All-news and news/talk programmers are seeing increased consumption of their content thanks to a news cycle hotter than July’s brutal heat wave. In the past two weeks, there has been an assassination attempt on a former President, immediately followed by the Republican National Convention. Then President Biden succumbed to a chorus of calls for him to drop out of the 2024 race, followed by a wave of support for VP Kamala Harris. Monday’s resignation of embattled Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle has kept the streak going.
“We always see tune-in during Presidential election years, but the preliminary numbers we are seeing over the past few days are quite positive,” says Chris Berry, iHeartMedia Executive VP of News/Talk Programming.
Jennifer Seelig, VP of All-News Format at Audacy, notes that breaking news is “a hallmark” of its all-news stations, which include fully staffed outlets in New York, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco and other markets. “We communicate and collaborate across markets as warranted — exchanging sound, ideas and contacts to supplement each station’s coverage.”
Berry, too, underscores the value of breaking news as a listening driver. The assassination attempt and Biden’s announcement — both of which occurred on weekends — “provided significant digital engagement which should be a strong indicator of over-the-air listening,” he says.
Although political news is dominating the current cycle and boosting listening metrics, the stories that move the needle the most happen closer to home. After all, most radio listening occurs in the car where traffic and weather can wreak havoc with commutes.
“Terrible traffic and weather events are what drive our biggest Nielsen spikes,” says Julie Ziegler, Director of News & Programming at Hubbard news WTOP Washington, D.C. “We saw it in June with tornadoes in the D.C. area hitting in PM drive and a Beltway shutdown in AM Drive.” The bumps occur online, too. “When tornados touched down in a local county one Wednesday in June, we saw a 49% lift in web traffic,” she adds.
Multiplatform Distribution
Given today’s news consumption habits, multimedia distribution across a variety of channels is essential, from over the air, to push alerts, to on-demand audio offerings. “Over the past several years millions of News/Talk listeners have learned to engage with the iHeartRadio app, and when we push out breaking updates, we find that they come to their local stations, and they stick with the story,” Berry explains.
Drew Anderssen, VP of News/Talk Format for Audacy, says the company is seeing “tremendous growth” in digital metrics. “We see it in our engagement with the audience on all of our platforms,” he says. “Our all-news and news/talk stations are seeing significant increases in the number of total listening hours and number of streaming starts, some by more than double digits year over year.”
Given the historic nature of recent political developments — and the audience appetite for coverage of political news — Audacy devoted its daily news podcast “On Deadline” exclusively to political coverage last week. “The audience response was impressive,” Seelig says. Following Biden’s announcement Sunday, downloads of the podcast shot up 70% month-to-date.
No Summer Slowdown
While a ratings bump is typical in the fall for election years, this summer’s red-hot news cycle could trigger a spike during a typically slower season. “The busy news cycle in summer ‘24 can only help in the traditionally slower summer months,” says WTOP’s Ziegler. “Americans will be turning to the sources they trust most to help answer their questions. I see the next month being incredibly interesting as the Dems get through their convention. Then, there is the anticipation of the next debate. All things news consumers will be interested in keeping a pulse on, which can only help ratings.”
Audacy’s Seelig and Anderssen are bullish on what potential Nielsen results will look like in the short term. “Based on history, recent audience data, anecdotal listener feedback — mixed with gut instinct — I do feel confident predicting solid listening of our all-news stations over the coming months,” says Seelig. Anderssen points to a 55% increase in total listening hours so far this month at news/talkers WPHT Philadelphia and WYRD-FM Greenville, SC and +40% for WCCO Minneapolis and KMBZ-FM Kansas City. “Many other stations in the vertical are pacing to be up double digits this month,” Anderssen adds, “which means that when the news broke, the audience turned to Audacy for trusted reporting.”
While cautiously optimistic, Berry is reluctant to make predictions. “I think it would be best to wait until after the election,” he says. “That said the more newsworthy events that happen like Biden’s exit, the more our listeners come to our stations to stay informed on breaking news.”
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