I think that this article is likely to give people a skewed understanding of podcasting as a whole. It would be sort of like looking at Taylor Swift and Drake a

I think that this article is likely to give people a skewed understanding of podcasting as a whole. It would be sort of like looking at Taylor Swift and Drake and trying to draw conclusions about what the music profession looks like for a small town or regional working musician. There are people who support themselves through podcasting without any sponsorships or ads at all. There are people with small dedicated communities or who are influential in their own niche. Again, it's just like music. Sure there are mega-stars, but as soon as you get outside of popular genres it's pretty common for things to be dominated by successful bands whose members still have day jobs. Edit: I want to make sure to say that I don't mean this in some sort of pretentious "real art is stuff that normies haven't heard of" way. I just mean that as a practical matter if you are into non-mainstream stuff then there are probably lots of artists that are very famous in your community but aren't pulling in huge salaries.