Inside Slate’s Podcast Strategy

By: Lucia Moses | Digiday

While WBEZ’s “Serial” elbowed its way into the national conversation last fall, Slate was quietly making some podcast news of its own.

While other media companies cut back their podcasts to focus on video, Slate added two new ones, “The Gist” and “Money,” for a total of 10. Last October, the online magazine had a record 6 million downloads, up from 1 million a month two years ago. Last fall, Slate attracted Acura as a sponsor, a coup for a medium that has long been dominated by direct-response advertisers.