British Podcast Studio Novel Signs ‘The Daily’, ‘Today In Focus’ Execs & Strikes UTA Partnership In Big U.S. Play

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Burgeoning British podcast studio Novel is making a big U.S. play, hiring senior execs from The Daily and Today in Focus, striking a partnership with UTA and opening up conversations over TV and film adaptations.The London-headquartered outfit, which calls itself the “biggest podcast production studio in Europe,” launched six years ago and has created around 41 shows for the likes of the BBC, Spotify and Audible including the award-winning Bellingcat Podcast and The Superhero Complex.

With staff numbers increasing almost tenfold since the pandemic started, Novel is now pivoting focus across the pond and it already makes around half its revenue in the U.S.In comes The Daily Senior Audio Producer Austin Mitchell as Creative Director, Production, while The Guardian’s Today In Focus’ Joint Exec Mythili Rao, who used to work for The New Yorker, will soon join as Managing Editor.A Communications and Marketing Lead, Indira Birnie, has also recently joined from Penguin Random House and another signature hire is expected in the near future, Deadline understands.Novel Founder Sean Glynn described Mitchell as “one of the best narrative podcast producers around” and said he will help the company compete with the biggest podcast-makers in the narrative storytelling space.“We want to make things at the highest possible quality with the budgets we get,” he told Deadline. “This is a real step into the U.S.

to compete with companies that are much bigger than us. The U.S. is where the most exciting things are happening.”UTA DealNovel is forging 11 narrative podcasts over the next three years as part of a deal with iHeartMedia and has also signed similar deals with Wondery and UTA.The latter tie-up could be transformational and