đď¸Podcast News Consumption Surges to One-Third of Americans, Pew Study Shows
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đď¸Today, we've got the inside scoop on:
One-Third of Americans Now Get News From Podcasts â And the Numbers Tell a Story We Canât Ignore
Podcasting Finally Gets a Seat at the Big Kidsâ Table
The Perception Gap Thatâs Costing Podcasting Money
We Built the Most Trusted Medium in America. Now What?
One-Third of Americans Now Get News From Podcasts â And the Numbers Tell a Story We Canât Ignore
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%. Thatâs a 45% increase in five years.
But hereâs 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 â Republicans trust podcast news at double the rate of Democrats. This isnât just about entertainment anymore.
News podcasts have become a legitimate information channel, competing directly with traditional media. And if youâre producing a podcast that touches on current events, youâre now part of a media ecosystem thatâs 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:
32% of U.S. adults now get news from podcasts at least sometimes, up from 22% in 2020 â a 45% increase in five years
54% of Americans have listened to a podcast in the past year, with younger listeners (67% of 18-29 year-olds) far outpacing older demographics (33% of 65+)
Republicans (31%) trust news from podcasts more than other sources at twice the rate of Democrats (15%), revealing a significant partisan divide in podcast news trust
69% of podcast news consumers listen to shows that explain topics in depth, 61% listen to opinion/commentary shows, and 58% consume daily news summaries
Only 6% of Americans financially support news podcasts through subscriptions or donations, despite 17% paying for news sources in general
Why It Matters: This data confirms what many suspected but few could quantify: podcasts have evolved from an entertainment medium into a serious news platform. For podcast creators, this means your content isnât just competing with other shows â itâs competing with CNN, The New York Times, and local news stations. The trust divide between Republicans and Democrats suggests podcasts are filling gaps left by traditional media, particularly for audiences seeking alternative perspectives. With younger audiences consuming news through podcasts at dramatically higher rates than older generations, this shift represents a fundamental change in media consumption patterns that will only accelerate. If youâre a podcaster who occasionally discusses current events or industry news, youâre now part of the news ecosystem whether you intended to be or not.
The Big Picture : For podcasters and producers, these findings present both opportunity and responsibility. The news podcast space is wide open â 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 podcastingâs strengths: long-form, nuanced conversations that traditional media canât accommodate.
This is actionable: if youâre 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 arenât 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 â 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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Podcasting Finally Gets a Seat at the Big Kidsâ Table
The Podwires Rundown: For years, podcasting has been the weird cousin at the media planning dinner â 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 isnât incremental. This is transformative.
According to Edison Researchâs 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 â 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:
Nielsen Media Impact now integrates podcast listening data alongside TV, radio, and digital for the first time, allowing unified cross-platform campaign planning and optimization.
The tool includes Edison Research-powered data on specific podcast networks, genres, and show-level metrics for top programs, not just broad category analysis.
Case study shows moving budget allocation from 1% to 21% podcasting increased reach from 60% to 76% among adults 18-44 with zero additional spend.
Podcasting can now compete for shares of total media budgets rather than only fighting other podcasts for existing podcast-specific dollars.
The system removes guesswork for planners by showing exactly how podcast reach grows by genre, which demos over-index, and impression optimization strategies.
Why It Matters: Until now, podcast advertising has been trapped in its own measurement bubble, making it nearly impossible for major brands to compare podcast performance against other media when building campaigns. Media planners work in Nielsen Media Impact â itâs the industry standard â and if podcasting wasnât in there, podcasting wasnât really being considered for major cross-platform campaigns. This integration means podcasting doesnât just get considered; it gets measured the same way as everything else. For an industry with 115 million weekly listeners in the U.S., thatâs the difference between begging for scraps and earning a proper seat at the table.
The Big Picture: For podcasters and producers, this levels up the entire value proposition. When major brands can see â quantifiably, in their planning tools â 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 âgrowing the pieâ 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 â because the buyers youâre pitching to certainly will be.
The Perception Gap Thatâs Costing Podcasting Money
The Podwires Rundown : Hereâs a fun party trick: ask a media planner what share of audio time Americans spend with podcasts. Now ask them about AM/FM radio. Iâll wait while you pick your jaw up off the floor, because according to Edison Researchâs Q2 2025 Share of Ear study, the answers youâll get are wildly, almost comically wrong. And that perception gap? Itâs 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:
Podcasts command a 20% share of ad-supported audio consumption in America, second only to AM/FM radioâs 66% share and significantly ahead of Spotify (5%), Pandora (4%), and YouTube Music (1%).
Media agencies and marketers dramatically overestimate Pandora and Spotifyâs combined audience share at 41% when the reality is just 9%, while simultaneously underestimating AM/FM radio by 2.5X.
The combined daily reach of ad-supported Spotify, podcasts, and Pandora is only 31%, meaning digital-only audio plans miss 70% of America, while AM/FM radio reaches 60% daily.
Among younger demographics (18-34 and 18-49), podcasts achieve double-digit in-car listening shares, though AM/FM radio dominates with an 85% in-car share across all demographics.
On smart speakers, podcasts hold a 22% share, trailing only AM/FM radioâs 54% and beating all ad-supported streaming services including Spotify and Pandora.
Why It Matters : Media buyers are making decisions based on vibes, not data. When planners think Spotify and Pandora are 4.5X bigger than they actually are, and theyâre underestimating AM/FM radio by more than half, those misperceptions shape where ad budgets flow. For podcasting, sitting at a solid 20% share of ad-supported audio, this perception gap creates both a problem and an opportunity. The problem: weâre competing against inflated expectations of streaming services. The opportunity: when buyers finally see the real numbers, podcastingâs position as the clear #2 in ad-supported audio becomes impossible to ignore.
The Big Picture
For podcasters and producers, these findings should fundamentally change how you position your shows to advertisers. Youâre not some experimental digital audio play â youâre commanding one-fifth of all ad-supported audio consumption in America, more than quadruple Spotifyâs actual ad-supported share. Thatâs your opening line. The actionable move here is arming yourself with this Edison data when talking to buyers whoâve been pitched fantasy numbers by streaming services. Show them the 20% share. Show them youâre 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 âdigital audioâ bucket with services that have dramatically smaller actual audiences. Weâre not fighting for digital audio scraps â weâre 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 isnât reached by digital-only plans means partnerships with AM/FM radio arenât just nice-to-have, theyâre essential for true scale. The data is finally on our side. Use it.
We Built the Most Trusted Medium in America. Now What?
The Podwires Rundown : Podcasting is the most trusted medium in America. More trusted than traditional news. More trusted than social media. Weâre 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 weâre about to blow it. Because while weâre busy optimizing ad tech and debating video strategy, weâre sleepwalking into the same trap that killed trust in cable news: chasing attention at any cost, with zero sense of civic responsibility. If we donât wake up now, weâll squander the last best chance we have to build something better.
In a September 25, 2025 blog post titled âIn Defense of Journalism: An Appeal to the Podcast Industry,â 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 Serialâs impact on the Adnan Syed case and In the Darkâs role in Curtis Flowersâ exoneration, Nole contends the industry faces a historic choice: embrace its civic responsibility or repeat traditional mediaâs failures.
The Key Points:
Podcasting is now the most trusted medium in America according to Pew Research, surpassing traditional news and social media, with over half the U.S. population listening regularly to a $7 billion global industry.
The industry currently prioritizes ad tech, branded content, and video strategy over civic responsibility, risking the same trajectory that eroded trust in cable news and traditional media.
Podcast platforms like Spotify, Apple, and YouTube function as âthe new front page,â shaping public understanding through what they choose to promote and categorize, but lack intentional systems to distinguish journalism from entertainment.
Independent journalists and civic-minded creators lack adequate funding, distribution support, and audience growth strategies compared to influencers and entertainment-focused shows.
The industry needs standardized research measuring how podcasts influence civic understanding, voter behavior, and public trust to legitimize podcastingâs role as democratic infrastructure beyond download metrics.
Why It Matters: Most Americans have lost the ability to distinguish between strongly argued opinion and fact-based journalism, partly because the systems that once supported professional journalism have collapsed while influencer culture has exploded. Podcasting didnât create this problem, but weâve inherited the consequences. With traditional news underfunded to the point of irrelevance and public media losing federal funding, podcasting has accidentally become one of the primary ways people understand the world. Thatâs massive power with zero built-in accountability. If we keep treating podcasting purely as an advertising platform without acknowledging its civic function, weâll chase the same dopamine-driven engagement metrics that turned cable news into partisan theater. And once trust is gone, we donât get it back.
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 doesnât have to be boring or unprofitable â 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 âpodcast as marketing channelâ thinking toward âpodcast as public impactâ 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 arenât financially prohibitive. The platforms themselves â Spotify, Apple, YouTube â need to recognize theyâre not neutral distributors anymore.
Theyâre curators of public understanding. Smart categorization that helps audiences distinguish journalism from entertainment isnât censorship; itâs 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 â 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 wonât last forever. We either step up now, or we watch podcasting become the next thing people stop trusting.
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