Gains in NPR’s web traffic and podcasting audience are among the findings in the Pew Research Center’s 2015 State of the Media report released Wednesday.
NPR’s monthly podcast downloads increased 42 percent from 2013 to 2014, according to the study. Pew found that NPR saw 54 million monthly podcast downloads in 2014, compared to 38 million in 2013.
Researchers also reported that NPR’s sponsorship revenue from podcasts doubled from 2013 to 2014. According to the network, podcast sponsorship revenue during the first five months of fiscal year 2015 had already surpassed all of the previous year’s income. (NPR did not provide revenue numbers, only percent growth.)
NPR also saw a large increase in visitors to its website. According to comScore data, NPR had a 35 percent increase in monthly unique visitors in 2014, following on a 32 percent increase the previous year. NPR.org had 28 million unique monthly visitors in 2014, 53 percent of which viewed the site on a mobile device.
However, the network did see a decline in its weekly broadcast audience. According to the report, listenership fell 4 percent in 2014, from 27.3 million listeners in 2013 to 26.2 million in 2014.
The Pew report did not include audience or financial data for PBS NewsHour as it has previously because the data was not provided.
Related stories from Current:
- NewsHour offers more international coverage than rest of TV newscasts, Pew report finds
- Nonprofit newsrooms struggle with long-term funding, Pew study finds
- NPR is building a podcast discovery tool