NFL insider Dianna Russini is bringing something pretty unique to The Athletic.
Russini is in her second year as The Athletic’s top NFL newsbreaker, and generated significant buzz around the launch of her Scoop City podcast with cohost Chase Daniel in July. While Russini is well-known for her deep reporting and detailed feature stories on the biggest teams and players in the NFL, Scoop City is unique for more than just the reporting Russini provides or Daniel’s analysis.
In an interview with Marketing Brew, The Athletic’s vice president of advertising Lauren Funke said so far, Scoop City brings double the amount of women listeners than an average Athletic podcast.
That may not sound important, but for an NFL podcast on a traditional sports platform, it can be huge. As the article suggests, new audiences open media companies up to selling new kinds of advertisements. That means new and deeper revenue streams.
At the same time, it can have a ripple effect.
Funke told Marketing Brew that listenership for The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show is up 97 percent since March, and two-thirds of the audience are women. The Athletic’s audience for its long-running women’s soccer podcast Full Time is up 28 percent since May as well.
In a saturated podcast market, especially in sports, it can be hard to beat out competition to launch new shows or grow existing ones. The Athletic is showing that women are an untapped audience segment that can generate real growth.
Recent moves from iHeartMedia and Vox to invest in digital women’s sports shows indicate this market won’t be ignored for long.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.