Editor’s note: Hot Pod is a newsletter on the podcasting industry written by Nick Quah; we happily share it with Nieman Lab readers each Tuesday.
Welcome to Hot Pod, a newsletter about podcasts. This is issue 169, published July 17, 2018.
Hey all! Headlining this newsletter with three parallel — but interacting — items on the fun intersection of books and podcasts. Let’s go.
Part One: Audiobook-first. Something peculiar this way comes…from Newark, New Jersey. Back in June, the New York Times reported on a curious development that’s happening at Audible, one that sees the biggest audiobook company in the world investing in audiobook-first products as part of an effort to, as the Times article puts it, “meet growing consumer demand, and also to generate stories that are designed to be listened to rather than read.” In other words, they’re commissioning audiobooks without the hefty book part.
One major expression of this new strategy comes in the form of a…
