is is, you know, we, we love building those relationships from, you know, and I, I'll go into that a bit more in a second, but it is, it is not an, you know, I, I said this the other day.

I was like, my time is not diamonds. Like, I do appreciate people when people reach out, so. Now that you've done all that, you've got the feature, you've contacted the writer, how do you then incorporate that into your kind of overall podcast marketing strategy and your growth tactics? Because obviously having a feature is fantastic, but how do you really maximize that?

Joni Deutsch: Yeah, and I wanna be clear here too, because I, I know there's a lot of information here, and if anyone's watching, you're probably thinking, oh gosh. I need to do every single thing listed, or 90% of it. That's not the case. I mean, feel free, by all means, that will increase your chances of getting features in the feature.

But if anything, I hope you will walk away with at least one thing from today that you can say I can put into immediate practice and build off of that, like a routine and maybe build another one into the plan the next month or week. So yeah, the thing about these features and hits or press hits is that it can become a domino effect if you really strategize them, even in a small way, one press hit can be incorporated into your marketing and audience growth strategy. So that leads into more press hits elsewhere and other articles, other outlets, other newsletters. So, a few things to keep in mind to help you with this growth of your show, which I think everyone's here today because that's what you wanna do.

Keep track of your press hits and that includes the writers you're reaching out to. And when you get feature coverage and put them in a spreadsheet so that way by the end of a month, a quarter, the season of your show, you can actually go back and reference what took place, what was effective with your audience growth based off the analytics of spikes around those dates.

After a press hit takes place, let's say for instance, you got featured in the Boston Globe. Amazing, congratulations. The work doesn't end there. Take that press hit. Perhaps it was in an article saying that you were the best investigative podcast of the year so far, and put that into an line. That then you are putting into your next pitch or your follow-ups to pitches to other outlets or writers.

So for instance, I would send it to the New York Times or to the LA Times or whatever Apple Podcast, even the apps to say, Hey, I just wanna let you know exciting news. The Boston Globe just called us one of the best investigative podcasts of the year. We are so proud of it. Would you like to interview, feature the show, feature an episode of it as well on your platform or, you know, outlet? Because look, a crowd attracts a crowd. When one hit occurs, that's gonna open up the floodgates for other hits to potentially occur.

And there's other ways that you can highlight your press hit too. That can also encourage audience growth or a claim. You can put it into guest bookings. If you tell future guests you wanna book for your show. Hey, we just got featured on this list. We're pretty hot stuff right now. It's probably gonna open them eyes, their eyes to saying, oh, you know what? Now I actually wanna be a guest on your show. Thanks for letting me know that.

Include it in scripts for cross promos or paid ads. So that way you're actually telling people in a 30 to 60 second audio spot that, Hey, yeah, you know, you really should check out our show. Why? Because the Boston Globe said so and they're great. Yeah, something like that. You can put it in your website, you can put it in your social media, you can put it in your podcast description.

I mean, really. Endless opportunities for you to really amplify why this is amazing. In fact, if you wanna go for podcast awards, this is the kind of thing you should also put in there to say, Hey, we deserve an award because other outlets say we're the best. And having a trophy to say that is just as great.

So again, creativity abound. You can really utilize a press hit in any number of ways to make sure it helps with your show strategy.

Alice Florence Orr: Super. Thank you so much Joni. That is really, really helpful and I think that I'm about to speak on what I look for personally at Pitch, but I wanna just attest to the fact that all of these techniques will work really, really well with myself or anybody else.

You know, just because I might have some, some particular personal tastes when it comes to my pitches, I think this is a fantastic strategy and it's worked really well as I'm about to describe. So we're gonna move on to flipping this, flipping the script to the other person now.

Joni Deutsch: I was gonna say, yeah.

And Alice, I mean, for you, on average, how many pitches do you receive, whether in a day's time or a week's time for Podcast Review?

Alice Florence Orr: I think it's gone up substantially actually in the last couple of years, I must say. But that's kind of because I've encouraged it. I really enjoy press release that they really help me.

So I have my older PR inbox, which is my Hotmail, which is I think what's still currently on my website, still gets, you know, a little bit of traction. But mostly I've transferred everybody else onto my new inbox, which I would say I get 20 to 30 a day. It really, you know, on a weekday, so it's substantial, but I think what's great about it is that a lot of the pitches are very concise and easy for me to, to consume.

So I'll tell you what I look for specifically In, in the following slide, but I think when it comes to actually going through them and, and picking those podcasts and finding those podcasts so for reference, I write three main types of articles for podcast review. So I write Best of Roundups, which are kind of genre specific, so best history podcasts, best self-help podcasts.

You'll find us at the top of all your SEO rankings. I also write monthly new podcast recommendations. So I write three blurbs basically for brand new shows a month. And I also now do a quarterly indie podcast feature, which is kind of usually between seven to nine shows that I want to put a particular spotlight on, and for transparency, our reviews are currently handled by our founder Jack Conway, who I mentioned earlier,with our staff writer Chloe. So if you're looking to pitch, uh, a longer review for a series, he is still the best person to get in contact with. So if you wanna become one of the 20 pitches I receive a day, you can contact me on alice@podcastreview.org, and if you are wanting to pitch either to Jack and myself, if you send your pitch to podcast review.org/submit, which is, uh, you can find it on our homepage, it'd be scroll to the footer, you can see it right there. It's just under the word Submit. That not only goes to our submissions inbox, it also comes through to my personal inbox. It's all integrated. So please feel free to send me a pitch and then also send that submission. I don't mind receiving it twice. It's totally fine and you can also, you know, personalize your pitch to me with, you know, some of the tips I'm gonna be giving you in a second.

So, as I mentioned before, I get 20 press releases a day, but I really, really like them. For somebody who is writing about podcasts as frequently as I do, especially new podcasts. Podcast discovery is hard. I feel your pain because I do it. I mean, if I was an a lay person and I was just fi trying to find one new podcast every six months it would be fine. But if you're trying to find six a day, it's actually quite difficult.

So press releases are a godsend and I do read pretty much all of them. They really help, especially for things like new podcasts. But I also check social media, so I'm on Instagram and LinkedIn specifically. Podcast Review is also on X, so you can contact us there, but it's probably better just to find us through LinkedIn.

I also find great shows through my network. I'm very active on LinkedIn. I love personal conversations. Dms are always welcome, so feel free to just get in contact or maybe even leave a comment under one of my posts podcast newsletters as Joni explained, I, I subscribed to tons of them and they're really, really helpful.

So, I think some of my favorites,oh gosh, actually I, I am not gonna say them right now 'cause I'll butcher their names, but I'll do a post about it soon on my LinkedIn about which ones are my favorites. Reddit. Reddit, and also the podcast charts. And I'm talking about specific genre charts. So, because I do these genre roundups all the time.

I can't be an expert in history podcasts, do you know what I mean? Or, an expert gaming podcast. So what I do is I kind of go on these, um, Reddit forums or these charts and really understand, what the fan base are really enjoying right now, what they have problems with, what's frustrating them. And then I create kind of like a discourse between myself and them trying to kind of filter that through my own personal taste, because I don't just wanna write about something because it's popular.

There's a lot of shows that are popular right now that I would never wanna write about, and I'm sure you can guess about seven of them right now, but it's about understanding like, okay, where my knowledge fails, where can you know the fans step in and really help me with that? So. That's been really helpful for things like sports, podcasts and whatnot. So Reddit is a great place, and then finally, I, I do check the Apple and Spotify curated lists. I do find the UK ones to be particularly slow at updating. So if anybody's at Apple, can you please update the new and noteworthy list because it's been the same for about six months. But yeah, I also check, you know, previous podcast award nominees, especially for things like independent podcast awards, British podcast awards, you know, Canadian podcast awards, all of these kinds of things where my knowledge would be lacking potentially. So that's how I find the shows that I'm looking for. But press releases are my number one in terms of my weekly search.

Joni Deutsch: Alice, if I can chime in. I also wanna say for those who may not know Alice, or this may be your first introduction with her, to her, she is a very kind podcast writer. And I don't necessarily say kind in terms of like, she's always giving glowing reviews to everyone. Although Alice, you kind of do in a wonderful way, but more that Alice,the fact that she is telling everyone here on the call and elsewhere, you can pitch her in any number of ways through social media, email, newsletter, what have you, via the email if you wanna respond to the email newsletter through Podcast Review, is stellar.

Not every writer, critic will be as open-minded or as kind to tell you the same. So if I could give anyone a recommendation here. When you find someone and you want to pitch them something, you should also ask that writer or critic, Hey, for future reference, how often would you like to receive pitches like this?

Do you have a format or a style or a medium, whether email, DM on LinkedIn or what have you to receive a pitch like this and just like Alice did just now, they can let you know, oh yeah, actually I prefer to receive it on Mondays once a month over email. And that's also how you build a relationship when you're also anticipating someone's needs.

Yeah, Alice, as you're talking about that, I thought that'd be useful for the group.

Alice Florence Orr: No, that's so true, and it's honestly the nicest way anybody's ever said to me that I'm not James Marriott. So I do appreciate people have said it in much nastier ways before. So there are lots of larger publications that cover podcasts, and they will be probably going through more regular channels.

So I think podcasting as an industry is such a friendly industry in general, and at the moment that it intersects with more traditional media, that's when you have to play by some of the more old school rules. But I think you'll. More or less, everybody I've come across has been so incredibly friendly and receptive, so fingers crossed you continue to come across those people.

But yeah, as I say, go back to Joni's previous blueprint for how to approach people and you won't go wrong. Cool. Should we move on, Joni?

Joni Deutsch: Yeah, let's do it. Yeah. So Alice, next part is just simply, uh, you talked about receiving any number of notes from folks. What would you consider for the ones that you have received that have been like the best podcast pitch, or at least a good enough one for you to move forward with?

What were the key tenets or themes of those things that people can walk away from this call knowing I should do that next?

Alice Florence Orr: I'm gonna start very highbrow here, and I'll say that the shows that I consider to be gold standard shows are podcasts. That could only have been podcasts. I've read plenty of books.

I thought, oh, I wish that this had been a podcast. And I read plenty. I listen to plenty of shows. I think, oh, this could have been a TV show. It could have been an article, or, you know, some other form. I think of something like Dolly Parton's America. Could not have been anything else. It had to be a podcast.

And I think that's a really good example. So if you've got a project that's like that, don't be afraid to shout about it. You know, something that's new and innovative. I am a podcast critic, I'm not a video critic, so if you're doing a video first podcast, do remember that and kind of, you know, explain to me potentially why this is like a video podcast that will still be really enjoyable for me to engage with.

And I think always remember that I am speaking to the readers, as in your future listeners. I think I'm not, I, although I'm in the industry, I'm not trying to cater for industry needs necessarily. I'm trying to cater for other readers. So send me the information that the readers need and that will help me be able to communicate that.

So one of my, the things that I would love to see more often is like pitching me like it's a book. And that's not saying that, you know write me a blurb necessarily, but think more in the terms of genre or for fans of, or maybe situational, like genre being, I mean, I write genre based lists, so if you have something that, you know, you're like, this is a great nature podcast, tell me it's a great nature podcast, or something like that.

In terms of situational, I guess what I mean is, right now I'm writing a, an article called, The Best Podcast to Listen to On a Road Trip. And I'm thinking a lot about what that experience of being on a road trip is like, and what I'd actually wanna listen and what I'd recommend to people. Um, so definitely if that is something that you think, oh, this podcast is perfect for your, for a morning commute or something like that.

Put it in the pitch because it really helps me, it helps me visualize how I'm going to structure this review into, into our kind of editorial schedule. And if you're sitting between genres, I mean, I know I noticed that my, my friend Michael Osborne is on this call, he's got a great podcast called Famous and Gravy, and it kind of sits between multiple genres, but he's still able to pitch it in a way because he just has a very simple one-liner.

And so if you're kind of thinking, oh, it's not an interview podcast, it's not a history podcast, I don't know what it is. Create a really snappy one-liner and you'll win somebody over really easily. If you can include, include your podcast artwork, please do. I'm a, you know, I love looking at things as well as reading things.

And also downloadable assets are really useful, especially if something has a short turnaround. Interview opportunities are welcome. Mostly, I just love to see a host being engaged, like if you've got a celebrity host. They're not available for interview and there's no sort of like communication from them.

It kind of gives me a bit of like a negative feeling. I'm like, oh, it just feels like a bit of a cash grab. I appreciate people have complicated schedules, but just something to keep in mind. Um, for indies, please tell me why you made your show. Like, I love hearing stories behind the podcast and again, it's something that I can actually apply to my reviews.

if you don't have episodes out, please send me a trailer. Also, please ensure that your link is available in the uk. I've been wanting to shout this for years, but if I can't listen to it, I can't listen to it 'cause I'm based in the UK and I don't have a VPN. So thank you so much for making sure that's okay. A Dropbox is great if, if you can't send me like an actual web link. So in terms of my process, the reason I wanna outline this is 'cause I think it'll help you understand when to pitch to me. So we set our editorial calendar. I'm gonna say one month in advance. It's not particularly, we don't, we, you know, we don't have a massive team.

It's basically just the three of us. So we, we are very, um, lean and mean when it comes to our schedule and we respond kind of quite actively to what's going on. Um, but those key events, like the monthly new podcast list. The, um, independent, uh, roundups and then also our end of year list, which comes out in, we actually tend to release our end of year lists in January.

Just FYI, I know a lot of publications tend to do it kind of beginning of December. We are quite late for whatever reason, but we do ours in January. Um, we also update our main 20, which, you know, genre lists, which are the kind of SEO. The very, you know, high ranking SEO ones, we update those yearly because it's a, a best practice, shows change, new shows come in, et cetera, et cetera. And we wanna keep those really active for our readers. So keep that in mind because if you are a self-help podcast and you're thinking, God, you know, I'd love to be in that list, but I only came out last year. I've only got, you know, 10 episodes. Keep it in mind, we update that one in January as well. So you can pitch me that, you know, in maybe November, that would be an ideal time to say, Hey, I just wanted to put this on your radar, 'cause I know you're updating that list soon. And it's a great vehicle because, you know, I've heard that, you know, being on one of those lists can be really good for growth.

So I think that's as a tactic, a great one. And also when I remove a blurb from a list, it doesn't go away. So if you're thinking, oh, I've actually remember I was on a list, but then that podcast defunct, but now we're bringing it back and I wish I still had that review to put in my press pack. I still have all that. It's all in the archive, so please just get in contact with me and I can dig out that content for you. So this is a little bit of like a fun exercise. I, these are three podcasts that I've written about in the last couple of years. And I wanted to outline that I found all of them through PR, but different types of PR.

So the first one is RnR with Courtney Act. It's a new podcast, which I wrote about in our June recommendations. And I actually found this through a press release from the Podglomerate. And specifically it was a press release that was a compilation of a lot of different podcasts that they work with for Pride Month.

And so, because I was writing this list and I was going, oh gosh, you know, it's June. I wanna write something about Pride, but I also need it to be a new podcast. I dunno what's going on. This came through from Madison and I went, oh, this is perfect. It's a new podcast. It's pride related.It's good number one. It's good and it's relevant. So immediately I was like, I'm sold. Like, it basically did half my work for me and that is really helpful because ultimately the new podcasts, they do go through a kind of quality control, but it's not me writing a review of them necessarily. So it is more about that kind of responsive press relationship.

The second one is by a nonprofit called The Underground Writing Project, which I really recommend you check out. But basically I received a pitch from them maybe about six years ago, and it was impassioned. It wasn't really a podcast pitch, it was an impassioned pitch about their project.

But for some reason, they knew that I was writing about podcasts, and specifically I was interested in writing and interested in English literature. So they sent this through to me. It was very personal. It was from their, their leader, their CEO, Matt, and he was just very clear that, you know, this is the, they work with, you know, marginalized individuals and take writing projects into, into, you know, prisons and things like that.

And I was like, this is, I love this. And I completely fell in love with the project and it's been in our best writing podcast list for about six years, and they get thousands of listeners from that just because of that personal approach, but it's still PR. Do you know what I mean?

Finally, Table Read. This is Jack Levy's. You might have heard of it. It's award-winning, but Jack Levy, who from Manifest Media, pitched this to me before it came out, 2023. It was a mad pitch. It was all of his personality, all of his aesthetic. How did you come, sorry, my dog is just in the background there. I dunno if you can see him. All of his personality, all of his experience, you know, working in LA with lots of different media companies. It was, yeah, as I say, really impassioned and very stylized and it represented the podcast. Through and through. And so I immediately knew what it was about. I bought into it. I thought, this is mad. How are you gonna make any money doing this podcast? But it's very successful now and he won me over with that first pitch and I should have known that it was gonna be successful because he really had a very clear vision for what he wanted to convey with his pitches.

So I recommend talking to him if you're looking for that kind of thing. Like just he Table Read is fantastic. So, I think we're gonna finish off your.

Joni Deutsch: Yeah, I was gonna say, and for those that are, just as we wrap up the hour, folks, we're gonna run through as many of your questions as possible after we have some final thoughts from Alice on this slide.

So if you haven't already, go ahead and put your questions in the chat. And as a reminder, we are recording today's session. The recording, which includes the slideshow, will be made available to you, but if you have any live questions you want us to, you know, be here for, go ahead and give 'em to the chat.

Um, So yeah, for you Alice, one of the last things we'll chat about before q and a is just simply like, what are the best expert tips, like the things that really are effective, that people should be aware of as they leave this conversation today?

Alice Florence Orr: Well a lot of these are very personalized to my interests, but if you're wanting to pitch to Podcast Review, there's a lot of stuff that I've already talked about.

Be aware of our publishing schedule. As you mentioned, Joni, be aware of your subject line. I get 20 pitches a day, so. Or did I say a week? It's like kind of a day to be perfectly honest.

Joni Deutsch: The time is relative.

Alice Florence Orr: The time is relative. They come through and they don't stop. So yeah, I, I, you know, new indie podcast, you know, what genre is it?

Put it in the subject line if you can, because it will get my attention. And then as I say, two follow-ups is fine. Be clear about, you know, what your genre is, are you an indie? All of that kind of stuff. I think just communicating with me and helping me do my job is basically the ideal. Um, yeah, I won't talk any further about this 'cause I think a lot of it is what I've already covered.

But if you have any particular questions on this stuff I have on LinkedIn and things like that, so please do get in touch.

Joni Deutsch: Alice, we have basically hit an hour's worth of insights and shared them with everyone. Please connect with Alice and me offline. We have our contact information, our email addresses, our social media accounts, on the websites, 'cause we'd love to keep the conversation going. We can easily do this for another day or so. Um, but I just typically say thank you all for attending this.

For the Podglomerate side, if you wanna stay in touch with us or learn more about what we do, thepodglomerate.com and even thepodglomerate.com/connect and we can see if maybe there's a way with a free consultation we can help you grow your show.

But I'll leave it over to Alice for final words as well.

Alice Florence Orr: Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining Joni and I, and yeah, please do submit your podcast to us either through my personal PR email or through the submit option. And yeah, I can't wait to listen to your podcasts. Yeah, thank you so much.

Have a great evening or afternoon. It's evening for me. It's 8:00 PM where I am.

Joni Deutsch: Thank you everyone. Hope everyone has a great day.

Alice Florence Orr: Thank you. See you later.

Jeff Umbro: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Podcast Perspectives. Thank you to Joni Deutsch and Alice Florence Orr for putting on this great webinar. If you're interested in learning more, make sure to check out podglomerate.com/media for more resources on how to grow your audience.

For more podcast related news, info, and takes, you can follow me on LinkedIn at Jeff Umbro. Podcast Perspectives is a production of The Podglomerate.

If you're looking for help producing, marketing, or monetizing your podcast, you can find us at Podglomerate.com. Shoot us an email at listen@thepodglomerate.com, or follow us on all socials at @podglomeratepods. 

This episode was produced by Chris Boniello, and myself, Jeff Umbro. This episode was edited and mixed by Jose Roman. And thank you to our marketing team, Joni Deutsch, Madison Richards, and Morgan Swift. And a special thank you to Dan Christo. 

Thank you for listening and I'll catch you all in a few weeks.