Jason Hoch, a podcast producer and entrepreneur, looked on while the “True Blood” actor Joe Manganiello compared his colleagues to dog treats.
Manganiello was on a stage at the sleek Moody Theater in downtown Austin last month, presenting the award for best ensemble at the iHeartPodcast Awards. For reasons that never became clear, he was carrying an apprehensive-looking Chihuahua named Bubbles, who, according to Manganiello, has a taste for blueberries and focaccia.
“Whether we’re talking about treats or podcast hosts, one or two is fine,” Manganiello said. “But when a group works well together, results can multiply into something inspiring.”
As tributes go, it wasn’t exactly Sonnet 18. But Hoch was feeling the love. One of his shows, a true-crime investigation called “Three,” was nominated in two categories: best crime and podcast of the year. Hoch, who lives in Atlanta, had paid out of pocket to be in town for the awards, which the owner, iHeartMedia, calls a celebration of “the most innovative and influential voices and creators in podcasting.” For a sole proprietor like him, it was a rare chance to be toasted in front of his peers, and to shake hands with potential business partners.
The iHearts were just one competition on Hoch’s calendar. Over the past year, he and his producing partners had submitted work to seven different awards juries. Hoch estimates his annual budget for awards, each of which charges per category entered, to be between $2,000 and $3,000 before any travel and lodging expenses (the Austin trip alone was about $1,200 in cash and travel points). That sum is roughly enough to pay for up to 15 hours at a podcast recording studio, or to hire a designer to make the cover art for a new series.
As the number of new podcasts created each year continues to skyrocket, with competition for listeners, sponsorships and in-app promotion growing ever more fierce, many podcasters see winning awards as a way to stand out. A new crop of competitions — including the iHearts, the Ambie Awards and the Signal Awards — is catering specifically to the industry, with some rolling out red carpets and dispensing gold statues for a price.
But how much should it cost to compete for bragging rights in the podcast world? And, for independent creators, is the potential payoff worth the expense?
“If you want to grow your brand, you’ve got to do these things and participate,” Hoch said. “But it’s tricky. Are we all here celebrating? Or are they trying to make money?”
The iHeart Podcast Awards, first produced in 2019, the Ambie Awards (2021) and the Signal Awards (2023) are attempting to be to podcasting what the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards are to film and music. Until recently, many in the industry sought to raise their profile through competitions known for honoring work in other media, including the Peabody Awards, the Pulitzer Prizes, the Edward R. Murrow Awards, the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia Awards, the Webby Awards and the National Magazine awards.
Audrey Mardavich, executive director of the nonprofit podcast network Radiotopia, said those sorts of accolades have helped attract interest from financial backers. In 2023, the Radiotopia show “Ear Hustle,” a prison documentary series that had won a duPont-Columbia award and was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2020, received a $600,000 Mellon Foundation grant.
“When we are talking to funders, when we are taking to major donors, when we’re talking with our board, those kinds of awards can be really meaningful,” she said. “Every deck that I send out has a list of our awards on it.”
But the halo of an award can come at a high price. In addition to submission fees, which can run up to $500 per category, many groups sell tickets to the ceremony — as much as $1,500 each. And while winners are usually granted a trophy (one per category; additional statues can cost anywhere from $250 to $1,350 each), some organizations charge for the hardware too. Add in travel costs, and creators or publishers can easily find themselves down several thousand dollars.
After his podcast, “The Big Dig,” won a Peabody award last year, Ian Coss led a crowdfunding campaign to help one of his producers buy a $1,500 ticket to the gala in Beverly Hills.
“Awards are a business,” said Coss, who felt it was worth the expense to share a memorable experience with his team. “As long as there is a desire for recognition, there will be a market that supplies that recognition.”
Hoch sees awards as a way to feed new business development. His company, Wavland Media, founded in 2023, has cultivated a reputation for highly produced, gripping narrative series. One of Hoch’s shows, “Noble,” about a scandal at a crematory, was named one of the 10 best podcasts of 2024 by The New Yorker. Another, “Boomtown,” became the basis of the hit Paramount+ show “Landman,” starring Billy Bob Thornton. “When you’re known for quality work, you get to work with quality people,” Hoch said. “A bunch of our shows last year made some kind of ‘Best Of’ list, and I’m getting pitched the best material of my life.”
Although the pedigree of a Pulitzer or a Peabody is well established, the reputational value of the newer awards is less clear. Some contestants wonder if they’re getting a fair deal.
After his show, “Weight For It,” received positive write-ups in The New York Times and Vogue, Ronald Young Jr., an independent podcaster based in Virginia, allocated $2,000 for an awards budget last year. He submitted in three categories for the Signal Awards — which says it honors “the most potent, meaningful and unprecedented audio projects being made today” — at a total cost of $885.
“I thought it might be good to have another stamp of approval on the show,” said Young Jr., noting that the press reviews had helped him secure a presenting sponsor for the second season. “It seemed like an opportunity.”
“Weight For It” ultimately won prizes in all of its categories. But Young Jr. was disappointed to learn that there would be no formal ceremony — only a reception in New York for winners. Additionally, if he wanted any of the trophies he would have to pay for them — at $250 each.
“Actually winning felt like a penalty for us,” said Young Jr., who declined to attend the reception or buy his trophies. “It felt like a money grab. I do not understand why I have to pay for an award that I won.”
Jemma Brown, the general manager of the Signal Awards, declined to answer questions about why the organization charges winners for trophies, or how it spends the money it collects from their sale or submission fees. Given 2,000 total entries (roughly the number that were submitted in 2023, according to the Hollywood Reporter) and the standard fee of $265 per entry, submission revenue alone would be $530,000. A search on LinkedIn showed only two full-time employees at Signal: Brown and a customer service lead. Judges work on a volunteer basis. Last year, the winners reception was held in the atrium at Public Records in Brooklyn, a venue that charges between $10,000 and $44,000 for comparable events.
In an email, Brown said that the Signal Awards served as “a motivator for podcast creators and their teams,” among other functions.
“It’s a marker of a podcast’s merit, and that ultimately often results in helping them grow,” she wrote.
One source of skepticism toward the new awards organizations is a lack of clarity about their judging processes. The Signal Awards are voted on by a “judges academy” of hundreds of professionals selected from across the industry. All judges are allowed to vote in any of nearly 200 categories, but it is unclear how many actually participate in the process.
Winners are ranked using an unorthodox, three-tiered system. Entrants can be declared either “Gold,” “Silver” or “Bronze.” But the colors don’t correspond to traditional first, second and third rankings. Instead, they are more like grades, indicating a level of achievement. Last year, for example, there were a total of nine winners in a “Best Host” category: four gold, three silver and two bronze.
Brown declined to discuss the Signal’s ranking system. But the high volume of awards it produces — there were more than 360 winners last year — creates many potential customers for Signal trophies.
“It’s lovely to win,” said Mardavich, who represents several podcasts that have received Signal Awards. “But I think the ones that are more selective might be more meaningful to people.”
Selection for the Ambie Awards, which are produced by the nonprofit Podcast Academy, a professional membership organization, is relatively straightforward. A “Blue Ribbon Panel” of about 140 academy members selects up to 10 nominees in each of 28 categories (this year, there were more than 1,500 applicants). Voting then opens to the entire academy (fewer than 1,000 members) to determine the winners — one per category.
Submission fees for the Ambies range from $150 to $250 per category. Christy Mirabal, the chair of the Podcast Academy, said the vast majority of that revenue goes to the production of the annual awards show, which took place late last month in Chicago during an industry conference and was hosted by the comedian and podcaster Tig Notaro.
The iHeartPodcast Awards competition doesn’t accept submissions, sell tickets or charge winners for trophies. But its judging process is the most opaque. The official website credits only “a panel of blue-ribbon podcast industry leaders, creatives and visionaries.” It does not specify the size of the panel, indicate how nominees are selected or evaluated, or explain eligibility requirements.
There are also questions about iHeartMedia’s ability to serve as an impartial arbiter, as it either produces or distributes hundreds of its own podcasts. A spokeswoman for the company declined to answer a list of detailed questions about its rules. But in each of the past six ceremonies, at least one and as many as three iHeartMedia-affiliated podcasts have been nominated in the podcast of the year category. (This year, one such podcast, “Las Culturistas,” took home the prize.)
At the ceremony in Austin, Hoch ultimately left empty-handed. But he said he had no regrets. On Instagram the next morning, he posted a photo of himself looking unbothered on the red carpet.
“It’s really about being here,” he said, before catching a flight back to Atlanta. “I’m just grateful to have been nominated.”
Reggie Ugwu is a Times culture reporter.
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