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Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

npr.org

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Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#41

Post by cgag »

eigen-vector wrote: post #15

I'm so glad to see the team behind Pocket Casts find success. It's one app I've never been disappointed with and supported right from the beginning. The paramount quality of a good app is how easily it gets out of the way and lets you enjoy the content. Pocket Casts has done a spectacular job at that.

When I recommend it to people I always describe it as "the only good app".

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#43

Post by extra88 »

peterjlee wrote: post #19
zsgoldberg wrote: post #7

Love Pocketcasts. Though I hope this mean they'll need to make the web app accessible

Have you tried https://play.pocketcasts.com/ ?

The text fields on the sign-up form [0] are unlabeled, the submit button ("Register") doesn't visually show keyboard focus, and almost nothing has sufficient color contrast; that doesn't bode well for the actual player's accessibility. Also, the element has a completely unnecessary role="form" ARIA attribute which suggests accessibility has crossed someone's mind but also that it's likely errors of consequence have been or will be made.

[0] https://play.pocketcasts.com/users/sign_up

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#44

Post by rhacker »

disillusioned wrote: post #38
izacus wrote: post #22

And now they'll "adjust business strategy" and make it a bloated Ad ridden pile of crap most likely. These aquisitions never end well.

Are you... not familiar with NPR? It's a non-profit public radio entity. It's some of the least-ad-ridden content available on the planet and a tremendous resource.

This is what I was thinking - I was trying to stretch my imagination to see how NPR would do this and couldn't.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#45

Post by robinhood »

I think I've tested all the major podcasts app out there, paid for their subscriptions etc... The one that was clearly over the others has always been Pocket Casts. I'm also a subscriber of https://play.pocketcasts.com, their web platform. I just love them. I'm really happy that they've made the money they deserve (or I hope they did anyway).

That being said, I don't feel confident at all that NPR will now respect my privacy as much as Pocket Cast, the company. I'm really scared that NPR will change the app like all those media companies do when they acquire something good - that is transforming the tool into an ad machine, or at the minimum something to track users.

Despite the blog post where they announce that nothing will change, I hope Pocket cast's team will continue their good work and resist the pressure of a media company.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#46

Post by hrktb »

roywiggins wrote: post #37
izacus wrote: post #22

And now they'll "adjust business strategy" and make it a bloated Ad ridden pile of crap most likely. These aquisitions never end well.

NPR's own One app isn't a bloated ad-ridden pile of crap, why would they take PocketCasts in that direction?

Agree the fear of ad is unwarranted. Now isn’t NPR’s app pretty heavy on user tracking and is also used to A/B test contents and formats ?

I love NPR’s content, yet I am still worried about my favorite posdcast app getting aquired. I guess there will still be overcast if it goes down badly, but that would be a shame.

Re: Pocket Casts acquired by NPR

#49

Post by matthewmcg »

amasad wrote: post #42

How does M&As work for non-profit? Like, obviously from this, a non-profit can acquire a for-profit but can a for-profit acquire a non-profit?

It's unusual because a non-profit doesn't really have an owner (stockholders). But it is still a corporation and many states in the U.S. (non-profit and for profit corporations are created under state law) allow a non-profit corporation merge with a for-profit entity. The transaction is treated like the non-profit sold its assets to the for-profit buyer and then wound down by donating the proceeds to other non-profits.
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