Nicholas Quah is a journalist for

Vulture A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to Nort ...

and is the creator of the

Nieman Lab The Nieman Foundation for Journalism is the primary journalism institution at Harvard University. History It was founded in February 1938 as the result of a $1.4 million bequest by Agnes Wahl Nieman, the widow of Lucius W. Nieman, founder of ' ...

newsletter Hot Pod News.

Career

Quah was the creator of the ''Hotpods'' newsletter. Quah worked for

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 ...

in 2015 while writing the newsletter.

Vox Media Vox Media, Inc. is an American mass media company founded in Washington, D.C. with operational headquarters in Lower Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in November 2011 by CEO Jim Bankoff and Trei Brundrett to encompass ''S ...

acquired the Hotpod newsletter in 2021 as part of a plan to expand ''

The Verge ''The Verge'' is an American Technology journalism, technology news website headquarters, headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, cons ...

''. Quah had been running the newsletter for almost seven years. After ''Hot Pod'' was acquired by ''The Verge,'' Quah started working at ''

''. Quah also hosts his own podcast called "Servant of Pod," which discusses the business side of podcasting. The show was a 2021

Webby Award The Webby Awards (colloquially referred to as the Webbys) are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over three thousand industry experts a ...

honoree in the business category. Quah occasionally contributes podcast reviews and criticism to

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

's ''

Fresh Air ''Fresh Air'' is an American radio talk show broadcast on National Public Radio stations across the United States since 1985. It is produced by WHYY-FM in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The show's hosts are Terry Gross and Tonya Mosl ...

''. He also wrote a book about the podcasting industry. Quah provided commentary on the effects the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

has had on podcast consumption. For instance, Quah noted that podcast downloads decreased in March 2020, but that in late April 2020 downloads began increasing again. Jim Epstein criticized Quah for supporting government funded public broadcasting. Quah is in support of a decentralized federated business model for

because he believes that would allow for an increase in local reporting. Quah worked for

Panoply A panoply is a complete suit of armor. The word represents the Ancient Greek ('), where the word (') means "all", and (') means "arms". Thus, ''panoply'' refers to the full armor of a hoplite or heavily-armed soldier, i.e. the shield, breast ...

and commented on the benefits of podcast networks. Quah covered the story about

Gimlet Media Gimlet Media LLC was a digital media company and podcast network, focused on producing narrative podcasts and headquartered in Brooklyn, New York. The company was founded in 2014 by Alex Blumberg and Matthew Lieber, who served as the company's ...

unionizing. Quah opposed Luminary's paywalled business model saying that it "strikes at the ideological heart of the medium." Quah pointed out that a paywalled podcast company will have to be able to beat all the free alternatives in order to do well. Quah covered the plagiarism issues that Crime Junkie ran into. Quah has called the true crime genre the "bloody, beating heart of podcasting." Quah uses multiple podcasting applications but recommends

Pocket Casts Pocket Casts is a podcast streaming service originally launched in 2011 for iOS and Android. The app allows for searching, downloading and subscribing to podcasts and syncs across devices. Pocket Casts was developed by Russell Ivanovic and Ph ...

. Quah is a juror for the

Peabody Awards The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Foster Peabody, George Peabody, honor what are described as the most powerful, enlightening, and in ...

. Quah has written about how being on the Apple Podcast charts is often meaningless. Quah was an Antitrust Writing Award nominee in 2020. Quah was a 2021 Fortune Creator 25. Tom Jones wrote in Poynter that "No one analyzes the ins and outs of the podcast world better" Quah and that "no one rovides reliable coverage on podcastsbetter than Vulture's Nicholas Quah."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Quah, Nicholas 20th-century births Year of birth uncertain Living people 21st-century American journalists New York (magazine) people BuzzFeed people American business and finance podcasters Webby Award winners American mass media scholars