Radio is seeing purple – The Verge

That is Sizzling Pod, The Verge’s publication about podcasting and the audio business. Enroll right here for extra.

Hiya! It’s been a bit since we checked in on the information. In the present day, I’ve bought a take a look at the continued monetary troubles at NPR member stations, the shutdown of Rooster Tooth, and the brand new season of Serial.

Two extra public radio stations are discussing how they plan to get out of the purple: 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 business, CPR CEO Stewart Vanderwilt stated that the cuts had been essential to place the station on higher monetary footing. In one other transfer that appears like WNYC deja vu, he stated that what stays of the podcasting operation will concentrate on native information. Skye Pillsbury additionally reviews that two producers will come on to assist the newsroom.

“We’re shifting our focus to news-based podcast merchandise — and I’d say on the intersection of stories and long-form storytelling,” he stated in an interview with Colorado Issues host Ryan Warner. “There’s a few causes for that. One, it’s the place we’ve a really particular power. Two, we’ve numerous the bottom materials in unique information that we’ve produced, which may then be utilized in a podcast or on-demand kind venture.”

WBUR in Boston could also be on the same path, however not earlier than CEO Margaret Low appealed to listeners to assist the station keep away from cuts. “Within the final 5 years, our annual on-air sponsorship revenue (underwriting) has dropped by greater than 40 p.c,” Low wrote in an open letter. “Sponsorship {dollars} received’t return to earlier ranges. These usually are not momentary ups and downs. They’re long-term shifts.” The subsequent step, she stated, may very well be pay freezes and layoffs.

It’s a stark message that (hopefully) drums up some {dollars} from devoted listeners. However such contributions received’t deal with the primary level she makes: the challenges confronted by the audio business usually are not all that distinct from what is going on to media on a broader scale. As a substitute of pointing to a skittish advert business, she sees the issue as extra systemic.

“The outdated economics of our enterprise can not maintain us,” she wrote. “Within the digital age, nearly all that cash now goes to the large platforms — like Fb, Google, Amazon and Spotify. That is dangerous information for the information enterprise and has created huge gaps that may’t simply be stuffed.”

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 if in case you have ideas on this, be at liberty to succeed in out. 

And, as ever, assist your native public radio station! You can be as cool as me with my Brian Lehrer hat.

It’s one other digital media shutdown, this time by the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. Along with shelving films to save lots of on advertising and marketing prices, the corporate underneath his management has been promoting off belongings at a tempo. Rooster Tooth is subsequent on the checklist of properties to close down, with the one part left standing (for now) being the podcast community.

Final week, Rooster Tooth normal supervisor Jordan Levin emailed workers notifying them of the closure. “It’s with a heavy coronary heart I announce that Rooster Tooth is shutting down on account of challenges going through digital media ensuing from basic shifts in shopper habits and monetization throughout platforms, promoting, and patronage,” he stated, in line with a memo obtained by Selection. “The Roost Podcast Community will proceed working and fulfilling its obligations whereas WBD evaluates exterior curiosity in buying this rising asset.” About 150 workers had been laid off.

Rooster Tooth first made a reputation for itself within the early aughts as a pre-YouTube hub for net sequence like Pink vs. Blue. However its podcasts, together with H3 Podcast and Rooster Tooth Podcast, have confirmed to be an even bigger draw in recent times. There is no such thing as a information but relating to a potential acquisition of the podcast community.

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 deal with the historical past of Guantanamo.

Serial host Sarah Koenig stated at an OAF panel that she and her fellow producers have been engaged on inform this story for a decade. “Dana [Chivvis] and I attempted for years to determine make a narrative that captures what it’s actually like there for the individuals caught inside this large, flawed experiment — not simply the prisoners, but in addition the workers who constructed it and ran it. For therefore lengthy, all the most effective tales we heard had been off the file. However now persons are prepared to speak,” she stated.

Serial, which was developed as a derivative of This American Life, was offered to The New York Occasions 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 unusual occasions at a courthouse in Cleveland.