Since 2018, Reuters Institute has tracked monthly podcast use in 20 countries with a well-developed podcast industry. Across these markets, overall usage has grown from just over a quarter of our sample to about a third (34%), but news podcasts have grown more slowly despite a significant increase in supply identified in multiple studies (Newman and Gallo 2019). News jostles for attention with lifestyle and specialist shows, many of which also deal with news-related subjects such as business, technology, and health.
Podcasting may not yet be a mass market medium, but its audience profile is extremely interesting to publishers and to advertisers. Listeners tend to be richer, better educated, and crucially much younger. Younger people in most countries are more likely to say they prefer to listen to news content when compared with older groups – partly because they spend so much time with mobile phones. But people of all ages find podcasts a convenient format when commuting, walking the dog, in the gym, or doing mundane tasks at home such as cleaning.
Overall consumption of news podcasts is highest in the United States (19%), but lower in many European countries such as France (9%) and the United Kingdom (8%). This difference reflects the vibrancy and range of news podcast production and monetisation in the United States, which in turn has driven public awareness and strong consumption. In many European countries, the existence of high-quality output from commercial and public service radio may have made it harder for an independent podcasting sector to gain traction.Different types of news podcasts and country comparisons
In addition to exploring levels of consumption, Reuters asked survey respondents in 12 countries to name the news shows they used most often and coded these responses by publisher, type, and origin country. In categorizing these shows, they extended a typology first developed for Reuter's 2019 report News Podcasts and the Opportunities for Publishers (Newman and Gallo 2019; also in Newman and Gallo 2020), which identified four podcast groups in ascending length order: news round-ups, deep dive podcasts, narrative documentaries, and extended chat.
The United States seems to be replicating a long tradition of outspoken radio talk shows in this on-demand format. This genre is dominated by male hosts, most often from the right (e.g. Ben Shapiro, Dan Bongino), but sometimes from the left (e.g. Rachel Maddow). By contrast news round-ups (e.g. Up First, Apple News Today) and deep dives (e.g. The Daily) tend to have a more neutral tone. Hosting duties are often shared between men and women, but overall, we found these shows to be equally gender-balanced.
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