Podnews Weekly Review - Free transcripts! Plus, Beehiiv gets podcast hosting, and Brkthru's measurement of podcast ads

<p><a target="_blank" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/fan_mail/new">Send James and Sam a message or voicemail</a></p><p>Please visit podnews.net/reportcard and fill out the questionnaire!<br/><br/>We get into the real fight over podcast transcripts: where they should live, how they should be formatted, and why “one transcript everywhere” beats a pile of app-only versions. Then we zoom out to the bigger platform shift: all-in-one creator stacks, new monetisation options, Spotify’s latest ad experiments, and what advertisers actually want when they ask for ROI.</p><p>• Buzzsprout rolling out free automatic transcripts on paid plans<br/>• Chapter markers inside the transcript editor and why structure matters<br/>• Why hosts should publish transcripts so every app can use them<br/>• Speaker labels, podcast person tags, and the limits of platform metadata<br/>• Simplifying the Podcasting 2.0 transcript tag and focusing on VTT<br/>• Beehiiv’s new podcast hosting and the push toward consolidation<br/>• Subscriptions, private feeds, and ad networks as a mixed monetisation model<br/>• Spotify’s new ad formats plus Song DNA and what podcasting could copy<br/>• Attribution beyond promo codes including delayed conversions and tagging<br/>• The Pod News Report Card and how platforms respond to creator feedback<br/>• Japan podcast growth, video listening, and YouTube as the top platform<br/>• Wallets, micropayments, and why the US still shapes adoption<br/>• New tools, video claims versus YouTube-only, and hosting built for APIs<br/>• Voicemail fan mail, boosts, and what listeners are sending in</p><p><a rel="payment" href="https://www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support">Support the show</a></p><p><b>Connect With Us: </b></p><ul><li>Email: <a href='mailto:[email protected]'>[email protected]</a></li><li>Fediverse: <a href='https://podcastindex.social/@[email protected]'>@[email protected]</a> and <a href='https://podcastindex.social/@samsethi'>@[email protected]</a></li><li>Support us: <a href='https://www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support'>www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support</a></li><li>Get Podnews: <a href='https://podnews.net'>podnews.net</a></li></ul>