With Trump’s help, conservative podcasts in US get boost in market dominated by liberal voices

NEW YORK – Conservative podcasters have enjoyed a popularity boost in the United States in recent months, thrusting them into an evolving media market that has been dominated by liberal political voices.

Personalities linked to the right – hosts Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Shawn Ryan, and Candace Owens – are among people involved in the 25 most-listened-to podcasts on Spotify, all of them reaching that level within the past year.

This marks a break with a tradition in which prominent shows like Pod Save America more often sat on the other side of the political aisle.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s election campaign helped elevate the right-wing shows, with the 78-year-old Republican appearing as a guest on some. But liberals have not had the same success.

“I think the reason you’re seeing more conservatives is that the liberal side was flooded, and so it becomes much harder to launch a liberal-view podcast,” said Mr Chris Lanuti, president of The Broadcast Basement, a production and consulting firm.

For Ms Kristine Johnson, a marketing professor at Rowan University in New Jersey, “one of the reasons these shows have become more popular is that they’re popular on television”.

Mr Carlson was, until April 2023, one of America’s most-viewed TV hosts – drawing three million viewers each night on Fox News, where Ms Kelly was also a presenter.

“Podcasting is more mainstream, so it’s easier to jump to another platform to continue to hear those folks who you really like to listen to,” Ms Johnson said.

Extreme content

The democratisation of podcasts reflects the growth of audiences beyond the young, college-educated city dwellers who historically made up the bulk of listeners.

Around 98 million Americans now listen to podcasts at least once a week – a 58 per cent rise from five years ago, according to an April study by Edison Research.

Podcasting as a medium has “matured”, said Professor Martin Spinelli, who teaches podcasting – reportedly Britain’s first – at the University of Sussex.

“People figured out how to use it effectively to do messaging and to use it effectively to make money, and we are at that moment now,” Prof Spinelli said.

He added that left-wing podcasts are more “in your head” than conservative shows such as political pundit Ben Shapiro’s, which he cites as a reason for right-wing success.

Fine-tuning of algorithms – the complex rules that determine what content users see in their feeds – has also allowed podcasts to reach the right audience.

The challenge, and risk, for conservative voices is now how to stand out in a country already divided by politics and where much of the media is split along partisan lines.

Mr Lanuti, of The Broadcast Basement, said this competition could lead to more extreme content on both sides of the aisle.

“When it comes to political podcasts, one of the reasons why you get things that are extreme, either if they are left or right, is because the market is saturated and they’re trying to separate themselves so that they continue to get the ears,” he said. AFP