The conversations usually don’t involve much pushback. Podcasters aren’t held to the same standards of accuracy as the traditional press, so there’s little emphasis on fact-checking. “It turns out a huge proportion of younger demographics just don’t care about any of that”, says Douglas McCabe, CEO at Enders Analysis. “The feeling is: ‘I’m getting the authentic voice, and I’m not subject to whatever the agenda of the editorial newsroom is’,” he says.
It’s unclear where the balance between old and new media will resettle. “I can’t see [traditional media] having the same scale of influence and commercial heft in the marketplace in the next five years that they had five or 10 years ago”, says McCabe. “I don’t think that’s controversial. It’s inevitable”.