Yes, you’ve heard this prediction before. And you’re right, podcasting is not new; it’s been around for well over a decade. But, in 2016, with a slew of political podcasts because of the presidential election, news organizations realized the potential for podcasting as a primary news source. They realized there’s an appetite for audio news on-demand that caters to a younger audience (think 35 and under).
For years, newsy podcasting has mostly been limited to (1) news organizations that are native to audio — think NPR and WNYC; and (2) news organizations that jumped into the market early — think Slate.
In 2017, we’ll see more traditional news organizations, like The New York Times, invest in audio because they see a growth market — a potential to reach thousands of eager young ears. Will legacy media organizations be able to use podcasts to drive younger news consumers back to their work on the radio, online, or in print? We don’t know yet — that will be their challenge.
Nonetheless, I predict we’ll see more news-oriented podcasts from traditional outlets, regardless of their fluency with audio. In other words, the sense of a gold rush that’s permeated the podcasting market since Serial will only swell larger, with startup shows, professional media organizations, and one-hit wonders all flooding iTunes and other podcast platforms. In the long run, many will die; the true barometer of success will likely be the quality of the product. And, in my mind, this is twofold: (1) quality audio production that’s easy and comfortable to listen to, and (2) charismatic hosts with dynamic personalities and diverse perspectives.
Podcasting is sometimes dismissed as nothing more than radio in your ears, on your own schedule, but I beg to differ. It’s far more intimate than traditional radio. And news organizations that realize the power of this intimacy will likely have an advantage in the long run.
I was part of the NPR Politics podcast team this past year; through an ensemble cast, we brought listeners weekly campaign news with a sense of our real personalities. And as a result, listeners were loyal. They felt like we were their friends. And they regularly gave us feedback, far more than we ever receive on traditional radio.
In a crowded marketplace, maybe that’s what young people want — reliable news with a trustworthy perspective. They’re not looking for omniscient objectivity, but trusted, truthful perspectives.
Asma Khalid is a reporter for NPR.
Matt Waite The people running the media are the problem
Matt Karolian AI improves publishing
Robert Hernandez History will exclude you, again
Corey Ford The year of the rebelpreneur
Dan Colarusso Let’s make live video we can love
Tim Herrera The safe space of service journalism
Dannagal G. Young The return of the gatekeepers
Carla Zanoni Prioritizing emotional health
Mario García Virtual reality on mobile leaps forward
Sarah Wolozin Virtual reality on the open web
Rubina Madan Fillion Snapchat grows up
Jon Slade Trusted news, at a premium
Olivia Ma The year collaboration beats competition
Joanne Lipman The year of the drone, really
Ståle Grut The battle for high-quality VR
Bill Keller A healthy skepticism about data
Nicholas Quah Podcasting’s coming class war
Jim Friedlich A banner year for venture philanthropy
Bill Adair The year of the fact-checking bot
Sara M. Watson There is no neutral interface
Dhiya Kuriakose The year of digital detoxing
Kawandeep Virdee Moving deeper than the machine of clicks
Nathalie Malinarich Making it easy
Michael Kuntz Trust is the new click
Errin Haines Chaos or community?
Elizabeth Jensen Trust depends on the details
Erin Pettigrew A year of reflection in tech
Sydette Harry Facing journalism’s history
Zizi Papacharissi Distracted journalism looks in the mirror
Lee Glendinning A call for great editing
Liz McMillen The year of deep insights
Mira Lowe News literacy, bias, and “Hamilton”
Katie Zhu The year of minority media
Aja Bogdanoff Comments start pulling their weight
An Xiao Mina 2017 is for the attention innovators
Ray Soto VR moves from experiments to immersion
Cory Haik Navigating power in Trump’s America
Alexis Lloyd Public trust for private realities
Lam Thuy Vo The primary source in the age of mechanical multiplication
Andrew Losowsky Building our own communities
Erin Millar The bottom falls out of Canadian media
Helen Havlak Chasing mobile search results
Ryan McCarthy Platforms grow up or grow more toxic
Megan H. Chan Cultural reporting goes mainstream
Millie Tran International expansion without colonial overtones
Eric Nuzum Podcasting stratifies into hard layers
Tressie McMillan Cottom A path through the media’s coming legitimacy crisis
M. Scott Havens Quality advertising to pair with quality content
Jeremy Barr A terrible year for Tiers B through D
Keren Goldshlager Defining a focus, and then saying no
David Chavern Fake news gets solved
Burt Herman Local news gets interesting
Mary Meehan Feeling blue in a red state
Juliette De Maeyer and Dominique Trudel A rebirth of populist journalism
Steve Henn The next revolution is voice
Jonathan Hunt Measurement companies get with the times
Ole Reißmann Un-faking the news
Libby Bawcombe Kids board the podcast train
Nushin Rashidian A rise in high-price, high-value subscriptions
Ashley C. Woods Local journalism will fight a new fight
Ariane Bernard Better data about your users
Richard Tofel The country doesn’t trust us — but they do believe us
Melody Kramer Radically rethinking design
Asma Khalid The year of the newsy podcast
Julia Beizer Building a coherent core identity
Laura Walker Authentic voices, not fake news
Claire Wardle Verification takes center stage
Caitlin Thompson High touch, high value
Javaun Moradi What can we own?
Andy Rossback The year of the user
Scott Dodd Nonprofits team up for impact
Andrew Haeg The year of listening
Emily Goligoski Incorporating audience feedback at scale
Doris Truong Connecting with diverse perspectives
Ken Schwencke Disaggregation and collection
Reyhan Harmanci Bear witness — but then what?
David Weigel A test for online speech
Molly de Aguiar Philanthropists galvanize around news
Amy Webb Journalism as a service
Emi Kolawole From empathy to community
Renée Kaplan Pure reach has reached its limit
Michael Oreskes Reversing the erosion of democracy
Geetika Rudra Journalism is community
Peter Sterne A dangerous anti-press mix
Priya Ganapati Mobile websites are ready for reinvention
Jonathan Stray A boom in responsible conservative media
Taylor Lorenz “Selfie journalism” becomes a thing
Gabriel Snyder The aberration of 20th-century journalism
Rachel Schallom Stop flying over the flyover states
Rachel Sklar Women are going to get loud
P. Kim Bui The year journalism teaches again
Rebekah Monson Journalism is community-as-a-service
Anita Zielina The sales funnel reaches (and changes) the newsroom
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen News after advertising may look like news before advertising
Guy Raz Inspiration and hope will matter more than ever
Mathew Ingram The Faustian Facebook dance continues
Andrea Silenzi Podcasts dive into breaking news analysis
Christopher Meighan Unlocking a deeper mobile experience
Mary Walter-Brown Getting comfortable asking for money
Vivian Schiller Tested like never before
Moreno Cruz Osório The year of transparency in Brazilian journalism
Margarita Noriega From pinning tweets to tweeting pins
Sue Schardt Objectivity, fairness, balance, and love
Alberto Cairo Communicating uncertainty to our readers
Maria Bustillos “It’s true — I saw it on Facebook”
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Earn trust by working for (and with) readers
Cindy Royal Preparing the digital educator-scholar hybrid
Carrie Brown-Smith We won’t do enough
Sam Ford The year we talk about our awful metrics
Kathleen Kingsbury Print as a premium offering
Juan Luis Sánchez Your predictions are our present
Mandy Velez The audience is the source and the story
Almar Latour Thanks, #fakenews
Liz Danzico The triumph of the small
Pablo Boczkowski Fake news and the future of journalism
Alice Antheaume A new test for French media
Mike Ragsdale A smarter information diet
S.P. Sullivan Baking transparency into our routines
Annemarie Dooling UGC as a path out of the bubble
Amy O'Leary Not just covering communities, reaching them
Francesco Marconi The year of augmented writing
Tanya Cordrey The resurgence of reach
Dan Gillmor Fix the demand side of news too
Valérie Bélair-Gagnon Truthiness in private spaces
Hillary Frey Forests need to burn to regrow
Tim Griggs The year we stop taking sides
Andrew Ramsammy Rise of the rebel journalist
Tracie Powell Building reader relationships
Samantha Barry Messaging apps go mainstream
David Skok What lies beyond paywalls
Umbreen Bhatti A sense of journalists’ humanity