An eMarketer report, entitled Seeking Riches in Niches, has confirmed that the podcast audience reached 18.5 million active listeners in 2007, representing a significant increase after considerable stagnation.

Naturally any projection should be taken with a pinch of salt. Nonetheless, eMarketer predicts that the podcast audience will grow 251% to 65 million by 2012, 25 million of which will constitute active listeners who tune in once a week.

EMarketer concludes that key factors driving the growth are, among others, a growing awareness of podcasting, greater ease of consumption for podcast content, and the growth of mobile devices. Paul Verna, eMarketer Senior Analyst and author of the new report, confirms though that the majority of podcasts are viewed on PCs rather than mobile devices.

It is possible that the increased use of video is driving the podcast growth. However, for any newspaper considering adopting a regularly scheduled podcast, it should be noted that the quality of the transmission must be significantly higher than a sporadic novelty podcast. If not, just like any product, the episodic podcast will undoubtedly lose listeners.

In spite of podcasts' overall growth, publications such as The Guardian have experienced problems and have subsequently dropped podcasts from their website (see UK: Telegraph video soars, audio podcasts don't work). 


Sources: howardowens.com, eMarketer