Listen up: News podcasts share the story of water pollution in the UK

Bad news has the ability to spread quickly in our hyper-connected modern world of multiple platforms. For PRs, this means more channels to monitor than ever before for signs of crisis… but it also provides extra ways to boost important stories, connecting audiences to vital information.

One crisis with far-reaching implications for the UK audience over the last few years has been polluted waterways. This issue was put to politicians in the run-up to our General Election this summer, discussed with frustration across social platforms, and covered by the media in print, online, and in podcasts.

To highlight the impact of the podcasting format as an increasingly useful way to connect with audiences, we tracked the story of water pollution in the UK, and internationally, across podcasts from 1 November 2021 to 29 September 2024.

So many podcasts… and for good reason

2022’s Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report on podcasting projected that the industry would generate $2 billion in revenue in 2023, and $4 billion by 2024. The prediction of podcasting’s emergence as a format for storytelling has proved right – not just among friendship groups sharing anecdotes on their sofas (of which there are many), but for publishers, too.

The Daily Telegraph’s political editor Ben Riley-Smith highlighted podcasts as ‘a huge booming area for news consumption’ when speaking on the changing political landscape in the UK in 2023, and other publishers and big media brands have capitalised on this in 2024:

‘It makes sense for publishers to be moving towards the podcast space,’ believes Reach Studio’s head of content Yara Silva, whose team launched The Division Bell podcast to coincide with the UK General Election, and the Euro Thrash vodcast for Euro 2024.

‘People are just busier and busier – it’s so easy to consume a podcast while you’re doing other things. Podcasts are only going to get bigger and more important to publishers’.

The importance of news podcasts to audiences is also clear when tracking mentions of the format on X since 2021:

Mentions of news podcasts reached a zenith on X in June 2023 as the industry ‘boomed’, and it continues to be a source of discussion on social media. It’s now a firmly established format to turn to for news, with listeners/viewers no longer posting about a ‘podcast’, but specific shows, namechecking where they heard about certain topics.

Examining mentions of the two biggest podcasts in the UK – The Rest is Politics, which launched in March 2022, and The News Agents, launched in August 2022 – proves podcasting’s utility as a news source. Peaks occur around key events in the news cycle – the obvious example being the UK General Election causing a spike in mentions for both podcasts this summer.

Podcasts aren’t just for entertainment – they are also turned to by the public as a way to stay informed on events happening around the world, as well as closer to home.

How podcasts reached audiences with reports of water pollution

Water pollution is an issue faced across the world to varying degrees – tracking related news shows a firm focus on the topic in UK and US regions especially. Following mentions also shows how these stories reached further audiences with publisher-affiliated podcasts.

UK media outlets including BBC News and The Guardian have an outsized impact on the global conversation. Their influence on ‘greener’ socially progressive conversations is to be expected within their UK base, but this international dominance is surprising… Until the impact of their podcast brand extensions is considered. Both outlets reported on water pollution, and then took up the story in their podcasts to share extra information and delve deeper into the specifics. By contrast, US and Australian outlets like The Washington Post or ABC Australia produced a significant amount of written content, but did not fully utilise their podcast channels.

The ‘boom’ of podcasting as a format for news reporting isn’t just the result of a faddish focus within the publishing industry – audiences are listening (and watching, when there is accompanying video). PR and comms teams tasked with raising awareness by securing coverage in the press should expand their focus to aural formats alongside the traditional written word – important stories can reach audiences across every platform out there to engage with.

For connecting with podcasts relevant to your brand or niche, try Vuelio’s Podcast Monitoring – providing access to 65k podcasts as well as insight into audience sentiment and emerging trends within the world of audio content.

Not sure which platform is right for your next campaign? Check out the benefits of each social media platform – and how Vuelio can help you make the most of them – in this blog post.