Apple hires Zach Kahn to head public relations for its podcasts biz

Apple has hired Zach Kahn, formerly with Vox Media, to head public relations for its podcast business, reports Variety.

He’ll start at Apple in January, reporting to senior director of communications Tom Neumayr. Kahn will be responsible for handling PR for all podcast initiatives, including with Apple’s content partners. Neumayr confirmed Kahn’s hire to Variety but declined to comment on whether Apple is planning to produce original podcasts.

Apple plans to start funding original podcasts that would be exclusive to its audio service, increasing its investment in the industry to better compete with competitors such as Spotify and Stitcher, Bloomberg, quoting unnamed “people familiar with the matter,” reported in July.

The article added that tech giant is reaching out to media companies and their representatives to discuss buying exclusive rights to podcasts. Apple’s Podcast app accounts for anywhere from 50% to 70% of listening for most podcasts, according to industry executives. It’s a default app on iOS devices and, starting with macOS Catalina, is a default standalone app on Macs.

In summer 2017 Apple announced its Podcast Analytics tool. It’s designed to allow podcasters to learn more about their listeners. For instance, analytics information will include the total hours listened to a specific episode, the average minutes per listener, the abandonment point, and average completion rate. Podcast Analytics will also show if listeners are skipping over ads or not.

On the analytics dashboard, podcasters will log in with their Apple ID to view details about their podcast’s performance. This includes things like table and charts with data like unique device counts for a selected time period, total time listened, time per device, average consumption, devices subscribed, top countries, and more.