News podcasts and ad buyers have yet to see an increase in ad spending in a presidential election year

“Over the years, we have seen an increase in brands seeking to engage with news. [and] Political content during the election period. However, this is not the trend we will see this year. Brand fit and the increasingly polarized political landscape are key factors here,” says Hilary Ross Shafer, vice president of podcasts at audio agency Veritone One and YouTube influencer. says Mr.

Reduce advertising costs

According to data shared with Digiday, the year-to-date podcast advertising agency expects news podcasts to account for a 2.7% decline in total podcast ad spend by 2.7% so far in 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. (asked an agency executive who provided the numbers and requested anonymity because they were citing internal data). This proportion increased by 2.5% from 2020 to 2021, but then decreased by 6.1% from 2021 to 2022 and by 3.3% from 2022 to 2023. Additionally, ad spending on news podcasts increased by 2%. During this period from 2019 to 2020.

The percentage of advertisers with news podcasts decreased by 6.7% from the beginning of the year from 2023 to 2024, despite an increase of 2.5% from 2022 to 2023.

A head of podcast ad sales at a news organization, who also requested anonymity, told Digiday that news podcast ad sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024 compared to previous quarters and the same period in the 2020 presidential election cycle. He said it was bad. They said it was becoming increasingly difficult to convince marketers to spend on tough news stories, especially war coverage, even though audience numbers were growing.

In an earnings call on February 7, New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit-Levien cited podcasts as a factor behind the company's decline in total digital advertising revenue in the fourth quarter of 2023 compared to the previous year. The company cited a decline in revenue.

“Our digital performance, including podcasts, was affected as marketers avoided hard news topics such as the Middle East conflict,” Kopit Levien said at the time.

News avoidance, nothing new?

Gina Garubbo, president and CEO of NPR subsidiary National Public Media, said news podcast ad revenue was flat despite being sold out in the fourth quarter of 2023 and the first quarter of 2024. Ta. She said she doesn't expect NPR's podcast business to grow much compared to previous years in the same presidential election year. 2020 or 2016.

Of NPR's “hundreds” of advertisers, Garbo said 23 clients buy ads on NPR's podcasts but avoid newscasts, up from 15 a few years ago. That's what it means. He declined to say how many advertisers are currently buying NPR podcasts or naming specific brands.

“Before NPR started podcasting in 2005, NPR was all radio and consisted mostly of news shows, so there were very few brands that didn't want to be associated with news,” Garbo said. . “Since then, I think the increase in brands wanting to avoid NPR news has continued slowly and steadily over the years. But today there are literally hundreds of brands that want to avoid NPR news on all available platforms. We support the program.”

Some podcast media buyers say they don't see any change in brand aversion to news content.

“I think clients who have been anxious about news and politics in the past tend to maintain that level of anxiety, especially during election periods. Some clients are using additional blockers on all content, not just podcasts. I noticed this trend among previous clients, especially Fortune 500 companies, during the 2016 and 2020 election years. Politics is deeply intertwined with culture, so this is strictly “This is often not a problem for podcasts, but a concern for already exhausted advertisers,” said Gretchen Smith, vice president of media at Ad Results Media.

Another media buyer, who requested anonymity, said it was common for clients to “avoid” news and political podcasts. The reason for this, he says, is “not only because of brand sensitivity, but also because I don't want people to think I'm leaning in a particular direction.'' The upcoming elections will not affect this, he added.

Lauren Russo, executive partner and managing partner of Horizon Media's innovation and performance audio division, said the company doesn't invest heavily in hard news or political content, but it does invest in news organizations' cultural entertainment and business He said he buys ads for news podcasts.

A polarizing ecosystem

Jon Lefferts, Magna's executive vice president of strategic investments, said news content is a “controversial area” that puts its ad spend under “challenges.”

A third audio media buyer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the brands he works with avoid news content “based on brand safety and suitability concerns.”

A fourth agency executive said the big brands they work with are reluctant to advertise for news podcasts when they can devote an already small percentage of their overall media buys to podcasts to other, more focused categories of programming. He said he didn't think it was worth the risk. Brand safe. They added that despite this being a presidential election year, they did not see a noticeable change in customer spending on news and politics podcasts.

some bright spots

Even though podcast ad buyers don't see ad spending on news content increasing as much as they did in election years, some publishers with podcast businesses are seeing growth. Sales of Slate's news and politics podcasts are up nearly 50% year over year, a company spokesperson said.

Slate President Charlie Kammerer cited the company's longstanding programming as the reason. For example, the show “Political Gabfest” started in 2005, he said. “Our trusted voice in a very noisy and recently crowded news and political arena has left us somewhat isolated.”

Some studies also show growth in the news podcast sector, albeit in 2023. Advertisers invested $69.6 million in news podcasts including NPR, The New York Times and the BBC in 2023, according to MediaRadar data shared with Digiday. This is a 15% increase from the previous year compared to the $60.3 million spent in 2022, when no presidential election will be held.

Brand safety and suitability tools like Barometer and Sounder should help brands gain more control over news content purchases, especially targeted programmatic ad purchases. However, media buyers told Digiday that these tools are still very new and not enough purchases have been made using them to make an impact yet.

“Probably a bigger deal in the 2028 election,” said a fourth buyer.