RE: “The answer is almost always no. It just boggles my mind that the big publishers aren't constantly on the lookout for authors who have already proved that there's a vibrant market for their work — especially when there's ample public data that can be used to identify them.”
One author I heard did have outreach from a traditional publisher was Hassan Osman (aka Writer On The Side) he described how the outreach was there, but the offer wasn’t attractive because he would lose a lot of editorial control.
"I'd also love to see a comparison to linear television, which my gut tells me contains way more ads per hour than any streamer."
More ads per hour... *for now*. I presume that ad load is a one-way ratchet, and every streamer's going to add ads every year to satisfy the desire for YoY margin growth until they're all as ad-ridden as linear.
I know I'm being a Luddite but I find the idea of a video podcast contradictory. Podcasts are a primarily audio medium and now they a morphing to the medium of video because of economic pressures. The purist in me wants them to be audio only but I'm old enough to know that being high minded doesn't get anyone anywhere. I guess it's great or talking head/chat shows but what about narrative podcasts? If narrative podcasts start using visuals what will differentiate them from documentaries? Like imagine Radio Lab or Throughline using visuals? Should they use stock footage or original footage? Won't using proper footage increase the production costs and introduce new pressures to the creators? It becomes a slippery slope. But it's fine, it's best to give the people what they want, lest you get left behind.
The WaPo had a potential franchise with Erza Klein's Wonkblog but they didn't want to pay up to keep it and build it up.
RE: “The answer is almost always no. It just boggles my mind that the big publishers aren't constantly on the lookout for authors who have already proved that there's a vibrant market for their work — especially when there's ample public data that can be used to identify them.”
One author I heard did have outreach from a traditional publisher was Hassan Osman (aka Writer On The Side) he described how the outreach was there, but the offer wasn’t attractive because he would lose a lot of editorial control.
"I'd also love to see a comparison to linear television, which my gut tells me contains way more ads per hour than any streamer."
More ads per hour... *for now*. I presume that ad load is a one-way ratchet, and every streamer's going to add ads every year to satisfy the desire for YoY margin growth until they're all as ad-ridden as linear.
I know I'm being a Luddite but I find the idea of a video podcast contradictory. Podcasts are a primarily audio medium and now they a morphing to the medium of video because of economic pressures. The purist in me wants them to be audio only but I'm old enough to know that being high minded doesn't get anyone anywhere. I guess it's great or talking head/chat shows but what about narrative podcasts? If narrative podcasts start using visuals what will differentiate them from documentaries? Like imagine Radio Lab or Throughline using visuals? Should they use stock footage or original footage? Won't using proper footage increase the production costs and introduce new pressures to the creators? It becomes a slippery slope. But it's fine, it's best to give the people what they want, lest you get left behind.
Good stuff on Barstool and New Media Networks. Thanks!
Excellent, thank you for the topic of advertising, and the analogy of the soup for content creation on YouTube.