TX Group

AI Transforms Podcast Market: Seven Future Theses

MEEDIA reports on insights from an AI Audio Day organized by Articly with media partners, where Wolf Weimer (co‑founder of Articly) summarized seven theses about how AI will reshape the podcast and audio market. Key data points: 63% of 18–49-year-olds listen to podcasts and more than one third use them as a news source, yet only about 2,200 of ~31,000 active German-language podcasts (≈7%) are commercially marketed. The article argues audio will become modular and personalized, trust and human oversight will remain central, local audio markets are under-served, and monetization is the largest open question. Over the next 12 months personalized audio formats should move from experiments to regular operations if publishers build modular content infrastructure and early monetization strategies.

HWZ names joint heads for two CAS

HWZ has appointed Iris Blättler and Ursula Nötzli as joint directors of its continuing-education programmes CAS Corporate Communications with AI and CAS Strategic Communications Management with AI. Nötzli, who previously led both programmes alone, is now a partner at Swiss consultancy Hirzel.Neef.Schmid.Konsulenten after leaving TX Group in 2024. Blättler brings around 20 years' experience in communications, marketing and journalism, having served as Head of Corporate Communications at Goldbach and previously as Nötzli's deputy at TX Group; she left Goldbach in a redundancy and will begin a new role in September. Valerio Stallone of HWZ welcomed Blättler as a complement to the team. Together they plan to advance the curricula with dialog-driven, practical teaching that emphasizes leadership and cautious, human-responsible use of AI (e.g., human review for crises and avoiding confidential data in open tools).

Thomas Koch: Will AI End Media Planning by 2028?

Thomas Koch comments on a Gartner forecast that predicts AI and self‑service advertising platforms will handle over 70% of ad spend by 2028 and could cost three in four media planners their jobs. Koch assesses the implications for large network agencies, independent agencies, advertisers and displaced media professionals, arguing the outcome will be mixed: network agencies may shrink headcount dramatically while independents and in‑house teams can adapt. He positions the change as disruptive but ultimately an opportunity for new consultancies, in‑housing and strategic specialisation rather than an absolute end to media planning.