Daily News Podcasts
Daily news is about the events, people and trends that happen in one day. It is often about politics and business but can also include sports, weather and entertainment. It can be published in newspapers or magazines, on TV and radio or online. Some websites specialise in daily news. These are often called aggregators as they don’t have their own reporters but collect and transmit news from other sources. They can be free or pay-to-use.
Podcasts have become a popular way to consume daily news. The New York Times launched its daily podcast The Daily in 2016 and it now has more than six million listeners. In the UK, the Guardian’s Today in Focus has a similar audience size and the FT News Briefing reaches more than 2 million people each month. Increasingly, these on-demand news updates are being produced by large media organisations rather than a dedicated broadcaster.
A range of publishers have been producing daily news podcasts for some time and our research suggests that the sector has exploded in the last 12 months. In our study of six countries, we found 102 active daily news podcasts. Of these 37 were launched in the past year. These include new shows from the New York Times and Guardian, public broadcasters in Denmark and Australia, and a daily show from Apple News (the first by a tech platform).
Many of these daily news podcasts are highly successful. They are attracting significant audiences, building habit and loyalty for their brands and driving significant revenue. In some cases they are even outperforming traditional newspaper readership. These shows are a key part of many subscription models and help reduce churn among younger consumers. They are also important for news organisations that are experimenting with ad-free models.
In our study we found that the popularity of daily news podcasts reflects changing media consumption habits and the rise of mobile devices. It is a very fast-moving space and it is difficult to predict future developments but we believe that the demand for high quality daily news will continue to grow.
We have identified four different types of daily news podcast: the New York Times-inspired deep-dive; extended chats; a concise news round-up; and microbulletins aimed at smart speakers. All have their strengths and weaknesses but a strong focus on listening patterns is critical to success.
We sourced our data from the public domain including a number of global podcast directories and platforms. Our sample included all of the most popular daily news podcasts as well as those with significant audience figures. We have also included podcasts that are produced by the same publisher for a variety of different outlets. This provides a more comprehensive view of the overall market.