The podcast industry has been on the rise for the past few years, but some big brand advertisers still have their doubts about whether on-demand audio will become a more mainstream medium.
For his part, the CEO of NPR thinks it will.
“The same thing happened during the beginning of the web and people creating blogs—everyone had to have one. And now podcasts: everybody has one,” NPR Chief Executive Jarl Mohn said on the latest episode of the WSJ Media Mix podcast. (Yes, it’s a podcast episode about podcasts.)
Mr. Mohn, a former disc jockey and cable TV executive at the E! network and MTV, said he welcomes more competition in the podcasting world.
“I’d rather have a smaller percentage of a much, much bigger pie. Something that’s really healthy, where 90% of the population is listening to podcasts and we’ve got a great measurement tool that packaged goods, automobiles and all the major sponsors can use to buy sponsorship, underwriting or advertising,” he said.
But Mr. Mohn said that there was a “mythology” that young people aren’t listening to traditional radio. Rather, he said podcasts are a “wonderful adjunct” to NPR’s core business of selling shows to local affiliates.
Apple reigns as the biggest distributor of podcasts, but one frequent complaint among producers is that the tech giant keeps precious listener data to itself.
“We are trying to find a way to get access to that data in a way that doesn’t violate any of their principles about privacy,” Mr. Mohn said. “The more we know about who’s listening, the better a job we are going to be able to do to monetize it.”
While NPR often faces political pressure over the federal funding of public radio, Mr. Mohn said he isn’t necessarily more concerned about it now that Donald Trump has been elected president.
“We think about it all the time, but not necessarily related to this election specifically. It’s always an issue and it’s always something we’re concerned about,” Mr. Mohn said.
He added that, given the rise of more partisan news sources, NPR sees itself as “an antidote to that.”
On the business side, Mr. Mohn and NPR have eschewed the sponsored content business, where media companies help fashion articles and videos on behalf of marketers. “We think that that might put our brand at risk,” he said.
For more with Mr. Mohn, check out the episode and subscribe to the WSJ Media Mix podcast on iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify or Stitcher.
Write to Steven Perlberg at steven.perlberg@wsj.com