Podcaster Sam Fricker takes aim at SMH over coverage of Dutton interview

Diver and Podcaster Sam Fricker has taken aim at The Sydney Morning Herald over a recent news story claiming his recent interview with Opposition Leader Peter Dutton was a "flop" because it only had 4,600 views on YouTube.

In the video Fricker, who has 5.8 million subscribers on YouTube and more than 2 million on Tiktok, argues the newspaper failed to understand how his content is cut up and distributed.

"This journalist failed to make clear that I make many clips on the podcast and all those clips went out and it actually got 1.42 million views," said Fricker, who also claimed he never received the newspaper's request for comment.

He also noted the newspaper said his interview with former Prime Minister Scott Morrison only got 1,000 views, but Fricker again draws out the TikTok views which both garnered more than 200,000 views in two separate videos.

Fricker also takes aim at marketing consultants quoted in the news story who claimed he had a "limited audience". He responds by saying: "a limited 1.42 million audience?"

The former Olympic diver has more than 2 million followers on TikTok with over 20% of that audience in Australia. His TikTok audience has a fairly even split of males to female and almost half is aged 18-24.

On YouTube, Fricker's audience is different, with the creator boasting significant audiences in the US, where 10.75% comes from and the largest demographic is 25-34s.

Ahead of the upcoming Federal Election both Labor and Liberal leaders appear to be taking a leaf out of President Donald Trump's book and going to podcasters in an attempt to reach younger audiences on social media.

Fricker interviewed Dutton late last year while one of Australia's highest profile creators, Abbie Chatfield, interviewed Prime Minister Albanese this week in what some are calling the "influencer election".