Seven years after its emergence, the podcast sector is seeking by all means to consolidate. If some, like Slate, try the paid option, others choose to work with established groups to sustain their model. This is the case of Louie Media, a native podcast studio (i.e. produced to be broadcast on digital, and not for radio) founded in 2017 by Charlotte Pudlowski and Mélissa Bounoua: the CMI media group France announced in a press release on Wednesday that it had entered the capital of the studio which claims more than 880,000 monthly downloads in France, according to the chiffres de l’ACPM. Owned by Czech energy magnate, Daniel Kretinsky (who carried out, in September, a loan of 14 million euros to Release), CMI thus acquires 47% of the capital of Louie Media. The amount of the transaction was not disclosed.
“Very happy” of this agreement, the studio’s co-founder, Charlotte Pudlowski, explains that Louie Media had been looking for some time “a solid partner” at their side to perpetuate their model, both media and podcast production agency for brands (an activity which represents 70% of the company’s turnover). The meeting with the director of CMI France, Valérie Salomon, through Denis Olivennes (chairman of the supervisory board of CMI France, he is also chairman of the holding company which owns Release), was decisive. “We got along well, and it was important to choose investors that our model interested,” says Charlotte Pudlowski. Especially since, something quite rare in the podcast, the studio with twelve employees is slightly profitable, for a turnover of around 2 million euros in 2021. Last year, Louie Media had also signed a partnership agreement with the audiovisual group Mediawan, granting them priority access for any adaptation of their podcasts into series or documentaries.
On the side of CMI France, the investment in audio made “part of the group’s diversification reflections, in the same way as the acquisition of Usbek and Rica in October, or towards new territories of expansion, such as video or events”, explains Valérie Salomon. Synergies are already planned within the press group: Louie Media would bring its expertise to train and advise CMI titles (Elle, Marianne, TV 7 Days…) who already produce or will produce in the future podcasts. The two entities will also benefit from the pooling of their agencies. The studio with feminist values, which notably produced Or maybe one night, a podcast that will feed the public debate around incest in 2020, could also benefit from greater exposure thanks to CMI magazines. Nothing anecdotal at a time when the podcast is facing a “discoverability” issue: according to a study by the CSA institute for the Paris Podcast Festival in October, 53% of non-podcast listeners do not know or do not know how to listen to it.