John L. Sullivan is Professor in the Department of Media and Communication at Muhlenberg College, USA. His research explores the links between media and systems of social and economic power. He has published articles on podcasting production in the United States, focusing on the processes of formalization and monetization of amateur and semi-professional labor. He is the author of Media Audiences, 2nd edition (2020).

1. Introduction: Podcasting in Transition
2. Podcasting as a 21st Century Cultural Industry
3. Institutional Formalization: Mapping a New Cultural Industry
4. Distribution and Exhibition Shifts: The Platformization of Podcasting
5. Professionalism and the Myth of Meritocracy
6. Podcast Production: Fostering Communities of Practice
7. Market Information Regimes in Podcasting: Formalization and Audience Metrics
8. "This Podcast Was Brought to you By...": Advertising and Brands in Podcasting
9. Podcast Conventions and the Entrepreneurial Dream
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Podcasting in a Platform Age explores the transition underway in podcasting by considering how the influx of legacy and new media interest in the medium is injecting professional and corporate logics into what had been largely an amateur media form.

Many of the most high-profile podcasts today, however, are produced by highly-skilled media professionals, some of whom are employees of media corporations. Legacy radio and new media platform giants like Google, Apple, Amazon, and Spotify are also making big (and expensive) moves in the medium by acquiring content producers and hosting platforms. This book focuses on three major aspects of this transformation: formalization, professionalization, and monetization. Through a close read of online and press discourse, analysis of podcasts themselves, participant observations at podcast trade shows and conventions, and interviews with industry professionals and individual podcasters, John Sullivan outlines how the efforts of industry players to transform podcasting into a profitable medium are beginning to challenge the very definition of podcasting itself.