with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
with Steve Pratt, Author of the hit book Earn It
CASE STUDY
Company size
Website
Campaign Legal Center (CLC) is a nonpartisan nonprofit legal organization working on voting rights, campaign finance, redistricting and government accountability.
These issues shape how American democracy works. But the legal and policy details can be difficult to follow, particularly for people who don’t spend their days reading court decisions or tracking legislation.
CLC had already created Democracy Decoded, a podcast that explored the institutions, laws and decisions shaping American democracy.
The show had strong subject-matter expertise, access to knowledgeable guests and an important editorial purpose.
But producing a credible podcast and growing its audience are two different jobs.
CLC wanted to strengthen its storytelling, reach more people and better understand how audiences were engaging with the show.
Complex legal issues don’t always make for compelling listening.
An episode about election administration, for example, can become a discussion of procedures, regulations and legal interpretations. All important. Not always gripping.
But behind those subjects are people making decisions, navigating institutions and experiencing the consequences.
Those stories give listeners a way into complicated topics.
CLC needed a production partner that could preserve the legal accuracy and substance of the show while making the storytelling more accessible.
The goal wasn’t to simplify the issues until the nuance disappeared. It was to help listeners understand why those issues mattered.
The show also needed a more deliberate approach to discovery and promotion.
With many competing podcasts, a strong episode doesn’t automatically find its audience.
Titles, descriptions, distribution, partnerships, organic promotion and paid media all influence whether potential listeners discover a show.
CLC needed a coordinated strategy that connected the editorial work to audience development.
And it needed better measurement.
The existing analytics weren’t providing a sufficiently clear picture of what was driving growth, how listeners were engaging, or which promotional decisions were delivering results.
The business problem was clear: CLC needed a podcast that could explain complex issues, attract more listeners and provide reliable evidence of its performance.
That required more than producing another season.
It required a stronger editorial and audience growth system.
JAR partnered with Campaign Legal Center to strengthen Democracy Decoded across editorial development, production, distribution, audience growth and measurement.
The show already had a strong foundation. Our job wasn’t to replace its purpose or subject-matter expertise.
It was to help those strengths reach more people.
We focused on three connected areas: making the stories more compelling, improving how episodes reached audiences, and giving CLC a clearer picture of performance.
We worked with CLC to refine the show’s editorial approach, placing greater emphasis on the people and real-world consequences behind complex legal and policy issues.
Rather than treating each episode as an explanation of a topic, we looked for the central question that would make someone want to listen.
Who’s affected? What’s at stake? What does the listener need to understand before the technical details will mean anything?
That informed research, scripting, interview preparation, editing and narrative structure.
The goal was to create episodes that retained their journalistic and legal substance while giving audiences a compelling reason to keep listening.
This kind of work is central to JAR’s audio podcast production approach: building the story around what the listener needs to understand, not simply what the organization wants to communicate.
An episode’s job doesn’t end when production is finished.
We worked on how Democracy Decoded was presented, distributed and promoted, bringing organic audience development and paid media into a coordinated approach.
This included improving episode packaging, supporting distribution, developing promotional opportunities and using performance data to inform future decisions.
The editorial and marketing teams needed to work toward the same objective.
A strong episode title should make a compelling promise. The episode itself should deliver on that promise. Promotion should reach people with a reason to care.
Each part supports the others.
JAR’s approach to audience growth combines editorial relevance with distribution, discoverability, partnerships and paid promotion.
For CLC, this meant treating audience development as part of the podcast’s ongoing operation rather than a separate promotional exercise.
CLC also needed a clearer view of podcast performance.
JAR brought fragmented audience data into a more consistent reporting approach, helping the team understand growth and engagement across the show’s distribution and promotional activity.
Instead of relying on downloads alone, we looked at measures that could answer more useful questions.
Was the audience growing? Were more people following the show? Were promotional efforts reaching listeners? And what could the data tell us about future editorial and marketing decisions?
We connected the reporting to the decisions the team needed to make.
This reflects JAR’s wider approach to podcast KPIs and measurement: start with the business objective, then track the evidence that shows whether the podcast is making progress.
We approached the project through the three questions behind the JAR System.
The Job
Help Campaign Legal Center make complex democracy-related issues accessible while expanding the reach and effectiveness of its podcast.
The Audience
People interested in understanding American democracy, voting rights, government institutions and the legal issues shaping public life, including listeners beyond CLC’s existing supporters.
The Result
Grow unique listeners and followers, improve audience engagement, and establish more reliable reporting to guide editorial and promotional decisions.
Those goals shaped the storytelling, production, distribution and measurement.
JAR supported CLC across:
The important part wasn’t any single tactic.
It was connecting them.
Better storytelling supported listener engagement. Stronger promotion helped more people discover the show. Better analytics gave the team information to improve the next round of work.
Together, those changes helped Democracy Decoded reach a substantially larger audience.
The changes to Democracy Decoded helped Campaign Legal Center reach more people and build a stronger, more measurable podcast audience.
During the reported campaign period, the show nearly doubled its unique listeners and increased its combined Apple Podcasts and Spotify followers by 46%.
It also reached No. 3 on Apple’s U.S. Government podcast chart.
Alongside that audience growth, the show accumulated 16 industry awards, reflecting recognition for its editorial and production work across its history.
For CLC, the results demonstrated that a podcast exploring complex legal and civic issues could attract a larger audience without abandoning its substance.
The number of unique listeners nearly doubled during the measured period.
Unlike total downloads, unique listeners provide an estimate of how many distinct people are accessing the show.
For a nonprofit organization seeking to expand public understanding of complex issues, reaching more listeners is an important measure of progress.
The result showed that Democracy Decoded was attracting a substantially larger audience, creating more opportunities for people to engage with CLC’s reporting, expertise and perspectives.
It also reinforced a central lesson from the project.
Making complicated topics accessible doesn’t mean making them less substantive. Good storytelling can help more people engage with them.
The show also increased its combined Apple Podcasts and Spotify followers by 46%.
Follower growth matters because it provides an indication of continued audience interest.
A download tells you an episode was accessed. A follow suggests someone wants future episodes to appear in their listening app.
For an organization communicating about issues that develop over months and years, that ongoing connection can be valuable.
The increase gave CLC a larger potential audience for future seasons and episodes.
Democracy Decoded reached No. 3 in the U.S. Government podcast category on Apple Podcasts.
The ranking gave the show visibility within a category where listeners actively seek information about politics, public institutions and civic issues.
A chart position isn’t a direct measure of total audience size or organizational impact.
But alongside listener and follower growth, it provided another indicator of the show’s momentum.
Democracy Decoded has earned 16 industry awards across its history, recognizing the quality of its editorial work and production.
The show’s recognition includes Webby Awards and other industry honours.
In 2026, Democracy Decoded also received a Platinum MarCom Award for Educational Series.
These honours reinforce the show’s reputation for explaining complex issues through accessible, carefully produced storytelling.
Awards aren’t a substitute for audience performance. But they provide independent recognition of the work and add credibility to the podcast’s editorial reputation.
One of the most useful outcomes wasn’t a chart position or an award.
It was establishing a more consistent approach to understanding how the podcast performed.
JAR connected audience data to the editorial and promotional decisions being made across the show.
This gave CLC a stronger foundation for evaluating audience development, identifying what was working and deciding where to focus future efforts.
For organizations investing in long-form content, that kind of reporting matters.
A successful podcast shouldn’t leave its owners guessing why it grew.
And when performance changes, the team needs enough information to understand what might be driving it.
That’s why podcast measurement is part of JAR’s ongoing strategy and production work, rather than an exercise performed after the season is over.
Democracy Decoded demonstrates why podcast strategy, production, distribution and measurement need to work together.
CLC already had compelling subject matter and access to experts.
The opportunity was to make that expertise more accessible, create stronger reasons for people to listen, and build a more deliberate system for reaching audiences.
The results show substantial growth in listening and following.
They don’t independently establish changes in public knowledge, attitudes or behaviour. Measuring those outcomes would require audience research beyond podcast platform analytics.
But the project established a stronger foundation for CLC’s communications.
More people were accessing the podcast. More were choosing to follow it. And the organization had better information to guide future editorial and marketing decisions.
For a nonprofit investing in public education, those are meaningful outcomes.
Have a podcast that needs to reach more people?
JAR helps organizations improve existing shows as well as launch new ones. We combine podcast strategy, production, audience development and measurement to make the work more effective.
Tell us what you’re working on.
JAR worked with Campaign Legal Center to improve Democracy Decoded through stronger editorial storytelling, audio production, organic and paid promotion, distribution, and audience analytics. The coordinated approach helped the podcast nearly double its unique listeners during the measured campaign period.
A nonprofit podcast can create opportunities to reach people beyond an organization’s existing supporters through useful, audience-focused storytelling. Democracy Decoded explores complex legal and civic issues through accessible narratives and expert conversations. By connecting editorial development with distribution and promotion, the show achieved substantial audience growth and a 46% increase in followers.
A strong public education podcast gives listeners a reason to care before asking them to absorb complicated information. For Democracy Decoded, that meant exploring the people, decisions and consequences behind legal and policy issues. The editorial approach preserved important nuance while making the subjects easier for a wider audience to follow.
Start with the organization’s communications objectives. Useful metrics can include unique listeners, follower growth, episode consumption, audience retention, promotion performance and target-audience reach. For Democracy Decoded, nearly doubling unique listeners and increasing followers by 46% demonstrated audience growth. Measuring changes in public understanding or attitudes would require additional research.
Yes. Paid podcast advertising can introduce a show to relevant audiences who might not discover it through organic channels alone. JAR combined paid media with organic promotion and editorial improvements for Democracy Decoded. The results demonstrate growth for the overall strategy, although the available figures don’t isolate how much growth came from each individual activity.
A specialized agency can bring editorial expertise, production capacity, audience development and analytics together in one coordinated process. For Campaign Legal Center, JAR supported the show from research and storytelling through distribution, promotion and reporting. This helped CLC strengthen the podcast while retaining its subject-matter expertise and organizational voice.
Democracy Decoded nearly doubled its unique listeners during the measured campaign period. Sharper editorial storytelling, coordinated distribution and audience growth helped CLC reach more people with its expertise.
Combined Apple Podcasts and Spotify followers increased by 46%, demonstrating growing interest in the series and creating a larger potential audience for future episodes.
The show reached No. 3 on Apple’s U.S. Government podcast chart, strengthening its visibility within a category relevant to its editorial mission.
Democracy Decoded has earned 16 industry awards across its history, including Webby recognition and a 2026 Platinum MarCom Award for Educational Series. The honours recognize its editorial and production quality.
This was a really high pressure time for us, and with events in the news rapidly changing…we were really thankful to have such a skilled and responsive team at JAR.
Casey Atkins
Multimedia Manager
Campaign Legal Center
