Forgotten: Women of Juarez has been translated into three additional languages under iHeartMedia’s alliance with Podimo, and as the two companies work on which will be their next translation project they are getting some validation. The series about femicides in Juarez, Mexico, has won the "Best Latin American Podcast of the Year" Award at Estación Podcast Festival, the leading podcasting event in Spain and Latin America. It is the first translated podcast to win this award.
Olvidadas: Las Muertas de Juárez is the Spanish adaptation of Forgotten: Women of Juarez, which was investigated in its original version by Mónica Ortiz Uribe and Oz Woloshyn, whose investigations are voiced in Spanish by Mexico City-based investigative journalists Sandra Romandía and Rossana Fuentes Berain. The translated version also introduced new elements, including interviews with families of the victims and statements from journalists and police authorities on both sides of the border.
The podcast was originally produced by iHeartMedia and Unusual Productions and was translated by Podimo. Olvidadas: Las Muertas de Juárez included an introductory episode plus ten additional episodes and two bonus tracks where the hosts talked about the show and the issue of femicide in Latin America.
In addition to Spanish, Forgotten: Women of Juarez has also been translated into German and Danish. It was the first iHeart show to get the global treatment under a partnership announced in 2020 with the European podcast platform Podmino. Other projects are in the works.
“We plan to continue to deepen our translation relationship with iHeart, and we're currently in the process of identifying which of their additional shows we can bring to our listeners in new languages,” said Podimo spokeswoman Brooke Black.
Podimo, founded by ex-Spotify employees, says it has been seeing success with its translations that take shows and introduce them to new markets. Podimo also has a subscription service, which is currently available in Europe and Latin America. Black said they plan to roll out the paid service in more markets this year.
Copenhagen-based Podimo raised $78 million in Series B funding last November to help fund that expansion plan. It spent some of that in March when it struck a deal to buy the Dutch podcast company Dag en Nacht Media. This spring it also announced a two-year strategic collaboration with the Spanish media giant Prisa Media to jointly develop, produce and promote podcasts and other content initiatives aimed at Spain, Latin America and the United States.
Podimo doubled its output of shows last year, and now hosts more than 950 original series. Most are translations of other podcasts and the company says its research shows that an average of 93% of listeners prefer to listen to a podcast in their native language.