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This week, Pew Research Center released a report saying that nearly a quarter of Americans (23%) sometimes or often use podcasts as a source for news in 2021.
The percentage of Americans that actually rely on podcasts as a source for news increased by 1% year over year in 2021. Those who don’t use podcasts for news rose from 50% in 2020 to 56% in 2021, according to the report. The data was pulled from more than 20,000 surveyed Americans from August to September 2020 and July to August 2021.
This report is released against the backdrop of the recent Spotify and Joe Rogan controversy, where the The Joe Rogan Experience host faced backlash for spreading Covid-19 misinformation in some episodes. Regardless of the content, so far advertisers show no sign of pulling ads from the series.
Despite few people tuning into the medium for its news content, ad revenue is expected to grow. In a report from ad trade body Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), U.S. podcast ad revenue is expected to reach $2 billion by 2023. “Brands are continuing to shift to podcasting simply because it works: When they run an ad, the cash register rings,” IAB Media Center’s vice president Eric John said in a statement.
Pew’s research also shows the audience between ages 18 and 19 represents a third of Americans who sometimes use podcasts for news. This is a glimmer of hope for news publishers seeking younger audiences and continuing to produce news-related podcasts. The New York Times daily podcast The Daily—with nearly 2 million listeners weekly—spurred a flurry of news podcast imitators when it launched in 2017. For The Daily, 39% of its audience are between ages 25 and 54, according to radio company American Public Media.
But it’s not only podcasting that is attracting fewer news-hungry audiences.
Twitter and YouTube saw between a 1% and 2% decrease in users who regularly go on the site for news year over year in 2021. Facebook saw the largest drop in regular use from 36% in 2020 to 31% in 2021, according to Pew.
