That is Sizzling Pod, The Verge’s e-newsletter about podcasting and the audio trade. Enroll right here for extra.
Whats up! It’s been a bit since we checked in on the information. Right now, I’ve received a take a look at the continued monetary troubles at NPR member stations, the shutdown of Rooster Enamel, and the brand new season of Serial.
Woes mounting at NPR member stations: “Sponsorship dollars won’t return to previous levels.”
Two extra public radio stations are discussing how they plan to get out of the pink: Colorado Public Radio, which is adopting the “broadcast-to-podcast” technique, and WBUR in Boston, which is interesting to listeners for donations earlier than taking any subsequent steps.
Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 members of its workers final week and closed its podcast-focused Audio Improvements Studio. Like at WNYC and NPR, CPR is specializing in information content material that may simply adapt to broadcast and digital distribution.
Citing the identical donor and sponsorship woes confronted by the remainder of the trade, CPR CEO Stewart Vanderwilt stated that the cuts have been crucial to place the station on higher monetary footing. In one other transfer that feels like WNYC deja vu, he stated that what stays of the podcasting operation will give attention to native information. Skye Pillsbury additionally studies that two producers will come on to assist the newsroom.
“We are shifting our focus to news-based podcast products — and I would say at the intersection of news and long-form storytelling,” he stated in an interview with Colorado Issues host Ryan Warner. “There’s a couple of reasons for that. One, it’s where we have a very specific strength. Two, we have a lot of the base material in original news that we’ve produced, which can then be used in a podcast or on-demand type project.”
WBUR in Boston could also be on an analogous path, however not earlier than CEO Margaret Low appealed to listeners to assist the station keep away from cuts. “In the last five years, our annual on-air sponsorship income (underwriting) has dropped by more than 40 percent,” Low wrote in an open letter. “Sponsorship dollars won’t return to previous levels. These are not temporary ups and downs. They’re long-term shifts.” The following step, she stated, could possibly be pay freezes and layoffs.
It’s a stark message that (hopefully) drums up some {dollars} from devoted listeners. However such contributions gained’t deal with the principle level she makes: the challenges confronted by the audio trade aren’t all that distinct from what is going on to media on a broader scale. As an alternative of pointing to a skittish advert trade, she sees the issue as extra systemic.
“The old economics of our business can no longer sustain us,” she wrote. “In the digital age, almost all that money now goes to the big platforms — like Facebook, Google, Amazon and Spotify. This is bad news for the news business and has created big gaps that can’t easily be filled.”
For-profit media firms have struggled to adapt to the brand new panorama, and public shops are much more restricted in how they’ll make up that income. I don’t have solutions, however in case you have ideas on this, be happy to succeed in out.
And, as ever, assist your native public radio station! You could possibly be as cool as me with my Brian Lehrer hat.
Rooster Enamel shuts down, podcast community up on the market
It’s one other digital media shutdown, this time by the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Along with shelving films to avoid wasting on advertising prices, the corporate below his management has been promoting off belongings at a tempo. Rooster Enamel is subsequent on the record of properties to close down, with the one element left standing (for now) being the podcast community.
Final week, Rooster Enamel normal supervisor Jordan Levin emailed workers notifying them of the closure. “It’s with a heavy heart I announce that Rooster Teeth is shutting down due to challenges facing digital media resulting from fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and monetization across platforms, advertising, and patronage,” he stated, in accordance with a memo obtained by Selection. “The Roost Podcast Network will continue operating and fulfilling its obligations while WBD evaluates outside interest in acquiring this growing asset.” About 150 workers have been laid off.
Rooster Enamel first made a reputation for itself within the early aughts as a pre-YouTube hub for internet collection like Purple vs. Blue. However its podcasts, together with H3 Podcast and Rooster Enamel Podcast, have confirmed to be a much bigger draw lately. There isn’t a information but concerning a potential acquisition of the podcast community.
A brand new season of Serial is coming this month
Some information out of On Air Fest final week: Serial is returning on March twenty eighth. Ten years after the hit podcast debuted, Serial will sort out the historical past of Guantanamo.
Serial host Sarah Koenig stated at an OAF panel that she and her fellow producers have been engaged on the best way to inform this story for a decade. “Dana [Chivvis] and I tried for years to figure out how to make a story that captures what it’s really like there for the people caught inside this massive, flawed experiment — not just the prisoners, but also the staff who built it and ran it. For so long, all the best stories we heard were off the record. But now people are ready to talk,” she stated.
Serial, which was developed as a derivative of This American Life, was bought to The New York Instances in 2020. Since its blockbuster debut, the present has printed seasons telling the tales of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, a soldier who was held captive by the Taliban after which charged with desertion, and of the strange occasions at a courthouse in Cleveland.