Study Looks At Podcasting's 'Super Listeners'

Study

A study by the KNIGHT FOUNDATION with EDISON RESEARCH takes a look at the podcast "Super Listener," a subset of the podcasting audience that the study concludes are the "most active, most engaged and most willing to take supportive actions" among listeners and "can also be tapped as ambassadors for the medium."

The study, based on 28.964 interviews with listeners 18 years of age or older who listen to at least one podcast from public radio (or public radio-like) producers NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO, WNYC, AMERICAN PUBLIC MEDIA, WBUR, PRX, or GIMLET MEDIA, compared to EDISON and TRITON DIGITAL's INFINITE DIAL research, showed that the "Super Listener" listens to twice the content other listeners do, both in hours listened and number of shows; prefers subscriptions and time-shifting of content; listens via smartphone and during commutes; is willing to tell others about the shows they listen to and is reliant on word-of-mouth for discovery; prefers in-depth content; is loyal and donates to public media but listens to less AM/FM radio as a result of listening to podcasts; and trusts podcasts to a level close to the leading trustworthy medium (national newspapers) and ahead of radio and local papers.

The study suggests that podcasters look for ways to “ask for the order” and offer incentives to evangelize podcasts and podcasting to friends and family.

Read the results here.

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