Megaphone (formerly Panoply Media) is a Software as a service (SaaS) business owned by

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a List of companies of Sweden, Swedish Music streaming service, audio streaming and media service provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. , it is one of the largest providers of music streaming services ...

. The company provides software for podcast hosting and monetization as well as an ad network to generate additional revenue for podcast publishers. It was formerly an audio content producer started by

The Slate Group The Slate Group, legally The Slate Group, LLC, is an American online publishing entity established in June 2008 by Graham Holdings Company. Among the publications overseen by The Slate Group are ''Slate'' and '' ForeignPolicy.com''. The creation ...

as Panoply Media, and later shifted to focusing solely on software for monetizing, measuring and distributing podcasts of media companies and independent producers.

History

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

began podcasting in 2005 with the '' Slate Political Gabfest''. Panoply Media launched in Feb 2015 led by Andy Bowers, Brendan Monaghan and Matt Turck within The Slate Group. Panoply acquired dynamic ad-insertion company Audiometric in August 2015, adding key technology leader and eventual CTO, Jason Cox, in the process. Panoply made the Audiometric technology available to other companies in January 2016 under the moniker "Megaphone". , Panoply had published more than 100 podcasts through partnerships with ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with a circulation of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellen ...

'', ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (''The Huffington Post'' until 2017, itself often abbreviated as ''HPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and covers p ...

'', ''New York'' magazine, ''

Time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', '' Inc.'', Vox, ''

Real Simple ''Real Simple'' (stylized in all caps) is an American monthly magazine published by Dotdash Meredith. The magazine features articles and information related to homemaking, childcare, cooking, and emotional well-being. The magazine is distinguis ...

'', ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'', and ''

Politico ''Politico'' (stylized in all caps), known originally as ''The Politico'', is an American political digital newspaper company founded by American banker and media executive Robert Allbritton in 2007. It covers politics and policy in the Unit ...

''. It has produced branded content for Purina,

Umpqua Bank Umpqua Holdings Corporation, Doing business as, d.b.a. Umpqua Bank, was a financial holding company based in downtown Portland, Oregon, Portland, Oregon, United States. Headquarters were in the Umpqua Bank Plaza, formerly the headquarters of Benj ...

, Prudential and

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational List of coffeehouse chains, chain of coffeehouses and Starbucks Reserve, roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It was founded in 1971 by Jerry Baldwin, Zev Siegl, and Gor ...

. Panoply launched Pinna, an audio subscription platform for families in 2017. In January 2018, the Slate Group separated its Slate-branded podcasts, such as ''

The Gist ''The Gist'' is an American daily news podcast hosted by Mike Pesca. The show was originally produced by ''Slate'' magazine starting in May 2014 and was suspended by Slate on February 22, 2021. A year later, Pesca relaunched the podcast under ...

'', from the rest of the Panoply lineup, for purposes of revenue control as it sought to increase membership in Slate Plus, its premium content service. Accordingly, Slate podcasts no longer carry the Panoply logo and branding. In September 2018, it was announced that Panoply would cease production of all podcasts and shut down its editorial division in order to focus on podcast hosting, analytics, and monetization technology as well as its ad marketplace known as the Megaphone Targeted Marketplace. Shortly thereafter, Pinna was spun out as a separate company owned by Panoply parent

Graham Holdings Graham Holdings Company (formerly The Washington Post Company) is a diversified American conglomerate holding company. Headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia, and incorporated in Delaware, it was formerly the owner of ''The Washington Po ...

in early 2019. In November 2020,

announced its intent to acquire Megaphone from Graham Holdings for . The acquisition was completed in December 2020. After the acquisitions of podcast technology companies Whooshkaa in December 2021 and Chartable in February 2022, Spotify announced that these products will be integrated into Megaphone.

Former Panoply branded podcasts

;

BuzzFeed BuzzFeed, Inc. is an American Internet mass media, media, news and entertainment company with a focus on digital media. Based in New York City, BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John Seward Johnson III, John S. Johnson III to ...

* ''Internet Explorer'' * ''No One Knows Anything'' * ''See Something Say Something'' — about being Muslim in America * ''

Another Round ''Another Round'' () is a 2020 black comedy-drama film directed by Thomas Vinterberg, co-written with Tobias Lindholm. Starring Mads Mikkelsen, Thomas Bo Larsen, Magnus Millang, and Lars Ranthe, the film follows four high school teachers who ...

'' — topics ranging from race, gender and pop culture to squirrels, mangoes, and jokes, hosted by

Tracy Clayton Tracy Clayton (born April 29, 1982) is an American writer whose work has been recognized by ''Fast Company'', ''Ebony'', and ''The Root,'' who described her as "a superstar” who “writes big, funny things." She served as the co-host of the Buz ...

and

Heben Nigatu Heben Nigatu is an Ethiopian-American writer and the former co-host of BuzzFeed podcast '' Another Round'' which stopped broadcasting in 2017. She previously wrote for ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' and is currently a staff writer for ' ...

;

First Look Media First Look Media is an American nonprofit media organization founded by Pierre Omidyar in October 2013 as a venue for "original, independent journalism". The project was started as a collaboration with Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, and La ...

* '' Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill'' — by

The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing nonprofit news organization that publishes articles and podcasts online. ''The Intercept'' has published in English since its founding in 2014, and in Portuguese since the 2016 launch of the Brazilia ...

* ''Maeve in America'' — hosted by

Maeve Higgins Maeve Anna Higgins (born 24 March 1981) is a comedian from Cobh, County Cork, Ireland and is based in New York City. She was a principal actor and writer of the RTÉ television production ''Naked Camera'', as well as for her own show ''Maeve H ...

;GE Podcast Theater * '' The Message'' — science fiction, co-produced with Slate * ''Life.After'' ;

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

* ''Game of Crones'' — recap of ''

Game of Thrones ''Game of Thrones'' is an American Fantasy television, fantasy Drama (film and television), drama television series created by David Benioff and for HBO. It is an adaptation of ''A Song of Ice and Fire'', a series of high fantasy novels by ...

'' * ''Happy Sad Confused'' — celebrities * ''Lady Problems'' — women's issues * ''North Mollywood'' * ''Skillset'' * ''Speed Dial'' * ''Team Wolf'' * ''The Stakes'' ;''

'' * ''Nerdcast'' — politics * ''Off Message'' ;''

Popular Mechanics ''Popular Mechanics'' (often abbreviated as ''PM'' or ''PopMech'') is a magazine of popular science and technology, featuring automotive, home, outdoor, electronics, science, do it yourself, and technology topics. Military topics, aviation an ...

'' * ''How Your World Works'' * ''Most Useful Podcast Ever'' ;'' Vanity Fair'' * ''In the Limelight'' * ''Little Gold Men'' — the Oscar race ;'' Vox'' * ''The

Ezra Klein Ezra Klein (born May 9, 1984) is an American American liberalism, liberal political commentator and journalist. He is currently a ''The New York Times, New York Times'' columnist and the host of ''The Ezra Klein Show'' podcast. He is a co-founde ...

Show'' * ''The Weeds'' — hosted by

, Sarah Kliff, and

Matthew Yglesias Matthew Yglesias (; born May 18, 1981) is an American blogger and journalist who writes about economics and politics. Yglesias has written columns and articles for publications such as ''The American Prospect'', ''The Atlantic'', and ''Slate''. I ...

;''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' * ''Heard On the Street'' * ''Media Mix'' * ''Money, Markets & More'' * ''MoneyBeat'' * ''Opinion: Foreign Edition'' * ''Opinion: Potomac Watch'' * ''Tech News Briefing'' * ''Watching Your Wealth'' * ''What's News'' * ''Your Money Matters'' ;Other * ''BackStory'' — a weekly podcast about American history, hosted by Ed Ayers, Brian Balogh, Nathan Connolly and Joanne Freeman * ''Bad With Money'' — hosted by Gabe Dunn * '' Girlboss Radio with

Sophia Amoruso Sophia Christina Amoruso (born April 20, 1984) is an American businesswoman. Amoruso founded Nasty Gal, a women's fast fashion retailer, which went on to be named one of "the fastest growing companies" by '' Inc. Magazine'' in 2012. In 2016, she ...

'' * ''GLoP Culture'' — with

Jonah Goldberg Jonah Jacob Goldberg (born March 21, 1969) is an American conservative journalist, author, and political commentator. The founding editor of ''National Review Online'', from 1998 until 2019, he was an editor at ''National Review''. Goldberg writ ...

John Podhoretz John Mordecai Podhoretz (; born April 18, 1961) is an American writer. He is the editor of '' Commentary'' magazine, a columnist for the ''New York Post'', the author of several books on politics, and a former speechwriter for President Ronald ...

, and

Rob Long Robert Long (born June 8, 1965) is an American writer and television producer in Hollywood. As a screenwriter and executive producer for the long-running television program ''Cheers'', he received Emmy and Golden Globe nominations in 1992 and 1 ...

* '' Revisionist History'' — hosted by

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...

* ''

T. D. Jakes Thomas Dexter Jakes Sr. (born June 9, 1957) is an American non-denominational Christian evangelical pastor and motivational speaker. He was the senior pastor of The Potter's House, a non-denominational American megachurch in Dallas, Texas, fro ...

Podcast'' * ''Detective'' — weekly interviews with Detectives who are being featured on

Investigation Discovery Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries, similar to corporate sibling HLN. It is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's netw ...

true crime shows. * '' Tumanbay'' — international broadcast of this

BBC Four BBC Four is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It was launched on 2 March 2002

scripted radio drama, set in a fictional

Middle East The Middle East (term originally coined in English language) is a geopolitical region encompassing the Arabian Peninsula, the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq. The term came into widespread usage by the United Kingdom and western Eur ...

ern city during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. Two seasons have already aired in the UK. *''Whatever Happened To Pizza At McDonald's?'' — investigative journalism program centered around the circumstances and reasoning for fast food chain

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation, doing business as McDonald's, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain. As of 2024, it is the second largest by number of locations in the world, behind only the Chinese ch ...

ceasing to offer pizza in their restaurants. * ''LGBTQ&A'' — interview podcast documenting the stories of the LGBTQ community with Jeffrey Masters. * ''By the Book'' — bi-weekly podcast trying out self-help books with Jolenta Greenberg and Kristen Meinzer. * ''You Must Remember This'' — early Hollywood history with Karina Longworth.

Slate branded podcasts

* ''Amicus'' — Amicus is a podcast about "the Supreme Court and the laws it interprets for the United States," hosted by

Dahlia Lithwick Dahlia Lithwick is a Canadian-American lawyer, writer, and journalist. Lithwick is a contributing editor at ''Newsweek'' and senior editor at ''Slate (magazine), Slate''. She primarily writes about law and politics in the United States. She write ...

. The podcast first aired October 23, 2014 and has aired a few times a month since * ''Audio Book Club —'' The Audio Book Club functions as a

book discussion club A book discussion club is a group of people who meet to discuss books they have read. It is often simply called a book club, a term that may cause confusion with a book ''sales'' club. Other terms include reading group, book group, and book disc ...

. Every month critics gather to discuss a book previously announced. The podcast first aired on March 15, 2006 * ''Culture Gabfest'' — a weekly round-table focusing on cultural news, with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner. The podcast first aired on April 23, 2008, and airs every Wednesday. * ''Daily Podcast'' — All of Slate's podcasts and extra content. * ''

Dear Prudence "Dear Prudence" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album ''The Beatles'' (also known as "the White Album"). The song was written by John Lennon and credited to the Lennon–McCartney partnership. Written in Ri ...

'' — Dear Prudence is an advice column, hosted by Daniel Mallory Ortberg. The column dates back to 1997, and the podcast to June 7, 2016. The podcast airs every Wednesday * ''The Waves'' — women's issues, formerly ''The Double X Gabfest'' * ''

'' — The Gist is a daily (Monday through Friday) news and opinion podcast hosted by

Mike Pesca Mike Pesca (born December 29, 1971) is an American radio journalist and podcaster based in New York City. He is the host of the daily podcast, ''The Gist,'' and the editor of ''Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports History.'' Ca ...

* ''Upon Further Review'' — Upon Further Review is a limited release podcast hosted by

, focusing on sports hypotheticals, such as, "What would have happened if the Brooklyn Dodgers had never left for Los Angeles?" * ''Hang Up and Listen'' — sports * ''Hit Parade'' — music history and the

Billboard Hot 100 The ''Billboard'' Hot 100, also known as simply the Hot 100, is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), ...

, hosted by Chris Molanphy. * ''Lexicon Valley'' — language issues * ''Slate Money'' — business and finance, hosted by Felix Salmon * ''Mom and Dad Are Fighting'' — parenting * '' Slate Political Gabfest'' — a weekly round-table focusing on political news * ''Trumpcast'' — originally focused on Trump's presidential run, it continued to cover his presidency * ''Whistlestop'' — politics, hosted by

John Dickerson John Frederick Dickerson (born July 6, 1968) is an American journalist and a reporter for CBS News. His current assignment is co-anchoring ''CBS Evening News'' alongside Maurice DuBois since January 27, 2025. His previous roles include ''60 Min ...

* ''Slate Presents'' — an anthology series, where each season functions as a stand-alone narrative miniseries. The first season, titled ''Standoff: What Happened at Ruby Ridge?'' was hosted by Ruth Graham, and examined the Ruby Ridge incident. The second season, hosted by Emily Bazelon, is titled ''Charged: A True Punishment Story'' and examines the workings of a special court in New York that focused on cases of illegal gun possession. ;Slate's imprint, the ''Onward Project'' * ''Happier with

Gretchen Rubin Gretchen Craft Rubin (born December 14, 1965) is an American author, blogger and speaker. Early life and education Born Gretchen Anne Craft, Gretchen Rubin grew up in Kansas City, Missouri, where her father was a lawyer at the firm of Craft, Fri ...

'' * ''Radical Candor'' — managers and relationships at work * ''Side Hustle School'' — about making money on the side while having a main job, hosted by

Chris Guillebeau Chris Guillebeau (born April 4, 1978) is an American people, American author, entrepreneur, blogger, and speaker. He initially received attention for his entrepreneurship and travel blog, ''The Art of Non-Conformity'', which led to the publicati ...

Previous shows

;Slate: * ''Spoiler Specials'' — film * ''About Race'' * ''Manners for the Digital Age'' ;Other: * ''

Politically Re-Active ''Politically Re-Active'' is a political comedy podcast hosted by comedians W. Kamau Bell and Hari Kondabolu. The left-leaning show, organized around guest interviews, launched in June 2016 and initially focused on the 2016 United States preside ...

'' — political comedy, hosted by

W. Kamau Bell Walter Kamau Bell (born January 26, 1973) is an American stand-up comic and television host. He has hosted the CNN series '' United Shades of America'' since 2016, and hosted FXX television series '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' from 20 ...

and

Hari Kondabolu Hari Karthikeya Kondabolu (born October 21, 1982)Beem, p. 38 is an American stand-up comedian and writer. His comedy covers subjects such as race, inequity, and Indian stereotypes. He was a writer for '' Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell'' and ...

, moved to

Earwolf Earwolf is an American comedy podcasting network founded by Scott Aukerman and Jeff Ullrich in August 2010. initially built around the ''Comedy Death-Ray Radio'' podcast, the network has since grown to include many podcasts on diverse subjects. ...

after Season 1.

References

External links