Dear Media podcasts focus on women, draw millions of downloads

Now, two many years later on, she considers her podcast, “Everything is Best” — wherever she features discussions on issues these kinds of as parenting, being pregnant, economic preparing, entertaining — a significant success. She credits her partnership with Pricey Media.

Given that its launch in 2018, Dear Media has quietly come to be a single of the most prominent names in women’s media. The podcast network’s social media channels achieve a mixed audience of far more than 120 million. Pricey Media’s reveals had been downloaded more than 200 million instances in 2022, and the company has released extra than 50 strains of influencer products and doubled its annual income in just about every of the previous four many years.

The brand name has turn out to be ubiquitous in women’s spaces on the internet. It is challenging to scroll by way of TikTok or Instagram without having looking at a Dear Media podcast video clip. “You see a clip on TikTok and you know immediately it is Dear Media,” explained the TikTok star Corporate Natalie, who has nearly half a million followers on the application.

Podcasting is forecast to be a $94.88 billion sector by 2028, and massive players which include Spotify and Apple have acquired or commissioned a slew of substantial-profile, exclusive exhibits. And the growth of platforms this kind of as Anchor, which lets anyone to develop a podcast, has led to a tidal wave of homegrown shows. But, as the overall economy contracts and this media sector enters what the podcast critic and analyst Nicholas Quah calls a “podcast winter season,” competition is turning out to be fierce. That is the place Dear Media will come in.

“[There’s] typically a feeling of pessimism in the podcast business,” he reported. “I have not observed that quite a few attempts at creating out a women’s-concentrated multimedia way of life brand name that has a distinct podcast existence like Dear Media. The big dilemma of a network of that scale is regardless of whether they have the downloads.” That means, for Pricey Media to survive, it have to carry on to churn out reveals and grow its audience.

Expensive Media would seem to have tapped into a winning components: leveraging podcasts as a springboard for woman influencers to develop multimillion-dollar brand names. The Dear Media community hosts 63 demonstrates, primarily chat demonstrates (the place hosts and friends have freewheeling conversations) with dozens a lot more in progress, and is regularly bringing on new expertise. Its popular slate of demonstrates consists of “Not Skinny But Not Unwanted fat,” a pop lifestyle exhibit hosted by the influencer Amanda Hirsch, “Back to the Seaside,” which is hosted by the fact Tv set stars Kristin Cavallari and Stephen Colletti, both of whom starred on the MTV demonstrate “Laguna Beach,” and “Absolutely Not,” a comedy podcast hosted by the actress and comedian Heather McMahan.

“They’ve designed this network of strong women of all ages that all have actually intriguing channels,” Baroncini mentioned. “… We’re all consistently doing pod swaps with every other.”

Previous yr, Expensive Media launched its initially confined sequence, “Summer of Gold,” hosted by the retired figure skater Michelle Kwan and co-developed with Togethxr, a women’s athletics media company. It tells the oral history of the 1996 Olympics, when the women’s sporting activities teams swept gold. And this calendar year, the community also launched its initially fiction show, known as “Bone, Marry, Bury,” with Sarah Hyland, about romance and murder. Dear Media also has introduced a demonstrate with the “Black-ish” star Tracee Ellis Ross identified as “I Am America.” It functions stories that spotlight daily People in america and “transcend[s] all the divisions we have in this place,” an announcement for the demonstrate reads.

Even though Expensive Media itself has managed to continue to be out of the on the internet drama that is frequently synonymous with the influencer industry, it has not shied away from controversial talent. In October, the firm recruited Claudia Oshry and Jackie Oshry Weinreb, daughters of much-right extremist Pamela Geller, to host a demonstrate, in spite of Claudia Oshry’s being mired in backlash for espousing views very similar to her mother’s, these types of as frequently creating racist remarks and downplaying the coronavirus pandemic.

Expensive Media was started as a joint undertaking in between the entrepreneur Michael Bosstick, who serves as the company’s chief govt, and Raina Penchansky, the founder of Electronic Model Architects (DBA), the foremost lifestyle influencer management organization, which helps social media creators monetize and grow their brand names. DBA’s primacy in the area was cemented when the administration corporation was obtained by United Expertise Agency in 2019.

The enterprise arrived to fruition after Michael Bosstick and his spouse, Lauryn Bosstick, a massively well-known life style influencer regarded by her cope with, @theskinnyconfidential, developed a effective podcast constructed off her brand termed “The Skinny Confidential Him & Her.” The present featured frank conversations with entrepreneurs, content material creators and authors.

Although their exhibit was a good results — the Bossticks have produced extra than 500 episodes, hardly ever missing an episode a week in 6 many years and garnering a lot more than 150 million downloads — they experienced hassle discovering a podcast community. They didn’t truly feel that any of the foremost networks took them severely or were being interested in serving a principally female audience.

The Bossticks regarded that innumerable influential gals with huge on the net followings, such as life style content creators, actuality stars and business owners, needed to start out podcasts but have been dismissed or were greatly undervalued by the male-dominated podcast marketplace. So, they partnered with Penchansky, whose firm had a record of doing work with important woman articles creators, and Expensive Media was born.

“It was at this time we understood how many other female-focused demonstrates had been also not getting the attention or resources they deserved,” Michael Bosstick explained. “The leading charts of significant podcast platforms have been all male-dominated, and there have been extremely few women being represented in the way we equally felt was suitable. We had been collaborating with and talking to so lots of unbelievable ladies and imagined it was time to even out the charts a little bit.”

What Expensive Media acknowledged ahead of most was that the media industry was shifting away from conventional models and towards on-line creators. “The notion of developing a platform by creators, for creators, that caters to female audiences on the lookout into possibilities past just audio was born,” Michael Bosstick said.

Each Pricey Media model speaks to a certain variety of girl or interest. Pricey Media demonstrates deal with topics such as trend, amusement and pop lifestyle information, courting, relationship, pregnancy, the troubles of being a girl in the office, and a lot more. The network does consist of adult males, but they mainly converse to the company’s predominantly female audience.

“Consumers look at Pricey Media podcasts as a useful resource for real lifetime,” reported Siffat Haider, an influencer and the founder of the wellness manufacturer Arrae, who hosts “The Aspiration Larger Podcast.” “The [listener] finds a lot of Pricey Media shows relatable, no issue wherever they are in their daily life. Whether or not it is a parenting podcast or occupation podcasts, there’s a large amount of genuine, authentic-daily life applications.”

“The hope is that you may occur to Pricey Media for a comedy show but then make a decision you also want to listen to a parenting clearly show. Or you could appear in to pay attention to a business enterprise demonstrate and find out that you also like a pop lifestyle demonstrate,” Michael Bosstick explained. “Our objective is to create a huge sufficient providing that can enchantment to everyone as they go as a result of their weeks and days as well as as a result of distinctive moods during the 7 days.”

Contrary to other podcast providers that have generic tools and bland studio spaces, Pricey Media has produced Instagram and YouTube-ready studio areas in West Hollywood and Austin. The areas have come to be a hub for influencers and celebs who appear in as visitors or to host their own demonstrates, simply to sit in entrance of the Pricey Media branded microphones. Dear Media branding is affixed to the thumbnail of every display, and the Expensive Media identify is shouted out in the starting of every episode of each and every exhibit on the community. That branding has authorized Dear Media to achieve a level of identify recognition that other networks have struggled to attain.

“Branding is one thing that has been on the forefront of each individual company conversation,” claimed Paige Port, Expensive Media’s president. “What does the brand glance like on protect artwork, in the studio, when it will come to distribution. It’s anything which is grow to be definitely recognizable, and when you see material on other platforms, it is like, ‘Oh, that’s a Expensive Media clearly show.’”

While Dear Media makes use of podcasts as a launchpad for the expertise with which it is effective, the network’s good results comes from its ability to support influencers construct mini media empires about them selves. “We appear at all the displays as models in themselves, and when you glance at them as models in its place of just audio channels, you can do so a great deal a lot more,” Michael Bosstick explained, mentioning alternatives that involve products, stay events, touring, item strains, streaming and IP. “This is a focus many of our competition simply cannot or won’t entertain.”

For the talent, performing with Expensive Media opens up monetization chances not normally out there in traditional podcasting. “Why should I have a random advertiser on the podcast that I do not genuinely use?” Baroncini stated. “I desired to operate with brand names that are a portion of my life and can seamlessly integrate with my other social media channels.”

Michael Bosstick has championed sponsored episodes, where by visitors pay out hundreds of pounds to be showcased on a present, comparable to the way influencers would produce sponsored information for makes on their social feeds. The apply is popular in the on the net creator house, but in podcasting, it has usually happened only guiding the scenes. Bosstick places it out in the open. “The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast” fees concerning $20,000 and $40,000 for every sponsored interview, in accordance to Bloomberg News. “We always frame it as: There is no chatting details you don’t get to submit questions the only thing is it is just your manufacturer remaining highlighted,” he informed Bloomberg. And sponsored episodes account for only 1 to 3 p.c of Dear Media’s full programming, he said.

The business also spins out consumer solutions. Dear Media has incubated The Skinny Private, Bosstick’s original life-style brand, and Woo Far more Enjoy, a sexual-wellness toy corporation. The corporation also has invested in and aided to increase a dietary supplement brand name, a line of vegan and gluten-totally free cookie dough, a humidifier organization, a line of sparkling wine cocktails and a line of normal therapies. It also operates a flourishing items company.

Chat exhibits keep on being Pricey Media’s bread and butter, but the company is fast increasing into new formats. In 2020, Dear Media raised $8 million Sequence A financial commitment, telling Forbes that the company planned to use that funds to broaden its slate of programming. “We’re focusing on introducing far more range, not only in the varieties of females we represent, but also the type of content material,” Bosstick said at the time.

In November, Expensive Media introduced “dailys,” which are five- to 10-moment parts aimed at the Expensive Media audience. Port calls them “digestible, snackable episodes individuals can start out or conclusion their working day with.” The enterprise hired a group to concentration on the product or service.

“You can listen even though carrying out the dishes, folding the laundry, you can be on a stroll, or doing the job,” Port claimed. “It’s content that doesn’t choose up a massive portion of your day and can be extra onto demonstrates you are previously listening to.”