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Investments and rewards: where are publishers at with paid podcasts?

There are many ways to monetise a podcast. Sponsorships, direct subscriptions, events, even merchandise. But what does it take to get to that point – and what is the future of paid podcasts?

There were plenty of topics of discussion at the latest Publisher Podcast Summit this June. The perennial problems of discovery and marketing; the use of AI to expand a series’ reach; how to create community around a show. 

But all roads lead, eventually, to Rome. For publishers and creators, most podcasts have to pay their way. 

Creation requires investment, and growing a podcast needs regular investment. And, ultimately, individual podcast creators need to sustain themselves, too.

So it’s no surprise that one of the most well-attended sessions at the Podcast Summit was dedicated to the topic of getting people to pay to support podcasts. It was a topic trailed throughout the day, as other speakers weighed in on how their own efforts in audience building contributed to the mission of making a podcast financially viable.

The panel, moderated by Naomi Mellor, founder of Everybody Media and the International Women’s Podcast Awards, heard from national publishers – and two creators whose paranormal podcast has been enthusiastically embraced by audiences.

Early days of pay

John Shields is Head of Podcasts for The Economist. He noted that – even for a storied publication – the initial impulse was to make podcasts free. They were a marketing tool, primarily, and a source of revenue second. However, when Zanny Minton Beddoes took over as Editor-in-Chief, that philosophy changed.

Shields explained: “Her vision was, since 1843 The Economist has been a subscriber business. That’s how we make our money, that’s our brand. So we have these lovely podcasts. But to her, they were effectively free and from that insight, we started looking to when we could start paywalling. And as came up in the sessions before, it’s a pain in the ass, especially from a tech point of view.”

He states that Apple Connect was the beginning of that change, taking the onus off publishers to come up with that tech themselves. It freed media businesses up to experiment and, in The Economist’s case, to bring a free-to-access product more in line with its paid-for portfolio.

It is a reflection of a more sophisticated approach to monetising digital content adopted across the media ecosystem. Just as articles and news were originally put out for free online, so too were podcasts. To some extent, paywalling podcasts is a course correction as well.

Access vs. immediate reward

For publications that don’t have as strong a commitment to paywalling content as The Economist, the conversation around payment is more nuanced.

The i paper, for instance, has historically monetised its commoditised news content via ads. That approach means that audiences are habituated to receiving its content for free, making the on-ramp to charging for its content steeper.

Jamie East is DMG Media’s head of podcasts. He said that, in order to monetise its podcasts, the team had to look elsewhere within DMG’s portfolio to determine what audiences value. They launched a subscription podcast product for the Daily Mail in April, The Crime Desk, bringing together exclusive episodes and older true crime series.

Citing New Scientist’s approach as instructional, he pointed out that the Daily Mail has content its audiences do find to be premium, and which can therefore be monetised: “As we all know, the podcast audience is also highly engaged. They want to understand a bit more, and with something as regimented as true crime… we knew that there was an opportunity to create a tier. It would not have worked if we’d have just done all of our pods behind the paywall, because there’s not really a common denominator between verticals.”

That speaks to a wider consideration around which topics and verticals are both suitable for audio and viable for monetisation by paywalls. As with any content, the adage of going a mile wide and an inch deep attracts fly-by-night audiences in their droves – but they are unlikely to be converted to paying subscribers. 

Meanwhile, podcasts that dive deep into topics with plenty of room for exploration have a tonne of potential to be monetised through direct payments.

Fan support

As podcast audiences have grown, there have been plenty of examples of communities forming around the kernel of the series. Those communities are often keen to support the show’s creators and hosts (as the rest of the Summit demonstrated, these are still the big draws for audiences) monetarily.

While that can take the form of direct payments, these are fan communities in the same way people are fans of bands, sports teams, or authors. They will happily wear their fandom – quite literally – on their sleeves. To that end, they will purchase tickets to live events, apparel and other merchandise, and act as ambassadors for the podcasts.

That is absolutely the case for the audience of Ghost Huns. This paranormal-focused comedy podcast is widely available to listen to for free, and co-host Hannah Byczkowski suggested that open nature is responsible for much of the show’s success in terms of growth.

That is backed up by co-host Suzie Preece, who said: “I think it’s just about growing it slowly. I know that the way I consume podcasts is, I want to access content for free so I can see if I like it, and then the extras are what I would maybe go in for. 

“If they really like us, there’s a small percentage of people who go into Patreon, but a lot of people are just consuming our content for free. They’re the ones who come to our live shows. They buy the merch. So I think it is important to grow that [fan] base of people who eventually will pay off.”

In the end, the podcast ecosystem is broad enough that there are a vast range of means by which they can be monetised. Direct payments – enabled by platforms like Apple and Spotify – are one such method, one that works especially well for in-depth, regular podcasts.

Rounding off the session on an optimistic note, Mellor pointed out that while the industry – and individual creators – have varying levels of success with live events and merch, audiences are still hungry for audio content. 

If a podcast resonates with audiences, and the opportunity to support it through payment is presented to them, it is possible for podcasts to pay their way. As Shields explained: “I think we probably underestimated how prepared people were to pay. And I hope that as more and more people do it, it will just become a standard thing.”

Thanks to CrowdfinderVideo and Syno who sponsored the Publisher Newsletter Summit. 

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