Should I Reuse an Old Podcast Feed or Start Fresh?

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What are the pros and cons of using an old podcast feed?

Dear Annie,

I joined a new company about six months ago to lead content, and one of the things I inherited is a podcast that ran for a few years before I got here. From what I can tell, it did reasonably well with a good number of subscribers, though it hasn’t published anything in over a year. The people who made it have since left, and no one currently on the team feels strongly about the show.

Leadership is excited about podcasting again, and I’ve been tasked with launching the show. I’m taking a new approach with the podcast, so there will be a new host, new format, and a new angle on the show.

So here’s my dilemma. Someone on the team suggested we should just carry on with the old feed. We could change the title and artwork, but keep the feed so we don’t lose all those subscribers.

​I don’t want to throw away the audience that’s already there, but I also don’t know if there’s a risk I’m not seeing to using this older feed. And if we do reuse it, what should we do with the old episodes?

​

Signed,

Second-Guessing a Secondhand Show

Have a question? Ask Annie here.

When to use an old feed, and when to start fresh

Dear Second-Guessing,

In general, I think exploring repurposing an old feed is a great idea. Podcast audiences tend to be pretty forgiving when a feed they follow changes, so it’s definitely worth exploring. People are used to shows evolving, rebranding, and switching hosts between seasons.

But being forgiving isn’t the same as being oblivious. Nobody wants to wake up to something they never asked for dropped in their feed (if you had an iPhone in 2014, you may remember the ill-fated U2 album drop). The goal is to make your new show feel like a welcome surprise, not an imposition.

Whether you reuse the feed comes down to a few questions.

1. Is the old show’s target audience the same as your new show’s target audience?

• If yes: Move on to the next step! A feed full of subscribers is only an asset to you if those subscribers are people you’re trying to reach. If the old show was targeting potential customers, and your new show is targeting investors, you might start with a big follower count, but most of them won’t stick around. And worse, they might be really annoyed when your new episodes show up in their feed.

• If no: Launch a new feed. You don’t have to completely abandon the old one– you can still use that feed to promote the new show. Publish a short trailer announcing the new show, or insert short pre-roll ads directing to your new podcast. Even if the audiences aren’t a perfect match, some of those listeners might be interested in what you’re doing now, and this lets you reach them without taking over their feed.

​

2. Does the old show still represent your brand? ​
Before you do anything, listen to the old show. Not a few minutes of one episode, but enough of the catalog that you really understand the show. Does it reflect your company’s current goals and values? Is it something you’d be comfortable having connected to your new show?

• If yes: Keep those old episodes up. They still serve your brand, they remain available for listeners to discover, and they give context for subscribers of the previous show who might be surprised to see new episodes in their feed.

• If no: Archive the old episodes in your hosting platform before you publish anything new. You might not want to delete them outright, so you don’t lose those episodes or metadata permanently. Just know that archiving isn’t always a perfect solution– archived episodes might still surface in a search for the show, especially in the early days before your new show has many episodes out. When you reuse the feed, the new show will always be connected to the old one to some degree. So keep that in mind before you decide to reuse it.

​

3. Is the old show still getting attention? ​
After a year without new episodes, the number of new listens might have dwindled significantly. Look at recent downloads in the last few months, and check for other signs of life: recent reviews, new followers, press coverage, or people still mentioning it online.

• If yes: Consider keeping the old title, or including it as a subtitle. Changing it completely might make it hard for people to find those old episodes, and you’d be giving up whatever recognition the show has earned. (This has happened to me in the past, where I’ve tried to find a podcast that was critically acclaimed and continuously recommended, but a new season had been released and the name of the feed had changed. While that first season was still available, it was really confusing and made it very hard to find the episodes I wanted to listen to!)

• If no: You’re free to retitle and rebrand the feed.

​

Once you’ve gone through all these steps, plan your handover. If you do reuse the feed, especially with a new title and new artwork, consider what your subscribers will experience. When your new trailer drops, it’ll look like a show they don’t remember following. If you’ve archived old episodes, they won’t even have context clues about what the feed used to be.

So don’t just drop the new show into their feed. Introduce it. If the old show was host-driven and you can still reach the original host, it might be worth getting them to record a short handover episode introducing the new show and new host. If that’s not possible, have your new host record a short trailer explaining what’s changing and what listeners can expect.

If you do it right, reusing a feed can give your show a real head start. If done carelessly, you can turn your best potential listeners into unsubscribers. Work through these questions and you’ll figure out which path is right for you.

Good luck,

Annie