Podcasting Looks Promising To Reach Younger Demos

While podcasting has been around since the 2001 launch of the iPod, only a few, like Bill Simmons and Adam Carolla, had realized big success with them. In making their pitch to Swisher, Brown and Chief Content Officer Chris Corcoran used the popularity of podcast “Serial” as an example of podcasting’s promise, reports the NY Business Journal.

Earlier this fall, Kornheiser decided to shelve his local radio show in Washington, D.C., in favor of a daily podcast based on how many out-of-market listeners previously were listening to his radio show via an ESPN podcast.

“I’m just trying to adapt to what listeners want in terms of on-demand audio,” Kornheiser said in an interview before his podcast launch. “If you listened to the show, we were being podcast through ESPN and through iTunes, and we had an enormous out-of-market following that was getting us that way.”

Financial arrangements typically are based around revenue sharing. There are no out-of-pocket costs to the talent, and DGital sells the advertising and shares a percentage of the revenue. Currently, company executives say they are seeing revenue in the high seven figures.

“We are very bullish on the podcasting trend,” Corcoran said. “We know audio. We know how to monetize it. We have relationships on the talent side. We have relationships on the brand side.”

Those relationships come from a long career in radio broadcasting. DGital Managing Director David Landau and Brown were former co-CEOs of Dial Global/Westwood One. Corcoran was Dial Global’s executive vice president for content.

“People want things on demand,” Corcoran said. “I really believe that the days of listening to a radio show with commercial breaks are over. I don’t know that people are into that, especially younger audiences.”

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