Pros and Cons Of Creating a Political Podcast

Brett Johnson [: 00:00:09

Welcome to The Circle Sessions featuring The Circle of Experts. The Circle of Experts are Yasmine Robles from Robles Designs, Tonnisha English Amamu of TJE Communications, and Don The Idea Guy. I'm Brett Johnson from Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Each week, one of The Circle of Experts joins me to talk about some critical aspects of growing your podcast. We focus on marketing, social media, monetization, and website design to help you implement all of these together. Well, this week, you've got me, Brett Johnson, My Podcast Guy, and wanted to go over a survey that, finds some podcasts are ready made for election year listeners. Of course, we're right smack dab in the election cycle. Some primaries are kind of waning off as I record this, but we are staring down the the political season coming up here in November.

Brett Johnson [: 00:01:03

And, you know, the role of podcasting in the 2024 election may be quite remarkable. And and maybe in some fashion, it's not going to either. It it depends on if you're in that niche. Podcastle, an AI driven content platform, reveals that since the year's onset, there have been nearly 38100 political podcast episodes. Now that as as we record this in mid March of 2,024, that number, I'm sure, is gonna grow tremendously. As attention shifts to the general election, Podcastle survey results highlighting early podcast winners, and some cautionary signals for creators as well. Podcasts, podcasts, excuse me, surveyed 1,000 Americans to gauge their consumption, interaction, and sharing of political news and media amid the 2024 election season. The analysis identifies NPR News Now as the most favored news and political podcast in the US for this election cycle.

Brett Johnson [: 00:02:06

This is partly attributed to its popularity among millennials and Gen z, the significant podcast consumer demographics. Among Gen z listeners, NPR News Now ties with The Daily from The New York Times. The Tucker Carlson podcast leads among Gen x listeners, while the Rachel Maddow Show is favored by baby boomers. For left leaning audiences, NPR Now News remains the top choice, along with those who are politically moderate. Among right leaning listeners, the Tucker Carlson podcast claims top preference. Let's take a look at that top 10 political podcast, from this survey. That does include, as I mentioned, number 1, NPR News Now, The Daily, the Tucker Carlson Podcast, the Ben Shapiro Show, the Rachel Maddow Show, Candace Owens, democra Democracy Now, Pod Save America, The Journal, and Megyn Kelly Show. Some other key findings as well, almost 3 in 10 Americans are engaging with political news and podcasts less than last election.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:10

So just because of the surge of the content doesn't necessarily mean the engagement's there. Gen z tied with top political podcast, NPR News Now and The Daily. A quarter of Americans share their political views on social Idea. And over 1 quarter Gen zer said that they are, they say they are the most annoying generation when it comes to ho, posting political content on social media. Americans say the top word they would use to describe the 2,024 election cycle is stressed. That I believe. Let's set the stage of where podcasting is right now, though. 183,000,000 people tuned into podcasts in 2023.

Brett Johnson [: 00:03:54

That's a nearly 3000% increase in listeners compared to podcasting's inception in 2004. And political podcasts have only been on the rise since since December 2009. 79,000, political podcast episodes have been produced. Nearly 38100 since the start of 2024, as I mentioned. Some interesting psychographics that are tied with the political podcast and politics and the generations. Engaging and sharing political news and content isn't for everyone, but their research revealed that there are certain generations that are coming off as annoying as they do it. So when generation z was asked who the most annoying generation posting and sharing political content on social media is, their first response was baby boomers, and Sessions response was themselves, Gen z. Millennials, when asked the most annoying generation posting and sharing political content on social media, they mentioned as their first response, baby boomers.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:00

Second response, themselves, millennials. Gen z, when asked, most annoying generation posting and sharing political content on social Idea. They said, baby boomers. Their second response was Gen z. So Gen Experts, yours yours truly included, are kinda sandwiched in between baby boomers and gen z when it comes to most annoying on the on on social media. And then when baby boomers were asked who are the most annoying generations posting and sharing political content on social Idea? They themselves said they are the most annoying. And the second response was gen z. So it's quite interesting how we perceive ourselves as a generation as well as what generation around us, tends to be the most annoying.

Brett Johnson [: 00:05:45

Just under a third, 28% of baby boomers say that they share their political views on social Idea, followed by Gen x, millennials, and Gen z. Despite giving themselves the annoying vote, less than a quarter, 21 percent, of Gen zers said they share political social media posts. Despite over half of respondents maintaining their political news engagement compared to the previous election, there's a notice noticeable decline in interest with approximately 28% engaging less, as I mentioned earlier. This shift is likely influenced by election related stress with 75% refraining from sharing political views on social media. Survey respondents described the, you know, this the selection Circle, as I mentioned, stressed, pessimistic, hopeless, and and they're exhausted and and feeling indifferent with only a minority expressing excitement or inspiration. You know, given this atmosphere, the Circle Sessions media podcast consultant suggests that creators explore alternative show formats. Additionally, the lack of campaign ad spending in political podcast may pose challenges for the medium in 2024. If there are political ads or political money being spent in podcasting, it's really by the candidates themselves.

Brett Johnson [: 00:07:04

Plus, advertisers remain cautious about associating with political content to its intersection with culture and some political backlash. So, you know, that doesn't mean you shouldn't go into this. If if that's where your energies are, and that's where your content can come from. That's what energizes you to create a podcast. Some things to ask yourself, can your political content stay the test of time? You know, there are notables that I Sessions that are doing it, but they can and are cross pollinating in other mediums, and they've been in it a long time as well too. They have their followers. Plus, how long will interest continue in 2025 from this political cycle? You know, there will be news stories in 2025. There will be political skirmishes, but, you know, what is your game plan with the political content you are creating right now? Are you willing to pivot as the election cycle changes, without being afraid of losing an audience because you're changing a little bit? You may be just creating, you know, political news podcast, which in itself is fine, but understand how and why that you have to feed the beast when it comes to political news.

Brett Johnson [: 00:08:14

If you wanna explore some more ideas about your podcast, political podcast specifically, and how you can get through the storm of the election cycle and what to do with your political podcast in 2025, get a hold of Circle 270 Media Podcast Consultants. Go to my website, circle270media.com. Got a a scheduling calendar there. Set up a time. Let's talk and see how your political podcasts can survive and what you wanted want to do and need to do as the election cycle goes away in 2024 and we get into next year 2025. Thanks for joining us on The Circle Sessions.