Study: News Podcasts Have Stickiness

Daily news podcasts are experiencing the most rapid growth of advertising spend in the podcast market as they dominate podcast charts, reveals a new report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ).

The study, News Podcasts and the Opportunities for Publishers, interviewed around 30 publishers, platforms and producers in five countries (US, UK, Australia, France and Sweden) and looked at trends in the respective and overall podcast markets.

Generally, it found that news podcasts continue to outperform all other podcast categories, despite accounting for a smaller market space. For example, just six per cent of the 770,000 Apple podcasts are categorised as 'news podcasts'. At the same time, news podcasts account for just less than a fifth of the top 250 podcasts in the UK, and more than a third in France.

➤Key Findings:

• News podcasts make up a small proportion (6%) of the 770,000 existing podcasts, as categorised by Apple, but the general appeal and stickiness of news content means that the category punches well above its weight in terms of consumption. 
• News makes up around a fifth (21%) of the most popular episodes in the United States Apple charts. It is a similar picture in other countries, with a third (34%) of the top podcast episodes in France categorised as news, and just under a fifth in Sweden (18%), Australia (18%), and the United Kingdom (16%).
• The category itself is also growing rapidly. The number of new news podcasts globally rose by almost 12,000 between January and October 2019 – an increase of around a third (32%) according to data provided by Chartable. Talk and interview shows are the most popular sub-genre within news, along with one-off narrative series, but daily news has become an increasingly important focus. 
• Some of the most popular daily news podcasts in the United States – such as The Daily from the New York Times – are attracting audiences of millions, while others are struggling in an increasingly competitive market. Elsewhere audiences are more modest but are showing consistent growth. 

The study identified three sub-categories of daily news podcasts:

1. Micro-bulletins, with a length of between 1 and 5 minutes.
2. News round-ups, with a length of between 6 and 15 minutes.
3. Deep-dives, with a length of 20 minutes or more.

Some commercial publishers are already deriving significant revenue from podcasts, especially in the United States. More than half of Slate’s total revenue now comes from podcasts. NPR is expecting to earn $55m from podcasting next year, overtaking radio in terms of sponsorship income.

New platforms are shaking up the podcast market, bringing new ideas and extra investment. Apple still accounts for the majority of podcast use but Spotify has doubled its market share in the last year.