Eric Nuzum | Nieman Journalism Lab

Articles by Eric Nuzum

Eric Nuzum is senior vice president for original content development at Audible.

This election year, don’t forget there’s more than one story

“A general audience is not looking for more news about war. They are looking for an emotional and intellectual break from things like war.”

A focus on people instead of power

“In their view, besides tragedy and crime, all current local news media does is tell the stories of people in power, not about people like them nor stories that directly (or clearly) impact their lives.”

Legacy news orgs dump their podcast strategies

“Remember all those pivots to video? The same thing will happen to podcasting.”

Podcasting dodged a bullet in 2020, but 2021 will be harder

“I struggle to find a single example of a podcast company that’s been acquired in the past few years that has thrived under its new ownership.”

Podcasting finally creates another mega-hit show

“Creating knockoffs is the wrong approach, and there’s a ton of it happening now. It’s riding the momentum of the podcast boom without actually contributing much to it.”

The year of the DIY podcast network

“The notion that a network is going to spot raw talent and scoop it up, making you wealthy (or at least wealthy by podcast standards) and famous (or at least famous by podcast standards) is a myth.”

Beyond the narrative arc

“Audio producers and networks aren’t prepared for the reality that the next generation of listeners will bear little resemblance to past audiences.”

Podcasting stratifies into hard layers

“My fear is that the ecosystem we have invested in all these years will start to resemble the vanity publishing marketplace or the guy selling CDs out of the trunk of his car after gigs: a place that’s easy to publish into, but rarely yields a significant audience.”