For years, Democrats heavily outranked Republicans as news podcast consumers. But new data from Signal Hill Insights and Triton Digital shows that it has changed dramatically.
According to new data, in 2024’s second quarter, 41% of survey respondents labeling themselves as Democrats were news podcast consumers. In the same quarter in 2025, that figure had dropped to 32%.
On the other side of the political aisle, in 2024, 30% of news podcast consumers self-identified as Republicans. That number jumped to 39% in 2025.
Of those podcast listeners who started consuming in the past six months, 42% called themselves Republicans, compared to 27% of Democrats. On the other hand, of those who had been podcast listeners for five or more years, Democrats were the larger share.
“News podcasts are not only finding themselves increasingly at the center of the national
conversation, they are appealing to an inquisitive and attractive audience that’s growing even
faster than podcast consumption in general,” Signal Hill Insights President Paul Riismandel said. “All good reasons for publishers and advertisers to keep a close eye on the category.”
The data from Signal Hill Insights and Triton Digital lends more credence to “The Podcast Election” moniker that was given to the 2024 presidential election, with high-profile interviews and stories relating to both President Donald Trump and challenger Kamala Harris dominating the news cycle in the run-up to the election.
During 2025’s second quarter, the news podcast genre hit a new high in share of podcast listening. 27.3% of monthly podcast consumers said they listened to or watched a news podcast in the past month. That figure is two full percentage points higher than the same window in 2024.
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