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Today's reading time is 5 minutes. - Miko Santos

The Podwires Rundown : A third of Americans now get news from podcasts. Let that sink in for a moment. When Pew Research Center first asked this question in 2020, it was just 22%. That’s a 45% increase in five years.

But here’s what really matters: younger audiences are leading this shift, with nearly four in ten adults under 50 turning to podcasts for news at least sometimes. The trust gap is fascinating too – Republicans trust podcast news at double the rate of Democrats. This isn’t just about entertainment anymore.

News podcasts have become a legitimate information channel, competing directly with traditional media. And if you’re producing a podcast that touches on current events, you’re now part of a media ecosystem that’s reshaping how millions of Americans understand their world.

According to a new study from Pew Research Center released September 25, 2025, podcast news consumption has grown significantly across all demographic groups over the past five years. The research, based on a survey of U.S. adults conducted August 18-24, 2025, reveals shifting patterns in how Americans consume news and information through on-demand audio.

The Key Points:

The Big Picture : For podcasters and producers, these findings present both opportunity and responsibility. The news podcast space is wide open – with formats ranging from deep dives to daily summaries to commentary all finding substantial audiences.

Nearly 70% of podcast news consumers want in-depth explanations, which plays directly to podcasting’s strengths: long-form, nuanced conversations that traditional media can’t accommodate.

This is actionable: if you’re creating content about your industry, current events, or cultural topics, frame it as news-adjacent and optimize for discovery by news-seeking audiences. The low payment rate (6%) suggests most news podcast listeners aren’t yet in the habit of financially supporting shows, but the high listenership numbers mean advertising and sponsorship opportunities are growing.

For the industry overall, this legitimizes podcasting as infrastructure – not just entertainment, but essential information delivery. That means more investment, more serious content partnerships, and frankly, more scrutiny. The partisan trust gap is a warning sign: as podcasts become a primary news source, the medium needs to maintain credibility across the political spectrum or risk fragmenting into echo chambers. The stakes just got higher.

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The Podwires Rundown: For years, podcasting has been the weird cousin at the media planning dinner – invited, sure, but sitting at a separate table. That changed this week. Nielsen Media Impact now includes podcast listening data powered by Edison Research, meaning for the first time ever, media planners can optimize campaigns across podcasts, TV, radio, and digital in one system. This isn’t incremental. This is transformative.

According to Edison Research’s Weekly Insights published October 1, 2025, the integration of Nielsen Podcast Fusion into Nielsen Media Impact represents the first time podcast listening data has escaped the silos of individual measurement systems. Presented at the IAB Podcast Upfronts, the new tool demonstrates how shifting ad dollars to podcasting can increase campaign reach without additional budget – showing a 27% reach growth among adults 18-44 when podcast spend increased from 1% to 21% of a sample media plan.

The Key Points:

The Big Picture: For podcasters and producers, this levels up the entire value proposition. When major brands can see – quantifiably, in their planning tools – that shifting budget to podcasting increases reach without increasing spend, suddenly podcasting becomes a strategic imperative rather than an experimental line item. This creates upward pressure on CPMs because the value is finally being measured properly.

Producers should expect more sophisticated conversations with buyers who now have hard data on exactly what podcasting delivers versus other media. The industry as a whole benefits from “growing the pie” of total advertising dollars flowing to podcasting, rather than just dividing up the existing podcast budget among more shows. This is how podcasting stops competing only with itself and starts genuinely competing with TV and digital for major brand dollars. The actionable takeaway? Know your numbers. Understand how your show performs across demographics, what incremental reach you deliver, and be ready to speak the language of cross-platform media planning – because the buyers you’re pitching to certainly will be.

The Podwires Rundown : Here’s a fun party trick: ask a media planner what share of audio time Americans spend with podcasts. Now ask them about AM/FM radio. I’ll wait while you pick your jaw up off the floor, because according to Edison Research’s Q2 2025 Share of Ear study, the answers you’ll get are wildly, almost comically wrong. And that perception gap? It’s costing our industry real money.

The latest quarterly Share of Ear study from Edison Research, published September 29, 2025 by Pierre Bouvard of Cumulus Media | Westwood One Audio Active Group, surveyed 4,000 Americans to measure daily reach and time spent across all audio formats. An accompanying Advertiser Perceptions study from August 2025 asked 302 media agencies and marketers to estimate audience shares, revealing a massive disconnect between perception and reality that particularly impacts how podcasting competes for ad dollars against both traditional radio and streaming audio services.

The Key Points:

The Big Picture

For podcasters and producers, these findings should fundamentally change how you position your shows to advertisers. You’re not some experimental digital audio play – you’re commanding one-fifth of all ad-supported audio consumption in America, more than quadruple Spotify’s actual ad-supported share. That’s your opening line. The actionable move here is arming yourself with this Edison data when talking to buyers who’ve been pitched fantasy numbers by streaming services. Show them the 20% share. Show them you’re the only digital audio format breaking double-digits in cars among younger demos. Show them that smart speaker listening puts podcasts ahead of every streaming service except AM/FM radio. The industry benefits when podcasting stops getting lumped into a generic “digital audio” bucket with services that have dramatically smaller actual audiences. We’re not fighting for digital audio scraps – we’re the second-largest ad-supported audio medium in America. Start acting like it. And for producers looking at cross-platform strategies, understanding that 70% of America isn’t reached by digital-only plans means partnerships with AM/FM radio aren’t just nice-to-have, they’re essential for true scale. The data is finally on our side. Use it.

The Podwires Rundown : Podcasting is the most trusted medium in America. More trusted than traditional news. More trusted than social media. We’re a $7 billion global industry reaching over half the U.S. population, delivering one voice to one listener with undivided attention on a recurring basis.

And we’re about to blow it. Because while we’re busy optimizing ad tech and debating video strategy, we’re sleepwalking into the same trap that killed trust in cable news: chasing attention at any cost, with zero sense of civic responsibility. If we don’t wake up now, we’ll squander the last best chance we have to build something better.

In a September 25, 2025 blog post titled “In Defense of Journalism: An Appeal to the Podcast Industry,” Joelle Nole of Larj Media argues that podcasting has become de facto civic infrastructure with the power to shape public understanding, voter behavior, and democratic participation. Citing Pew Research data on podcast trust levels, Signal Hill Insights on news podcast audiences, and high-profile examples like Serial’s impact on the Adnan Syed case and In the Dark’s role in Curtis Flowers’ exoneration, Nole contends the industry faces a historic choice: embrace its civic responsibility or repeat traditional media’s failures.

The Key Points:

The Big Picture : For podcasters and producers, this is uncomfortable but unavoidable: your show matters beyond your download numbers, whether you want that responsibility or not. The actionable reality is that civic-minded content doesn’t have to be boring or unprofitable – Serial proved you can do investigative journalism that becomes a cultural phenomenon, Pod Save America showed you can mobilize millions while building a sustainable business.

But it requires intentional choices. Producers should push clients beyond “podcast as marketing channel” thinking toward “podcast as public impact” positioning, which actually builds stronger audience affinity and attracts mission-aligned sponsors willing to pay premium rates.

For independent creators doing accountability journalism, the industry needs to mobilize around infrastructure: pooled legal defense funds, distribution partnerships with major platforms, and audience development resources that aren’t financially prohibitive. The platforms themselves – Spotify, Apple, YouTube – need to recognize they’re not neutral distributors anymore.

They’re curators of public understanding. Smart categorization that helps audiences distinguish journalism from entertainment isn’t censorship; it’s transparency that protects the trust that makes this entire ecosystem valuable.

And for everyone pitching sponsors or funders: stop leading with reach metrics and start leading with impact. Show them what their money actually does – informs voters, holds power accountable, builds informed communities. The research gap Nole identifies is real: we need industry-wide standards measuring civic impact, not just consumption. Because if we want podcasting treated as essential democratic infrastructure, we need to prove it functions that way. This moment won’t last forever. We either step up now, or we watch podcasting become the next thing people stop trusting.

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