Data on news podcast listeners

• The average age of CNN viewers is 67, and FOX News viewers are even older, at 69. But the age profile of listeners to news podcasts is similar to the US population average: a younger audience meaning real opportunity for advertisers. That’s one of the findings of The News Podcast Consumer, new data released by Sounds Profitable this week with National Public Media, focusing on the US’s second-most popular podcast genre. It’s a free download.

• The full schedule for Evolutions has been published. The event takes place in Chicago, Mar 31 - Apr 3. Tickets are here - code PODNEWS saves money for selected passes.

• How many Americans are listening to podcasts? And what other digital media are they consuming? The Infinite Dial 2025 from Edison Research will be presented in a free webinar on Thursday Mar 20 at 2pm ET. It’ll be presented by Edison Research Vice President Megan Lazovick, and the editor of Podnews, James Cridland. The annual research is supported this year by Audacy, Cumulus Media, and SiriusXM Media.

• SoundStack, and Triton Digital’s Omny Studio both achieved v2.2 of the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines yesterday.

  • Other Triton Digital platforms (Triton Digital itself, Voxnest and Speaker) remain at v2.1, and have not been recertified in the last three years. The IAB Tech Lab repeatedly tells us that annual recertification is still a requirement.

• iHeart released its latest financial update. Podcast revenue was up 6% to $140mn; radio revenue was down 1.8%, excluding political ads. Chris Peterson of investors DWNLOAD Media suggests that the company’s investment in HowStuffWorks in Sep 2018 was one of the best ever M&A deals in podcasting.

• Audacy has expanded its sales and distribution partnership with CBS. Now, the company will represent CBS’s entertainment and news shows

• In the UK, RAJAR released its MIDAS study for Winter 2024. The data shows consumption of all audio types, and shows a new high in weekly reach for podcasting, which is listened-to by 26% of all British adults. However, podcasts only account for 6% of all audio listening (with radio achieving 65%). Even in the most popular age group for podcasts, people aged 25-34, podcasts only get 11% of all audio time.

  • Total hours listened to podcasts in the UK is 113 million; increasing by 54% in the last four years.

Thank you to Podcastpage and to Steve Stewart for renewing your kind support of Podnews. These people pay for Podnews for everyone - allowing us to ensure that everything we do is available to anyone: no hidden paid-for sections for us. You can join them both over here.

Tips and tricks - with Pod Predictor by Coleman Insights

• Wondering what podcast host to use? Podnews maintains a page showing which podcast host existing podcasters are moving their show to - seems, as ever, that Megaphone and Spotify for Creators are hoovering up all the shows. That said, a lot of shows making their way to Acast, Captivate, and… Substack.

Podcast News - with Memberful

Using Memberful: Thoroughly Considered is a show about entrepreneurship, product design, and the ups and downs of running a small indie business. They’re using Memberful for reliable, recurring revenue.

The Podnews Weekly Review speaks this week to Morten Strunge, the CEO of Podimo, on the company’s one million paid subscribers; and to Jay Nachlis from Coleman Insights, to learn more about Pod Predictor.

What university has multiple listings in the World’s Weirdest Buildings? The University of Technology in Sydney, Australia, and Welcome to the Neighbourhood UTS tells the stories and history of this quirky campus and its neighbourhood.

From Sky News in the UK, Unreliable Witness returns with a special episode following the Ellie Williams case. She was jailed for fabricating evidence about a grooming gang in her home town of Barrow in the UK; but it turns out that she named a real monster, too.

Lost Cells is a new 6-part multilingual series (English, French, and Spanish) that uncovers the misconduct of a Swiss-based stem cell bank, weaving together personal accounts from families across the globe. The families confront broken promises, ethical challenges, and uncertain outcomes, prompting listeners to consider the ethical implications of the pursuit of hope at any cost.

Now on The Workflows Photography Podcast, season 4 has kicked off with a triple whammy of guests. The new season takes discussing workflows in photography businesses to a new level by fine-tuning the discussions on three major areas from the guests. Two areas of a workflow that are working well, and then one area not working well yet, but the photographer is working towards improving.

It Can’t Hurt To Ask has a new season this week - tackling all the stages of menopause. The podcast will be discussing everything from symptoms, relationships, sex and treatment options. From Queensland Health in Australia, it features people with lived experience and menopause experts such as an endocrinologist, a pelvic pain specialist and nutritionist.