Tom Webster

Tom Webster: A Crucial Metric of Podcasting’s Health

Posted on by Tom Webster

by Tom Webster

In his inaugural guest column, Tom Webster illuminates hidden signifiance in metrics from The Infinite Dial, the annual report on American listening produced by Edison Research and Triton Digital. Have you wondered about the conversion rate from monthly to weekly podcast listening? Or mere awareness to actually listening? Those numbers are significant: “What converts people from awareness to usage to habit is not the inevitability of the passage of time, it’s improvement — better content, better access, better discovery — better podcasts.” A must read.
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Steve Goldstein: Previously Audio was on Nobody’s Radar – In 2020 it was on Everyone’s Radar

Posted on by Steve Goldstein

by Steve Goldstein
In this year-in-review guest column, Steve Goldstein ruminates on audio’s growth from outdated also-ran in the media universe, to an essential component of the media mix. And the audio story is more than just Spotify and SiriusXM. Continue Reading →

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Steve Goldstein: How to improve podcast listening on 60 million smart speakers. A talk with Tom Webster.

Posted on by Steve Goldstein

by Steve Goldstein
In this guest column, Steve Goldstein chats with Edison Research SVP and ubiquitous keynote speaker Tom Webster about the podcast experience through smart speakers. the conversation is informed by stats and charts from the Edison/NPR Smart Audio Report. Continue Reading →

Edison Research webinar: Podcast listening grows and shifts

Posted on by Brad Hill

In a zoom webinar yesterday, Edison Research Senior Vice President Tom Webster laid out some metrics about podcast listening before and during the covid-19 era. The session was part of a lunchtime series from Edison. Deploying recent research from the company’s Podcast Consumer Tracking Report and the ongoing Share of Ear consumer survey project, Webster described some changes in American podcast listening. The underlying premise why that the disruption of routines, especially the widespread loss of morning commuting in cars, has made significant changes in how much, and when, Americans listen to podcasts. Click through for more. Continue Reading →

Edison Research COVID listening webinar set for Thursday

Posted on by Brad Hill

Edison Research is set to deliver a short webinar as part of a lunchtime series, this one titled Listening Habits During Quarantine: A Share of Ear® Report. “Share of Ear” is an ongoing subscription survey project which measures time spent in all kinds of audio among Americans. Edison SVP Tom Webster will present the brisk, 15-minute report. Click through for the registration link. Continue Reading →

Weekly podcast listeners skew away from AM/FM during coronavirus, and Joe Rogan rules (Edison)

Posted on by Brad Hill

The most actively engaged podcast listeners — people who listen at least weekly — are, as a group, falling away from AM/FM listening to an extent, and also streaming internet radio. This is one result of an Edison Research survey, as described by SVP Tom Webster in a webinar. Edison also displayed a top-1o list of podcasts with the greatest reach. Guess which is #1 — by a big margin. Continue Reading →

Edison Research releases its first quarterly Top Ten Podcast ranker

Posted on by Brad Hill

Edison Research has  broken out a Top Ten Podcast ranker, which measures podcast popularity among weekly podcast listeners. The ranker will be released quarterly, and will represent a rolling four-quarter average. This method smooths out irregularities such as quick-rise, quick-fall podcast flashes in the pan. Continue Reading →

Infinite Dial date is announced: March 9

Posted on by Brad Hill

Edison Research and Triton Digital, co-producers of The Infinite Dial, have announced the date of this year’s webinar release: It is March 9 at 2:00pm EST. The broad and detailed survey of American listening behavior has been conducted annually since 1998, producing long-running trend indicators, and is widely considered to be an authoritative snapshot of how and where Americans listen to audio. Continue Reading →

“The New Curators”: video and slides from RAIN Summit West

Posted on by Brad Hill

At RAIN Summit West in Las Vegas, Tom Webster of Edison Research gave an informative and entertaining special presentation called “The New Curators.” He included new, previously unpublished information from The Infinite Dial 2014, a joint project of Edison and Triton Digital. Also: “Eyeglasses, dresses, Gnutella, and the most embarrassing record in my record collection.” Click for video. Continue Reading →