Welcome to The Addition, where I cover the crossover between culture, media and sport.

What's this? A newsletter on a Thursday? Yes! I thought that you might appreciate your second dose of independent media reporting and analysis earlier in the week, so I'm now going to publish on a Thursday instead of a Friday.

Not that long ago, I revealed the strain hacks at Reach are under as their bosses impose ever more demanding targets on them. It’s all in the name of traffic. Of course. Since then, those bosses have been testing out yet another traffic driver and it all has a rather noughties feel to it - MSN. Yup, outlets like the Mirror and Daily Star are putting articles onto a network best known by Millenials for providing early instant messaging. Indeed, while Reach might be putting a particular emphasis on it internally, other publishers like the Guardian and Independent are doing the same. Go on… dare you to reveal your screenname…

Seeing Your Favourite Podcast Live Show

It’s a Tuesday evening in early December and I’m in church. This, for various reasons, is not exactly a regular occurrence for me. There is no service taking place though. Instead, the congregation is here to worship the stars of their favourite podcast.

On a stage positioned near a lovely Christmas tree, Carl Miller, the host of "Kill List", and producers Caroline Thornham and Tom Wright, are being quizzed about murder-for-hire websites by Jamie Bartlett. Bartlett is, of course, the host of another wildly popular podcast - "The Missing Cryptoqueen". (If you haven’t listened to Kill List 1.) Do 2.) Listen to my conversation with Carl on The Addition Podcast.)

Miller, Thornham and Wright got something approaching a rock star’s welcome when they came onto the stage. Never has being a podcast producer been so cool.

The Union Chapel in Islington was packed, but it is a relatively small venue compared to some others that big-name podcasters have been appearing at recently. "The News Agents" hosts Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis and Lewis Goodall have been at the Royal Albert Hall. Rory Stewart and Alastair Campbell of "The Rest is Politics" went on tour across the UK at venues that include the 02 Arena in London.

​Read the full article, including insight from Esther Thorpe of Media Voices, with a paid subscription.​

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