The way news is consumed and perceived is changing faster than ever, and audiences are looking for trusted sources that can help them make sense of moments of uncertainty. With so many options for on-demand news content, news podcasts are an increasingly popular way to get the day’s top stories. While brands and advertisers may instinctively shy away from hard news, tapping into high-quality news podcasts can unlock a unique, highly engaged audience that makes an impact for sponsors.
In a newly-released study, The News Podcast Consumer Report from Sounds Profitable found that of anyone who has consumed a news podcast in the last 30 days, 3/4 are weekly podcast consumers. The news podcast consumer is not only likely to tune in weekly, but in many cases, they click play on their favorite news podcast daily. And according to Stagwell’s Future of News Report, the audience that listens to news content exclusively is growing rapidly. This often overlooked topic can connect brands to one of the hardest to reach audiences in their daily lives.
NPR is committed to providing high-quality coverage to the public, reaching 43 million users each week across platforms. The recently published Reuters Digital News Report named NPR as the top publisher of news podcasts in the United States, and the audiences of top shows like NPR News Now and Up First are growing year over year.
News is one of the top genres consumed by podcast audiences each month, second only to comedy. With the #1 and #3 podcasts according to Podtrac, NPR’s daily news podcasts are an essential part of a growing audience’s routine. NPR’s high-quality reporting can be found on-demand through a suite of news podcasts that publish daily and even hourly.
Advertisers may be used to avoiding news adjacencies, but news podcast sponsorship messages perform on par with messages next to other types of content. The 2024 Future of News Report found that sponsorship messages adjacent to news saw metrics similar to those adjacent to business, entertainment, or sports content. In 2025’s Future of News Report, Stagwell highlighted that exclusive news junkies show greater post-ad exposure lift than the general public across reputational brand metrics. And with 96% of NPR podcasts being deemed low or no risk by Barometer, sponsors can feel confident in their campaign aligning with high-quality news.
NPR news podcasts provide an avenue to reach the highly engaged 14% of Americans who exclusively consume news content, without compromising on brand suitability or performance. Align with the trusted, high-quality content that NPR listeners return to year over year and see the impact for your brand.
