LAKEWOOD, Ohio -- Evergreen Podcasts, a company based in Lakewood, has made a business out of telling stories.
The podcasting company, led by CEO Michael DeAloia, publishes its own original series and collaborates with organizations all over the country to help them produce and manage their own podcasts.
And Evergreen is hoping to expand even more, with sights set on becoming a major presence in the booming international podcasting industry.
Evergreen’s independent roots stand out in a scene that’s dominated by major companies, like Radiotopia, Gimlet, iHeartRadio, National Public Radio and American Public Media.
Still, it’s made an impression with popular shows, a range of hosts and guests, and some major program sponsorships.
“We are widely considered to be a key player in the podcast marketplace and really, part of the next generation of really influential networks,” said DeAloia. “We’ve had some significant growth, but a lot of it has been in the last two years with Evergreen.”
Evergreen Podcasts can trace its roots back to the 2000s, when founder Joan Andrews formed a few family-friendly shows. Later, Andrews grouped them under a fledgling network called “The Front Porch People.”
“She was just tired of talk radio,” said Evergreen production director Brigid Coyne. “She came up with the idea of pre-recorded, really well-put together audio storytelling, which is very much what podcasts are now.”
DeAloia, a Cleveland-area business executive, investor and entrepreneur, came onboard as CEO in 2017. The project was rebranded as Evergreen Podcasts in 1018. (Cleveland.com and Plain Dealer readers may remember DeAloia’s name from a freelance business column he wrote from 2014-18.
In its early years, the company had four original podcast programs with 17,800 downloads. Some of the platform’s initial shows, like “Professional Book Nerds” and “Novel Conversations,” earned strong fan bases and continue to run today.
Since then, the network has expanded. In 2020, Evergreen Podcasts oversaw the production of more than 65 shows, which were downloaded more than four million times, DeAloia said.
(Image courtesy Michael DeAloia)
Some of the shows that picked up steam in 2020 included film buff show “Movie Marathoners,” “From First Lady to Jackie O.,” a companion project to author Paul Brandus’ book of the same name, and two HR podcasts: “The Chad & Cheese Podcast” and “Recruiting Future with Matt Alder.”
Recently, Evergreen added a significant new show to its roster: “Five Minute News,” a popular program hosted by Anthony Davis. It also picked up two local sports podcasts, “Cleveland and Beyond” and “The Nail in the Coffin.”
Evergreen Podcasts currently employs 19 people on a full or part-time basis, along with a few dozen contractors, DeAloia said. Producers for partner podcasts have the opportunity to pitch and kick off their own concepts. For example, producer Hannah Leach runs a show called “Sleepover Cinema,” and producer Leah Longbrake runs a show called “Weddings Unveiled.”
“‘Weddings Unveiled’ is the podcast for planning your wedding but if you’re also an enthusiast; if you’re like me and still like to watch ‘Say Yes to the Dress’ even when you’re already married,” Longbrake said.
“Sleepover Cinema,” meanwhile, targets a younger fanbase. Leach also produces “Sleepover Cinema” content on TikTok, where she’s earned more than 27,000 followers.
Evergreen Podcasts stands out in Greater Cleveland, which has seen plenty of podcast creation but many businesses focused solely on the medium.
“How I would describe the podcast scene in Cleveland, would be nascent. It is tiny,” DeAloia said. “There are clearly people doing podcasting in Cleveland, I’m sure hundreds of shows are coming out of the city, I have no doubt about that. Whether it’s coalesced into a marketplace, I would say no. I think we’re one of the only pure podcasting companies in Northeast Ohio.”
“It’s interesting to be here, but nobody really knows we are,” said David Moss, the CCO of Evergreen.
Evergreen Podcasts has captured the attention of major corporations. Last year, Evergreen started working on “Banking Transformed” with Jim Marous -- a show that picked up a sponsorship with Microsoft, according to Longbrake.
Moss said the company aims to network with other local podcast creators and host meetups, once it’s safe to gather again, post-coronavirus pandemic. He also hopes to bring on some more local podcasts focusing on sports and music.
Though Evergreen Podcasts wants to engage its local community, DeAloia said he doesn’t want to be limited by local topics.
“We never wanted to be seen as just a Cleveland podcast company,” he said. “The aspirations were, we wanted to build a national, if not international, podcast network.”
And Evergreen Podcasts is already bullish on that goal. According to DeAloia, the company aims to hit more than 120 shows in the network by the end of 2021, and wants to continue acquiring properties.
“We’ve had significant growth plans,” he said. “We’ve got to figure out how to become a power player in the podcasting arena.”
You can check out all of Evergreen Podcasts’ programs at evergreenpodcasts.com.
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