A 16-year timeline of news stories proclaiming podcasts the next big thing
The kind of image that often accompanies stories about podcasting. Photo: Vulture and Karl Tapales/Getty Images Podcast coverage has a peculiar history. Whether fueled by wishful thinking or impatience, the media’s takes on the format often come in fits and starts. Many outlets have declared podcasts “the next big thing” over the years, and there’s been a lot of discourse surrounding podcasting’s perceived booms, busts, and even blips.
The early reporting on podcasts continues to push the narrative of a previously uninhabited land becoming a space for rebellion and renaissance. Here the scope is smaller, focusing on authors who are taking advantage of podcasting in a way that allows “them to break every rule in the business,” according to The New York Times. They mean the podcasters “use music and a full cast more liberally than traditional audiobooks.
Photo: The New York Times “The Comic Who Explores Comedy’s Darkest Side” The New York Times, January 6, 2011 Almost a year after the Rolling Stone list, The A.V. Club decides there are too many comedy podcasts. The author says Earwolf’s 17 and Nerdist’s 15 podcasts are overkill and pleads, “but for the good of comedy, people need to stop creating new [podcasts],” adding, “if the podcast pool stopped growing today — if every comedian with a germ of a podcast idea decided to go in a different direction — nothing would suffer.
“Podcasting used to be a novel way of distributing audio programming over the Internet, but it is up 25 percent year-over-year and almost 40 million people listen to some form of podcast. It gained traction with the introduction of the iPod, hence the name. Serial is arguably the medium’s first breakout hit. … To call something the most popular podcast might seem a little like identifying the tallest leprechaun, but the numbers are impressive for any media platform.
Other choice descriptors from the first installment of a five-part series on podcasting include the word “mainstream,” the phrase, “the next big thing,” and the declaration, “The biggest aspiration of the day: to become the Netflix of spoken audio.” Then in November Radiolab’s Jab Abumrad tells The Guardian that while “rooting for the podcast boom,” he’s “worried it may be a bubble waiting to burst.
“Listen up — again! The Podcast boom is still just getting started” Chicago Tribune, February 16, 2018 The year 2018 in terms of media coverage of the never-ending podcast boom seems tame compared to what’s about to come, minus a gripping headline from Independent Australia that asks, “Is podcasting the new Gutenberg Revolution?” Elsewhere, a more measured hope blossoms. The Chicago Tribune, for example, is confident “podcasting’s time is here.
In 2019, everyone really goes wild for podcasts, but still can’t decide if they’re booming or busting. Only 20 days into the new year CBS News publishes “The Golden Age of podcasts.”“What’s more, these humble chunks of audio have emerged as the most significant and exciting cultural innovation of the new century. In an age when we were promised jet packs, or at least augmented-reality goggles, it turns out what we’ve really been craving is the companionship of human voices nestled in our ears.
In July, a divisive article from The New York Times titled Have We Hit Peak Podcast? comes out. The deck answers the question immediately: “If past experience is any indication, a shakeout is nigh.” Steve Pratt, a veteran CBC producer, points out that “just because Joe Rogan can do it well, doesn’t mean the average Joe can.”
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