YouTube Announces Creator Partnerships, Barometer x AdsWizz, & More

Author

Gavin Gaddis
March 24th, 2026

by Gavin Gaddis

Spangler’s source says this Monday 15 employees were laid off in Spotify’s podcasting sector, mostly from The Ringer and Spotify Studios. The Ringer's New York-focused sports podcast New York, New York With John Jastremski is also reportedly being canceled. I’d like to remind readers looking to hire (or be hired) that the Sounds Profitable job board is free for all to use. The board is updated daily with both submitted positions and positions we find out in the wild. 

SiriusXM Media and AdsWizz have expanded their partnership with Barometer. With the new arrangement, Barometer’s brand suitability tech will deliver episode-level brand suitability targeting across the SiriusXM Podcast Network. The partnership aims to measure audio with nuance, as spoken-word content behaves differently than plain text. Keyword-based blocking tools designed for text often misinterpret nuance and context in conversations. Barometer's technology evaluates tone, sentiment, and contextual intent in long-form conversations. The new integration provides episode-level evaluation within AdsWizz and connected demand-side platforms, with suitability signals available throughout AdsWizz’s product suite (including AudioServe, AudioMatic, and AudioMax). 

Just in time for IAB NewFronts, YouTube has released a Gemini-powered suite of tools called Creator Partnerships. The suite aims to help brands easily find the right creators to work with, as well as automate parts of the collaboration process (e.g., matching and campaign management). Five influencer marketing experts tell Digiday they believe Creator Partnerships will particularly benefit low-to-mid-funnel creators aiming to grow business and reach. For more on the business of content creation at this week’s NewFronts, here’s a post from Axios reporter Kerry Flynn. 

Recent industry shifts have prompted several established podcasters to either pivot or exit the space. The Try Guys, a group of YouTubers that have produced content together since going independent in 2018, retired their podcasts The TryPod and You Can Sit With Us in November 2025. This decision reflected, in part, the strain of producing video podcasts alongside their existing YouTube content. The Barstool Sports show KFC Radio ended in December 2025, with host Kevin Clancy telling Deighton competition has gotten more intense as podcasting has grown mainstream. Where several years ago KFC Radio could book an A-list actor to promote a movie, now that actor’s publicist can send them to a celebrity-hosted podcast with a bigger audience. Then there are cases like Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton, who ended Celebrity Memoir Book Club in August 2025 after five years of production. This decision was motivated by a desire to discuss general pop culture news outside the original podcast's framework of exclusively discussing celebrity biographies.

…as for the rest of the news: