How NPR Is Preparing for "The Year of the Podcast"

Beaujon, A. (2014, December 30). After 'Serial,' NPR Says Podcasts Are Mainstream Now. Retrieved January 26, 2015, from http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/media/how-npr-is-preparing-for-the-year-of-the-podcast.php

NPR's vice president Eric Nuzum has boldly labeled 2015 as "the year of the podcast", which is not a huge assumption to make considering the wild success of NPR's podcast Serial , which became the most popular podcast in history. NPR's newest podcast, which has been recently released, is called Invisibilia, but a new action they are doing is plugging in this podcast into other podcasts and radio shows the company uses, as well as having the podcast on its own. Nuzum argues "for a lot of people [podcasts] do serve as the gateway to public radio." Many people are using smartphones to listen to podcasts and that has brought a larger audience. Another podcast, TED Radio Hour, does depend on the digital audience to sustain terrestrial radio. "…[TED Radio Hour] wouldn’t be sustainable if it were “just supporting itself off its radio underwriting revenue.” Podcast listeners do associate the podcast to the radio station. When radio stations ask for donations, users mistake the money they are giving as going directly to their favorite podcast, when the donations are going to the radio station in general. But Nuzum says this time is a "golden moment" in podcast history and the NPR team will continue to take advantage of this new age of the podcast in front of them. 

I agree with NPR that 2015 could be the year of the podcast. Serial was a monumental feat in podcast history. Podcasts now bring in a larger, but digital, audience; they are no longer seen as "nerdy" or "boring." In my personal experience, I see younger people, like teenagers, become drawn in by podcasts now. The popular podcast was a game changer for NPR and podcasts in general, and podcast shows are going to shift and respond to that. It makes sense Invisibilia will make small cameos in other shows in the sense that NPR wants to draw podcast audiences into the radio station as well, not just on-demand podcasts. They want the radio station audience to grow bigger and not get stuck in the podcast world.