Borrell Associates has launched a bimonthly podcast discussing the latest trends in local marketing. Joining Gordon Borrell for these lively 20-minute shows is Corey Elliott, executive vice president of Local Market Intelligence. Borrell says they make a good team "because we don't always agree."

Most podcast users are millennial males, listen weekly, and engage with podcasts at home, according to a major new study by the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications and Futuri Media, a leading audience engagement and sales intelligence technology firm.

Results were presented at the National Association of Broadcasters' NAB Show on April 9 as part of a panel discussion titled "Radio's New Analytics: Understanding Listeners, Delivering Results." Click the link below to download a copy of the presentation.

Podcasting has been around for more than a decade but has seen explosive growth the last few years as smartphones and smart speakers have become ubiquitous media devices. Podcast ad revenue has nearly doubled in the last two years to $314 million since 2017, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which projects revenue to double again by 2020.

If this content distribution channel is not in your strategic plan, maybe one of the Tuesday morning breakout sessions at the Mega-Conference will change your mind.

Laura Rich, host of The Exit Club, a podcast about entrepreneurs, and founder of The Podcasting Agency, which develops engaging audio content for marketers, will lead a panel that will discuss best practices in podcast marketing, from content and distribution to technology and advertising options.

Joining her will be Hans Appen, president of Appen Media Group in Alpharetta, Ga., and Jay Prather, executive director digital programming for the Las Vegas (Nev.) Review-Journal.

When 5-year-old Noah Thomas disappeared in rural Pulaski County, Va., in 2015, a massive search ensued, accompanied by intensive news coverage. Four days later the body of the child was found in a septic tank with an unsecured lid, 10 feet away from the basketball hoop outside his home.

The boy's mother, Ashley White, said she was taking a nap and Noah was gone when she woke up. The home situation was less than ideal, and instead of community sympathy for her loss, White was the object of a backlash of condemnation fueled by gossip, rumor and social media.

"She didn't grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth," said Lee Wolverton, managing editor of The Roanoke Times. "She struggled like a lot of people in that area have. People are pretty quick to judge people like her."

By the time she was convicted of child abuse leading to an injury as well as two lesser charges of neglect, White had been in jail for more than a year. Released on time served, she appealed the main conviction. It was overturned by an appeals court and the Virginia Supreme Court allowed that ruling to stand.

This spring The Roanoke Times released a multi-part podcast, simply called "Septic," that told the story with a focus on the mother. Much of it is audio based in large part on courtroom recordings that were released to the newspaper. It also includes recorded interviews, photos, documents and some video.

The true crime miniseries, which explores the dark side of the Sunshine State, has already received nearly half a million listens. Fans are calling the series "riveting.

A California newspaper is learning as it experiments with podcasting using its existing staff. The Q&A dives into questions like: “What goes into creating a podcast episode?” “What’s the most effective way to promote the podcast?” “What has been the biggest challenge when it came to launching the podcast or continuing to produce the segments?”

This week we find out what it takes to expand into podcasting successfully.