NPR Expects To More Than Double Podcast Revenue

Thanks to monster hits like Serial and This American Life, podcasting has had a bit of a renaissance in the past year, and it's also fueling National Public Radio's digital revenue, reports AdWeek.

Over the past year, NPR says it has more than doubled its podcast revenue, and the public media icon expects to see equally robust growth in 2016.

Meanwhile, it's been adding new shows like Code Switch—a program about race and identity that built a following through radio, blogs and social before becoming a podcast.

Similarly, NPR science correspondent Shankar Vedantam parlayed the popularity of his "Hidden Brain" social science news segments into a podcast of the same name, which launched in September. The science and storytelling podcast Invisibilia, launched in early 2015, is about to return for a second season.

In terms of advertisers, big-name brands like Wells Fargo and smaller names like Squarespace are buying into audio-based programming.

"We'll probably more than double this year, and, the year before, it tripled year-over-year, so we've been seeing really great growth over the past three or four years in podcasting. Just looking back, I think we're 10 times where we were three years ago," said Bryan Moffett, general manager of National Public Media, NPR's corporate underwriting division.

Still, Moffett thinks the real growth hasn't happened yet for the category.

"The growth has been great, and the evolution has been steady for the past 10 years, but I'm preparing for the hockey stick right now," he said.

Part of that is because brands are still figuring out what works, and trade organizations such as the Interactive Advertising Bureau are creating standards for publishers and advertisers.