In another podcast land-grab, radio broadcast giant Entercom Communications has inked deals to acquire podcast companies Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Media.
Entercom announced the acquisition of podcast producer Pineapple Street Media and an agreement to buy full control of Cadence13, a New York-based podcast studio and distribution company, after acquiring a 45% stake for $9.7 million two years ago.
Terms of the deals weren’t disclosed. Entercom is paying $18 million for Pineapple and its deal for Cadence13 values the company at close to $50 million, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Philadelphia-based Entercom is the second-biggest radio broadcasting company, after iHeartMedia. Entercom owns 235 stations in 48 markets, after buying CBS Radio in 2017 in a pickup of 117 stations. The company claims to reach a monthly audience of 170 million U.S. consumers across radio, digital and live events.
The deals will make Entercom the No. 3 U.S. podcast publisher, after NPR and iHeart: Podcast episodes published or distributed by Entercom, Cadence13 and Pineapple Street Media were downloaded more than 150 million times per month in the second quarter of 2019, according to the company.
“Today marks another transformational event at Entercom,” David Field, chairman, president, and CEO of Entercom, said in a statement. With the podcast pacts, the company “will stand as a unique leader in the audio universe with both the greatest collection of premium, original local audio content along with arguably the best national podcast content.”
With the deals, Entercom plans to move Cadence13 and Pineapple Street underneath its Radio.com division. As part of the acquisitions, Pineapple Street Media will be renamed Pineapple Street Studios.
Pineapple Street’s podcast slate includes true-crime show “The Clearing,” produced in association with Spotify’s Gimlet Media — which recently launched as the No. 1 podcast on the Apple Charts — along with “Running from Cops,” “Missing Richard Simmons,” and the “The Chernobyl Podcast” for HBO. Cadence13’s notable shows include “Root of Evil,” Michael Lewis’ “Against the Rules,” “To Live and Die in L.A.,” “Gangster Capitalism” and “Crimetown Presents: The Ballad of Billy Balls.”
Cadence13’s programming partners include Conde Nast, Crooked Media, Entertainment Weekly, Girlboss Media, Goop, Meredith, Mythical Entertainment, Pushkin Industries, Ramble, Seven Bucks Productions, Smosh, Sports Illustrated, Tenderfoot TV, theSkimm, The Try Guys, TNT, UTA, and Vanity Fair. The company also works with a roster of individual podcasters including Sophia Amoruso, David Axelrod, Nick Bilton, Rachel Brathen, Kobe Bryant, Emma Chamberlain, and Deepak Chopra and Gwyneth Paltrow.
The newly renamed Pineapple Street Studios, based in Brooklyn, will continue to be run by co-founders Jenna Weiss-Berman and Max Linsky, who will report into J.D. Crowley, Entercom’s chief digital officer.
Additionally, Cadence13 will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Entercom offering services for top podcasters including audience development, production and monetization. Cadence13 CEO Spencer Brown will join the new organization as head of the division, reporting into Crowley. Chief content officer Chris Corcoran will continue to lead content for the division, and president John Murphy will also be part of the leadership team.
“Consolidation with Entercom will greatly accelerate the next phase of our growth,” Spencer Brown, Chris Corcoran and John Murphy, founding partners of Cadence13, in a statement. “Through its robust portfolio of broadcast radio stations and the Radio.com platform, Entercom offers Cadence access to a national audio platform that will accelerate revenue and development of our audience engagement efforts.”
Pictured above: Cadence13 CEO Spencer Brown (l.) and chief content officer Chris Corcoran
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