Breaking the News: How Smart Speakers and Podcasts are Changing the Way We Consume Media

The increasing diffusion of smart speakers (e.g., Amazon’s Alexa) in households has resulted in substantial challenges for news publishers. New voice-based news formats (especially podcasts) have gained significant importance via smart speakers, raising the question of cannibalization effects on other news media. To answer three research questions, we investigate the relevance of smart speakers and podcasts for news consumption using data collected from 1,528 respondents from a representative survey about news consumption across various media types. We control for selection effects using propensity score matching and find that smart speaker diffusion drives news consumption through podcasts in two aspects: a higher usage of news podcasts as well as higher news consumption intensity through podcasts. Additionally, podcast usage increases the total cross-media news consumption intensity without cannibalizing the consumption rates of other media, implying that podcast consumption has a supporting effect on other media. We provide converging evidence that smart speakers are relevant as a complementary news content channel to access podcasts, which subsequently contribute to strengthening news consumption through other media.