Substack adds a podcast tab to its app

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• Substack has launched a new podcast tab in its app: "a dedicated space where you can easily reach your existing listeners, and help new listeners find you". The tab lists shows from Substack creators. The company tells Podnews that "creators publishing podcasts collectively earn over $200 million per year on Substack" - here's a list of the most popular.
  • Substack has also published download and view numbers from the Organizing Things podcast, which launched last week on the platform. The first week got 10,385 downloads - "entirely organic, no paid promotion or ad spend". What's the secret of its success? The show's co-host Shea Serrano is a five-time NYT best-seller, and was previously with Amazon and Wondery; and already had 128,000 subscribers to his newsletter: so that might be a factor.
• Are you measuring the success of podcast ads too soon? Magellan AI released its Q2 2026 Podcast Measurement Benchmark Report - and in it, we learn that 41% of site visits happen in the first week, and 76% by the end of the first month: so if you judge campaigns after just one week, the figures will be less than half of what the ads are really delivering.
• Spotify's Megaphone has made another unannounced change - this time, the qualification process for new shows to join SPAN, the Spotify Audience Network. As of Sep 8, a show needs at least three published episodes before it can be submitted to SPAN. Previously, only one published episode was required, so you could publish a trailer and be able to monetise your show from the first scheduled episode - but, no longer. One creator, who posts limited-run series, told us: "having to wait to monetize halfway through the run is pretty debilitating".
  • As with other changes that Megaphone has made recently, it is wholly undocumented; the company has repeatedly ignored any requests for comment. Perhaps creators might find a human to talk to in New York next week.

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