Podcasts Fuel NPR’s Financial Growth

National Public Radio is projecting that podcast sponsorship revenues will surpass revenues from broadcast sponsorships next year for the first time, reports The Current.

During NPR’s membership meeting Sept. 5, Chief Financial Officer Deborah Cowan told public radio station leaders that the network has budgeted about $55 million in corporate sponsorship revenues from podcasts in fiscal year 2020.

That’s about $5 million more than the roughly $50 million total that NPR projects to bring in from podcast sponsorship by the end of FY19, which runs through this month, Cowan said.

Podcasts have been a “huge return on investment for us and a major growth engine for our business,” Cowan said.

Podcast sponsorship revenues are helping to fund initiatives throughout NPR, said outgoing CEO Jarl Mohn during the meeting. It “pays for the international bureaus, for the increased election coverage, for all the special content in the news magazines and so forth,” he said.

“The bulk of the revenue from podcasts is plowed back into the news department and the news magazines,” he said.

Total sponsorship revenues are projected to reach $114.5 million in FY20, according to financial reports prepared for last week’s NPR board meeting. If NPR meets its sponsorship projection for FY20, it will nearly double the total sponsorship revenue the network earned three years ago.