Bondware
Makers of Online Publishing Software Since 1999

Podcasting the News

Jun 02, 2021 at 03:00 pm by staff


Podcasting dates back to the 1980s but has only recently become mainstream. The recent COVID pandemic boosted the format as listeners were attracted to the comforting sound of human speech while isolating to slow the spread of the virus. There is now fresh podcast content on almost any topic imaginable and readily available on your TV, desktop computer or mobile phone.

Many industries can benefit from publishing a podcast, but it is almost a no-brainer for media companies that are already producing news content on a daily basis. Here are the top reasons why podcasting is attractive to news organizations.

New Revenues

According to Marketing Week, advertising on podcasts generated $402 million in revenue in 2018. IAB Pricewaterhouse Coopers put that figure at an estimated $800 million in 2020, and project advertising on podcasts will more than double to $1.7 billion by 2024, an annual growth of nearly 20%.

News organization gather a great deal of information and only so much make into online, print, radio or television. Repackaging this content as podcasts opens the door to not just regular ad dollars but also the following revenue streams:

·         Advertising/Sponsorship – inline audio promotions
·         Subscriptions – behind a paywall
·         Intellectual property – several podcasts have turned into properties for television or movies
·         Events – some podcasters tour and charge for events
·         Merchandise – podcasts with large followings can easily sell branded products
·         Content Marketing – sometimes a podcast supports/markets another primary business

Viral Marketing Opportunities

Digital by nature, podcasts present many viral marketing opportunities leading to lower promotional costs.  Here are a few ideas:

·         For guest interviews – leverage your guest’s audience to cross-promote their episode
·         Promote on social media
·         Reformat audio as YouTube videos
·         Distribute through podcast players and aggregator networks such as iTunes, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, etc.
·         Transcribe to text to drive Seach Engine Optimization
·         Find partner podcasts for cross promotion relationships
·         Have host appear on other podcasts, radio and televisions

Long-Form Journalism

A common complaint in news organizations is the short attention span of online audience.  For print cost often limits ability to run the longer version of a news story. Podcasts provide a unique opportunity to deliver and monetize this long-form content.

New Audiences

As traditional newspaper audiences and broadcast television audiences dwindle, news organizations constantly struggle to reach new audiences. Due to the technology-based delivery, podcast audiences naturally skew toward a younger demographic opening new opportunities.

Beyond age, podcasts also offer new audience opportunities based on listener activity type. Podcasts are mobile and eagerly consumed by people on the move such as walkers, runners, or drivers that have the time to fully absorb this type of content.


Bondware has been serving news publishers since 1999. Our news publishing platform (ContentEngine) powers this website, our newsletter and social media automated posting. 

ContentEngine makes it easy to publish podcasts.  Just create a content section with the "Podcast" option toggled and we'll take care of the rest.  Articles posted in a these sections become podcast episodes.  You will be prompted for an MP3 audio file on article creation and an MP3 player is prominently displayed when the article is viewed.  The feed url provided for podcast sections can then be used to syndicate your podcast to all the major podcast aggregators/networks.

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