This election year, don’t forget there’s more than one story
Most media companies act like they have something to prove during an election year, but their audio listeners need more.
Welcome to Dispatch #55 of The Audio Insurgent.
Wrapping up a few things before the holiday wind down starts…
Looking at next year, I’m making some changes in The Audio Insurgent that I’ve been hinting at for awhile. I will have more details in the first dispatch of 2024, but I am going to introduce a paid subscription option The Audio Insurgent. It’s something that has been repeatedly suggested to me and I have been very resistant to, mostly because I write this to evangelize ideas and I do not want anything (like a paywall) to get in between the podcast creator community and my writing. But I’ve spoken with a few people who’ve given me solid advice on this and think I have an approach that will work.
The Audio Insurgent will still be free for everyone, but there will be some perk-like elements for those who support this work. More on this in January, including a lot about the “why” this feels like the right step for you, other readers, and me.
If you don’t need a “why” and want to pledge your support now, you can do so by hitting the button below to pledge your support (you won’t be charged until I turn on subscriptions in January).
Despite the button saying “Donate Subscriptions”—it does what it needs to do. There is also another Pledge button at the bottom of the dispatch.
More on this after the holidays.
And speaking of the holidays, there is a very high likelihood that there will be one more dispatch coming to you before the new year as my work schedule slows down–a dispatch about the importance of avoiding–and also embracing–boredom.
Onward…
[TODAY’S SMALL THING: A CORRECTION] I am quite an advocate for transparency and owning mistakes. I feel it is an important part of credibility. That needs to apply to myself as well.
In my recent Millennial Listener work, I added a chart to a slide showing that Millennials (plus the smattering of Gen Z listening) are the largest demographic cohort in public radio’s audience (with Baby Boomers in 2nd place), a transition that I said occurred in 2016. Two weeks ago the person who provided me with the data acknowledged an error in the calculation of the cohorts by birth year, thus putting listeners in the “Millennial” cohort who were actually Gen X. When you correct that data, the answer changes slightly. The Millennial cohort is still the largest group, but the transition happened much later than I first stated (it happened this past year, rather than in 2016).
I’ve corrected the deck and am sorry the error happened. It is a very small point in the presentation and not actually connected to the study itself (its inclusion was after an early audience member asked, “Why do we care so much about Millennials?”). But still, I shared it.
Almost regardless of the data point, Millennials are essential and important to the future of public radio, both those who listen now continuing to listen (and listen more) and engaging even more of them. If public radio can’t keep and capture that generation of listeners, it doesn’t matter what else they are trying to do, because you won’t have a foundation to build on.
That mission-critical need remains unchanged.
[TODAY’S THING: MY ANNUAL ATTEMPT TO GET PEOPLE TO SEE THE PRESENT BY PRETENDING TO TALK ABOUT THE FUTURE] The latest Nieman Lab “Predictions for Journalism” have dropped, and as always, it is a fantastic and thought-provoking list. Some of my favorites include: “For more engagement and trust, try this one weird trick,” “Press Forward must prove itself to the Black press,” “Scale is a trap,” and one that should surprise no Audio Insurgent readers, “An open letter to the incoming CEO of NPR.”
Not trying to brag, but I’ve been pretty on point with a number of my predictions over the past seven years. The reason why isn’t because I’m good at predictions (I’m not), but I like to focus on what I see today that will affect what happens next year. What happens in the future is a result of the decisions we make today. So if you look at what people in the media are deciding, what happens downstream is usually clear.
Last year, I wrote about the need for journalists to focus on people instead of power (a bit of an outlier since it is about local journalism instead of audio). But in 2022, I wrote about large legacy media companies abandoning their ill-rendered podcast strategies (totally happened). For 2021, I wrote about podcast acquisitions ending and risk tolerance going down (still happening). For 2020, I wrote about the coming dearth of hit shows in podcasting (that too). For 2019, I wrote about the emergence of cross-promotion to build audience (now a common practice). For 2018, I wrote about the emerging new styles of podcasts (yup). And in 2017, my prediction concerned the emerging stratification between haves and have notes in podcasting (still an issue today, perhaps more painful now than ever).
Though I’ve linked to my past contributions, I’ve never re-posted any of them here. Since my prediction topic swings back towards podcasting this year, I decided to do so for 2023. Here goes.
This election year, don’t forget there’s more than one story
To a journalist, a presidential election year is kind of like Christmas morning to a six-year-old — as the event gets closer, conversation, planning, and feverish anticipation accelerates to an obsessive frenzy. To a great degree, it’s all they can think about.
But there is one piece of advice I give my friends, colleagues, and clients every four years: In planning, please keep in mind that there will be more than one story this election year.
I spend most of my time in the audio space, consulting with organizations about podcasts and radio or helping them make projects to extend their presence in audio. And even though podcasting has had a rough year for revenue (though listening continues to grow), the basic reason people listen to podcasts and other forms of digital audio remains largely unchanged: They listen to escape. Sometimes that means to literally get away from the news and information that bombards their day (which explains why podcasting and audiobook listening times tend to be the opposite of radio’s morning-heavy usage — as the day goes on, more and more people tune out of the day’s news and into spoken word like podcasts). But most times the escape is more like a pause to stretch the mind in other directions — a change of pace. Listeners remain smart and interested in learning more, or are just looking for some fun or an intriguing point of view — but they still see it as a break from what the world is throwing at them that day.
You may be wondering how this is true when most top podcast lists routinely include newsy offerings like The Daily, Up First, or The News Agents. First, there are no absolutes in a broad and dynamic industry like podcasting. Second, when you weigh the audience and time spent with news podcasts compared to non-news podcasts, you see that the traditional definition of “news” actually occupies only a small wedge in the industry’s pie chart compared to other genres and categories.
This explains why so many outlets moved quickly to produce daily or weekly podcasts related to fast-moving impactful single stories like the wars in Gaza or Ukraine…and found that not a lot of listeners tuned in. There was an initial spark of interest that quickly faded after the initial sampling. They didn’t attract or retain audience because they didn’t match what most people are seeking from the medium. 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 notable exception is that podcasting is a great way to connect passionate communities of interest — and there most certainly are many uses for podcasting as a way to connect communities concerned about a war in a way that’s much deeper and personal than the general audience.)
So to swing this back to the presidential election year, when strategic editorial decisions are made about how to deploy podcasting resources for 2024, every news organization should realize that its audience needs more from them than incremental news of the day, the latest polling, and endless opinions on the state of play. Either plan to talk about the election in markedly different terms than others (take inspiration from Jay Rosen’s “Not the odds, but the stakes” advice to election journalists), or set aside resources to cover stories that provide that escape. Your readers, users, and audience are smart. They don’t stop being smart when they need a break.
Back in 1966, when the Carnegie Commission was defining what we would come to know as public broadcasting, the author E. B. White was asked if he had any ideas about how the new tools of media could help elevate the civic dialogue and experience in the U.S. His response has benefit for anyone in media, far beyond public broadcasting. White offered that media focused on excellence “should arouse our dreams, satisfy our hunger for beauty, take us on journeys, enable us to participate in events, present great drama and music, explore the sea and the sky and the woods and the hills. It should be our Lyceum, our Chautauqua, our Minsky’s, and our Camelot.”
This election year will be brutal and demanding, for us, our audience, the entire country, and our democracy as a whole. While our work to cover the election is essential, so is using our skills to serve our audience’s need to think about something else, feel something else, be challenged by something else, and make the world feel a little smaller, more connected, and maybe even less complicated.
[COULD WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE, PLEASE? TOP ALBUMS OF 2023] I’m a reformed and recovering music journalist and still spend much more time listening to people playing music than I do listening to people talking in podcasting. In fact, when I’m not working, my life is almost constantly soundtracked.
I have let go of the idea of listening to everything, or even everything “important.” And I find my tastes have really headed in their own direction. But here is my annual list of favorites
Eric’s best albums of 2023:
Young Fathers, Heavy Heavy (Apple Music | Spotify)
Lusine, Long Light (Apple Music | Spotify)
100 gecs, 10,000 gecs (Apple Music | Spotify)
Fever Ray, Radical Romantics (Apple Music | Spotify)
Ghostwoman, Hindsight is 50/50 (Apple Music | Spotify)
K-LONE, Swells (Apple Music | Spotify)
Sufjan Stevens, Javelin (Apple Music | Spotify)
LP Giobbi, Light Places (Apple Music | Spotify)
Bully, Lucky for You (Apple Music | Spotify)
Yves Tumor, Praise A Lord Who Chews But Which Does Not Consume (Apple Music | Spotify)
You can also listen to the whole thing on this Spotify playlist.
Okay, that’s it for today.
If this was forwarded to you or you read this online, would you mind subscribing?
And while this is free, you are also always welcome to buy my book or (even better) buy me a beer.
Make great things. I’ll be listening.
--Eric