City Cast Recalibrates, Adding Social Video and New Markets

Nearly five years after its founding, City Cast is recalibrating its local-news formula. 

The media startup, backed by Graham Holdings and known for its daily podcasts and newsletters, is shuttering its operations in Houston and Boise while launching in the Twin Cities and Seattle. At the same time, it’s introducing social video as a core pillar of its model—part of what founder David Plotz calls “City Cast 2.0.”

The moves follow a period of rapid expansion that saw the company grow to more than a dozen markets in three years. Now, City Cast has learned enough to refine which cities and formats make sense.

“We realized that we weren’t in the right mix of cities,” Plotz said. “Houston is just too big to feel like a single community, and Boise, while wonderful, is too small. We do best in places with an urban, left-leaning, engaged audience, and a lively local media scene.”

Finding the right markets

City Cast now operates in 13 cities with a staff of roughly 90. After launching in 2021 with two markets, Chicago and Denver, it expanded to 11 by January 2024, and opened operations in Nashville and Austin last April.

Each market runs a small local team—typically a host, writer, producer, and salesperson—supported by a central production and marketing hub. The company’s audience continues to grow: Newsletter subscribers have climbed to around 500,000 from 350,000 last year, according to Plotz, and its podcast listenership has risen to 240,000 monthly users from 175,000 a year ago.

City Cast is unprofitable, but its progress is notable. Revenue will nearly double in 2025 to between $4 million and $6 million, according to Plotz, driven by a mix of advertising and memberships. That’s a significant jump from the roughly $3 million in revenue it touted last spring, as ADWEEK first reported. The company has around 5,000 paying “Neighbors,” who contribute $10 per month or $100 per year for ad-free shows, exclusive newsletters, merchandise, and access to events.

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The shift in markets accompanies a broader repositioning of the company’s mission. 

City Cast now frames its work less as producing daily shows and more as helping people “be better actors in their cities,” according to Plotz. That civic orientation has informed its event programming—street festivals in Salt Lake City and Portland, smaller gatherings for members—and even its membership language, rebranding “Members” as “Neighbors.”

“We’re not just making podcasts,” Plotz said. “We’re building communities that help people learn about, and participate in, the places they live.”

Adding social video

In its next phase, City Cast is expanding beyond newsletters and podcasts into short-form video on platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. Rather than full-episode uploads, the videos feature local hosts riffing on daily stories, showcasing events, and giving personality-driven commentary.

The move is both a growth strategy and a bet on creator-led storytelling. 

“When people think of the quintessential figure of their city, it should be our host,” Plotz said. “That’s what we’re working toward.”

The shift makes strategic sense, according to Bob Cohn, president of the local media startup The Baltimore Banner.

“If you’re going into younger markets, having a social-video component is smart,” Cohn said. “Both podcasts and social video lend themselves to personality-driven journalism, and building around people who are genuine characters can be a wise approach. It’s also the kind of work that’s hardest for AI to replicate.”

Cohn added that City Cast’s focus on certain civic attributes—progressive, highly engaged, college-town audiences—also distinguishes it from more traditional local outlets. 

“They’re not big enough to do tons of original reporting, so there has to be a vibrant conversation already happening in those places,” he said. “Their product thrives when there’s something to riff on.”

Internally, the company has centralized its production operations and overhauled its content cadence. Podcasts now rely more on recurring contributors than one-off guests, and the popular “Roundup” episodes are airing twice weekly.

Plotz called this next chapter a reset: a smaller set of markets, a clearer civic mission, and a renewed emphasis on community and hosts as local personalities. 

“Media is change or die,” he said. “We’ve built something that makes cities better by making people more engaged in them. That’s the work we’re doubling down on.”