Podcast Leaders On The Medium’s Future: More Heart, More Innovation.

At this month’s Milken Institute Global Conference, a panel of podcasting leaders debated the evolving definition of a podcast and the medium’s shifting role in the media landscape. That included a question that’s surprisingly tough to answer: what is a podcast, exactly?

“Everyone wants a podcast, no one wants to make a podcast. It’s a lot of work—a good one anyway,” said Jessica Cordova Kramer, CEO of Lemonada Media, setting the tone for a wide-ranging discussion about podcasting’s identity and future. For Kramer, it all starts with “the core audio experience,” but the definition is fluid: “It could involve video, could involve social, could involve live events, but the primary definition for us is that RSS feed is coming into your ears from one of the awesome platforms.”

CAA’s Josh Lindgren compared the task of defining podcasts to poetry: “It’s really contextual. It’s sort of in the eye of the beholder — I know it when I see it.”

For Wondery founder Hernan Lopez, the evolution is clear. “It used to be an audio-first medium, and now it’s audio video,” he said. “A podcast is a show designed around the human voice, meant to be consumed on demand.”

Ben Meiselas, co-host of The MeidasTouch Podcast, emphasized the role of community in podcasting’s success: “Our podcast is a show that, to me, is fueled and built by a community. The community builds the podcast, and a podcast thrives and succeeds when it truly understands what they say.”

As for video’s role in podcasting’s future, Meiselas said simply, “I think the key word here is simulcast. And I think that’s where this is all going.”

Lindgren cautioned that video isn’t always the best fit, however. “It’s truly not one size fits all,” he said. “Certainly, video is a growing segment of the podcast world, and it's definitely going to keep growing. But that doesn't mean that you can have a very successful business and achieve your aims doing the value in the podcast.” Lindgren thinks podcasters should consider it as entering an entirely different industry, where distribution is different, and monetization is different—including the way that advertising and sponsorship work. “It's a pretty complex consideration,” he said. 

Lopez provided context from his own research. “Most shows today on video are discovered more often than audio-only shows just because of the way the algorithms work — but every creator has to look at that against the trade-offs,” he said.

For Mary Alice Haney, co-host of the SHE MD podcast and CEO of Ovii Health, video has been transformational. “I also think we're building brands” she said. “We've been approached to create a television show, a book—that's traditional use of traditional media. So it is about what are you going to do as a creator. Do you want to create this ecosystem?”

As Podcast News Daily reported earlier, Owl & Co., the media management consulting firm led by Lopez, also released his research that calculates the podcast market adds up to $7.3 billion when advertising revenue is combined with consumer spending on subscriptions and events, as well as revenue generated from the production of branded content. “I still believe that the podcast industry is being undervalued, and that $7.3 billion effort is probably a fraction of what it should be based against,” Lopez said 

The conversation came full circle with a reflection on podcasting’s emotional core. 

“I think that this industry is way more about the heart than it is about the head,” Lindgren said. “When I’m thinking about what can break through in this space. there’s that ‘je ne sais quoi’ of can this host reach an audience? Can they connect with an audience and hold and keep them?”