ABSTRACT The increasing diffusion of smart speakers results in substantial challenges for news publishers. Voice-based formats – especially news podcasts – gain significant importance via smart speakers, raising the question of displacement effects on other news media. We investigate the interplay of smart speakers and podcasts with news consumption data from 1,528 respondents collected in Germany. We control for selection effects using propensity score matching and find (I) a higher usage of news podcasts as well as (II) higher podcast news consumption intensity, both driven by smart speaker diffusion. Additionally, podcast usage increases the total cross-media news consumption intensity without displacing other media. We provide converging evidence that smart speakers are a relevant complementary news content channel to access podcasts, which subsequently contribute to strengthening news consumption through other media.
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