Local Podcasts in a Growing Video World | David Plotz of City Cast

On Episode 658 of the April 8th, 2026 LIVE New Media Show, Host Rob Greenlee, Podcast Hall of Famer, is joined live by David Plotz, founder and CEO of CityCast.fm, and co-host of the Political Gabfest podcast from Slate for a deep conversation about one of the most important and under-discussed opportunities in media right now: local podcasts. If you are trying to understand where podcasting may still have real, untapped opportunities in 2026 and beyond, this is one of those conversations that point to an important answer: Local. Explore what local podcasts can become in a media environment increasingly shaped by video, platforms, social discovery, and changing audience habits. The conversation starts with local audio, but it quickly opens into something bigger: trust, emotional connection, local relevance, and the question of whether city-based media may be one of the strongest growth areas left in podcasting. David frames City Cast as a network of daily local podcasts, newsletters, social content, and events, built around helping people feel more connected to the cities they live in. The real takeaway in this episode is that local podcasting is not simply a smaller version of national podcasting. Local Podcasting may never match the scale of national audio, but it can offer something more personal and durable: a trusted daily relationship grounded in place. That becomes a powerful differentiator at a time when many creators and media companies are chasing reach but struggling to build loyalty. David brings a rare combination to this topic because he is not just theorizing about local media from the outside. He has built and led major editorial organizations, co-hosted one of podcasting’s longest-running political shows, and is now running one of the clearest experiments in local podcast-first media. In the episode, he explains that podcasting’s deepest strength is not raw information delivery but feeling, intimacy, and connection. He argues that podcasting works when people are not just informed but emotionally connected to the speakers and the place being discussed. One of the most useful parts of this episode is hearing David describe what City Cast is actually trying to replace and what it is not. He makes clear that City Cast is not primarily a breaking-news operation. Instead, it builds on an existing local news ecosystem and tries to become the smartest, most interesting, and most delightful daily conversation about what matters in a city. That distinction matters. It means City Cast is not trying to be a direct substitute for newspapers or broadcast radio in every function. It is trying to become additive, conversational, and habit-forming in ways that better fit the strengths of podcasting. Why is local podcasting still so hard to scale? David is candid about the addressable audience being smaller, discovery being difficult, and the economics still being figured out. Those are not minor obstacles. That leads directly into the video. One of the strongest strategic insights in the episode is David’s acknowledgment that City Cast did not lean into social and video early enough. He says plainly that the company is now correcting that. The reason is not that audio has failed. The reason is that discovery increasingly happens elsewhere. Younger audiences find local information through social media, YouTube, and short-form feeds. Audio may still be the best format for relationships and routines, but video and social are becoming essential for visibility, especially among younger audiences. A core theme in this episode is that the real opportunity may not be “local podcasts” as a narrow category, but local media brands built around podcasts. City Cast is already moving in that direction through newsletters, events, social distribution, and membership. David’s description of the “Neighbors” membership concept is especially revealing. The winning local media brands may be the ones that understand how to keep audio at the center while surrounding it with the right mix of video, social, newsletters, and community. In that sense, this conversation is not just about local podcasts. It is about where the media gets human again. Guest and topic links: City Cast: https://citycast.fm Your City Could Be Better Podcast: https://citycast.fm/your-city-could-be-better-podcast David Plotz LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-plotz-ab02164a New Media Show: https://newmediashow.com/live Rob Greenlee: https://robgreenlee.com Rob Greenlee YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@RobGreenlee Rob Greenlee LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robgreenlee Want to create live audio and video show streams like this? Support Trust Factor Lab by checking out StreamYard: https://streamyard.com/pal/d/5606177711325184