The secret’s out, and now every content creator is trying to cash in on the audio on-demand phenomenon. As we will show in Techsurvey12, there is bona fide podcasting growth from last year’s study, making the growth of on-demand audio one of the key findings. As more and more consumers discover a world of exciting content they can access wherever and whenever they like, there will be even more great programming to choose from. It’s happening right before our eyes.
A case in point occurred last week when a Nieman Labs’ email touting a podcasting twofer ended up in my email box. Their lead story talked about how The New York Times is launching its own podcast division (joining The Wall Street Journal and Guardian). Not surprisingly, their head of innovation and strategy is Kinsey Wilson, former head of content at NPR. He’s a guy who combines careers in journalism, broadcast, and digital media – a potent mix. Kinsey didn’t just see podcasting coming – he was an early believer.
The Times has been dabbling in the space. Their Modern Love podcast is a crowd-sourced creation about the pains and joys of love and romance – not exactly the type of effort you’d expect from this venerable newspaper. And that’s the point. This experiment proves the podcast model allows brands to expand their defined content silos, creating exciting new possibilities, opening up revenue generation from non-traditional sources, and increasing the ability to broaden their audience appeal.
Why wouldn’t any established media outlet want to get in on this opportunity? For radio, however, the podcast revolution has been a story of fits and starts. To provide clarity about podcasting for radio, Techsurvey12 will feature extended information about audience podcast desires and usage, right down to determining which categories are most appealing by format – and for stakeholder stations, by their discreet audiences.
We isolated more than 11,000 consumers who listen to podcasts and on-demand audio monthly or more often. Across the entire sample – we learned the most preferred category is podcasts that repurpose previously aired radio shows. That’s not real exciting news, and it struck me in reading the Neiman Labs article that Wilson went out of his way to note that the new division’s podcast efforts will shy away from simply creating podcast versions of New York Times news stories and features:
“I want to make clear that the idea is not to take The New York Times as it is today and simply render an audio version. Modern Love is probably the exception, where we’re able to take the printed word as it was published in the newspaper and create a really engaging listening experience. In most cases, we’re going to have to do things that are creative and original to the medium.”
And that’s the challenge facing radio in the podcasting space. Many stations and shows are simply repurposing content rather than create truly new content. There’s room to do so much more. When you drill down our podcasting preferences into subgroups – generations and format fans – you see on-demand audio in a whole new light. Like Alternative fans.
Among these core fans of bands like X Ambassadors and Foo Fighters, for example, there’s considerable interest in podcasts that have nothing to do with music , like comedy, TV, film, and pop culture, and even news events and politics. Note how these topics trump music themes, strongly suggesting that format audiences are far from myopic, looking for content that goes beyond recapping concert festivals or showcasing local bands:
Kinsey Wilson also noted something we’ve been saying for some time – The Times has incredible talent that is capable of coming up with ideas that go well beyond what we’re accustomed to reading on the printed page or at nytimes.com.
And so it is in the radio business where content ideas must go well beyond the typical confines. The magic is in creating podcasts that are innovative, different, and a step beyond what listeners are used to hearing on their favorite Classic Rock or Sports Radio station.
And as Wilson is challenging his journalistic colleagues to step up and bring big new ideas to the table, so should his counterparts in the radio broadcast industry. For The Times staff, there will be a learning curve because creating great podcasts out of the box isn’t something that is simple to intuit for staffers who have excelled in the printed word.
For radio professionals, however, podcasting is a first cousin to a skill set they’ve been practicing and honing their entire careers. A key difference is how traditional radio limitations – time, topic, regularity, PPM-friendly content, and commercial load – are suspended or even non-existent. For those who have complained about radio’s restrictiveness, a lack of risk-taking, and top-down dictates, podcasting provides a means of creating audio that combines professional experience with the excitement of experimentation. And by the way, ratings be damned.
The range of podcasting potential is unlimited. In the same Nieman Labs update, NPR announced a new podcast of its own, Embedded. Featuring the talented journalist Kelly McEvers, this effort takes listeners on a deeper dive behind-the-scenes, offering a perspective on news stories that simply isn’t available from traditional news media outlets.
Why was it so important for her to expand her role at NPR into the podcast space? As McEvers told Neiman Labs’ Shan Wang, “I wanted to figure out how doing a podcast could make me sound better on the radio, and how doing radio could make me sound better on a podcast.”
Podcasting isn’t just a burgeoning audio content category that’s this year’s digital fad. It is a chance to expand – a career, a role, a revenue base, and an audience.
And as McEvers so clearly pointed out in this story:
“If you’ve been working in audio in the last couple of years and you don’t want to start a podcast, you’re kind of crazy!”
Next week, Seth Resler will moderate an exciting session at the Worldwide Radio Conference: “Broadcasters Meet Podcasters – How Radio Stations Can Enter the Mobile World of On-Demand Audio.” It features Panoply’s Andy Bowers, WNYC’s Dean Cappello, Audible’s Eric Nuzum, Libsyn’s Rob Walch, and Blubrry’s Todd Cochrane. They don’t get better than this. Registration info for WWRS16 is here.
Jacobs Media has consistently walked the walk in the digital space, providing insights and guidance through its well-read national Techsurveys.
In 2008, jacapps was launched - a mobile apps company that has designed and built more than 1,300 apps for both the Apple and Android platforms. In 2013, the DASH Conference was created - a mashup of radio and automotive, designed to foster better understanding of the "connected car" and its impact.
Along with providing the creative and intellectual direction for the company, Fred consults many of Jacobs Media's commercial and public radio clients, in addition to media brands looking to thrive in the rapidly changing tech environment.
Fred was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 2018.
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Podcast Radio a Go Go. Sounds like: Great content, presented early and often. Why not fit into the ol’ full-service radio model; fresh, familiar and out of the box? Thank you, Fred. Hope they listen. Clark http://www.broadcastideas.com
Much appreciated, Clark.
Hey Fred, another great blog about an art form that still mystifies our industry. I wanted to let you know that there are some of us radio talent who have indeed embraced the podcasting idea. Our KISW morning show generates at least four different & non “repurposed material” podcasts. My partner, Steve Migs has his local award winning “Mig’s Cast” which goes deep on local music and wrestling. We are about to enter the 5th year of the “BJ Shea’s Geek Nation” podcast. Available on ITunes and the KISW website…It’s simply a morning show for geeks with all unique content, released in four 30-minute episodes per week. It’s supported by a web page with written and video content at http://www.bjgeeknation.com and encourages and features the listeners as a part of the show (truly engaging the geek nation).
Frankly, distribution and promotion have been our problem. We are content creators, and sales & distribution are not our strengths. Through word-of-mouth, and with no financial commitment we have over 6000 FB fans. A nice achievement, but also a drop in the proverbial podcast bucket.
Chris Hardwick and Wil Wheaton have proven the “creative obsessive” (aka geeks) market is a viable one, and yet, we haven’t been able to tap into that en masse. Still, we continue to plug away, because, as content creators, that’s all we know how and love to do. We have ownership of these podcasts, so if anyone needs content, we have it, it’s just in our experience, podcast content doesn’t seem to be enough to attract any serious boardroom attention.
As many of you know, B.J. is one of Seattle radio’s best personalities, doing mornings with his team at KISW. I knew when I wrote the blog that I would be hearing from a number of people who have done it, who are doing it, and who are doing a good job. I think you outline the other aspect of the challenge to radio, and that’s monetization. For NPR and the New York Times, there will be sponsors. To penetrate sales marketers on the local level is a tougher putt. As we know, it’s difficult enough selling 30s and 60s these days. I believe strongly that if you build an audience, sales will indeed come. It’s just usually the last piece to fall into place. Thanks for your hard work and for reading our blog.
Companies are still wrestling to find the right business model, but in the meantime there’s nothing bad about a whole lot of great new content out there that people can access in their own time and on their own terms. To this later point, we plead guilty at http://www.CollisionsMedia.com.
Jim, I agree. We have to make it first. Then we’ll figure out how to make money. Appreciate your comment and glad you’ve jumped in the pool
Content innovation is simply not a priority today in broadcast radio. That’s bad news for employees of the medium as audience and revenue migrate online, away from broadcast. But each year as broadcast radio sheds audience, revenue and employees, the good news is much of the content innovation taking place online is coming from former broadcast radio employees. Look at the people running radio at Apple, Google, Amazon, Pandora, Spotify, etc. For those still employed in broadcast radio the lesson is… if your company isn’t innovating (& winning) in the online content space, you should be. You don’t need a $200m FM license in NYC to build a brand on the Internet. Gordon Borrell isn’t often wrong. But let’s stay he’s off by 25%, that still means many thousands of AM/FM radio jobs will be lost over the next few years as the unwinding ramps up. The people running AM/FM have other priorities – which is very good news for radio content innovation. “Innovation Never Comes From The Established Institutions” – Chairman Google, Eric Schmidt
Paul, thanks for the comment. Broadcasters could be more active in the podcasting space, and that was the impetus for the post. Many are already engaged in podcasting, even though monetization is lagging behind. I don’t buy the Eric Schmidt premise, by the way. Podcasting is the kind of disruption that broadcasters can participate in. And while several broadcasters have left for green on-demand pastures, many are staying around, managing the revolution from within. Let’s see what happens.
You’re doing the radio industry an important service keeping in front of broadcasters the topic of the Internet so thank you for that, Fred. I don’t take Eric’s quote verbatim, but the basic gist of it is correct. While “never” is too broad, the hard truth is little innovation among broadcasters has happened/succeeded in the online space evidenced by failure to build a meaningful audience.* Song-skips, the infinite-dial & personalization are now attributes Millennials expect from radio which FM is technically incapable of offering. How broadcasters could misunderstand the awesome power of those three powerful specialities and how damaging they are to FM is astounding. There’s another quote that Eric Schmidt said which you I’m sure you know w/your success w/JacApps that broadcasters better figure out fast (and the answer isn’t NextRadio which can’t do those three things that listeners love) ” “If you don’t have a mobile strategy, you don’t have a future strategy”
https://www.tritondigital.com/press-releases/triton-digital-releases-january-2016-top-20-ranker
I appreciate the kind words, Paul. I see a number of commercial broadcasters getting more aggressive in the podcast space, from Hubbard to Scripps to CBS, not to mention many station-level efforts. Is it enough? Of course not, and that’s my hope for getting more activity going in an area that has huge upside potential. We shall see.
This is the Gordon Borrell forecast I mentioned: https://goo.gl/CIvdaU
Borrell forecast by 2024!!! He sure isn’t looking to upset anyone’s applecart.