Radio is Going Red – The Verge

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Hello! It’s been a while since we’ve looked at the news.Today, I take a look at the ongoing financial issues at NPR member stations, the closing of Rooster Teeth, and what’s in store for the new season serial.

Two other public radio stations are discussing how to get out of the red: Colorado Public Radio is adopting a “broadcast-to-podcast” strategy, while Boston’s WBUR is asking listeners for donations before taking any next steps. pace.

Colorado Public Radio laid off 15 employees last week and closed its audio innovation studio focused on podcasts. Like WNYC and NPR, CPR focuses on news content that can be easily adapted for broadcast and digital distribution.

Citing the same donor and sponsorship woes faced by others in the industry, CPR CEO Stewart Vanderwilt said the cuts were necessary to put the station on a better financial footing. He said the remainder of the podcast business will focus on local news, which sounds like a familiar move for WNYC. Skye Pillsbury also reports that two producers will be coming to support the newsroom.

“We’re shifting our focus to a news-based podcast product, I would say the intersection of news and long-form storytelling,” he said in an interview. colorado affairs Host Ryan Warner. “That’s for a couple of reasons. One, that’s where we have a very specific advantage. Two, we have a lot of foundational material in the raw journalism that we produce that we can then use for podcast or on-demand type projects.”

Boston’s WBUR may be following a similar path, but not before CEO Margaret Low calls on listeners to help the station avoid cuts. “Over the past five years, our annual broadcast sponsorship revenue (underwriting) has declined by more than 40%,” Low wrote in an open letter. “Sponsorship funding will not return to previous levels. These are not temporary ups and downs. They are long-term shifts.” The next step, she said, could be a wage freeze and layoffs.

It’s a stark message that will (hopefully) make some money from loyal listeners. But these contributions do not address the main point she makes: that the challenges facing the audio industry are not that different from those facing the wider media. Rather than blaming the problem on instability in the advertising industry, she believes the problem is more systemic.

“The old economic model of our business no longer sustains us,” she wrote. “In the digital age, almost all money is flowing to large platforms such as Facebook, Google, Amazon and Spotify. This is bad news for journalism and creates a huge void that is difficult to fill.”

For-profit media companies have struggled to adapt to the new landscape, while public media have been more limited in how they make up their revenue. I don’t have the answer, but if you have any thoughts on this, please feel free to contact us.

And as always, support your local public radio station! Wear a Brian Lehrer hat and you can be as cool as me.

It’s yet another digital media shutdown, this time at the hands of Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. In addition to shelving movies to save on marketing costs, the company under his leadership has been selling off assets at a rapid pace. Rooster Teeth is the next property to close, with the only remaining component (for now) being the podcast network.

Last week, Rooster Teeth general manager Jordan Levin sent an email to employees informing them of the closure. “It is with a heavy heart that I announce that Rooster Teeth will be closing due to challenges facing digital media due to fundamental shifts in consumer behavior and cross-platform monetization, advertising and sponsorships,” he said, according to a memo. type. “While WBD evaluates outside interest in acquiring this growing asset, the Roost Podcast Network will continue to operate and meet its obligations.” Approximately 150 employees were laid off.

Rooster Teeth was known in its early days as a hub for pre-YouTube web series red and blue.But its podcasts include H3 Podcast and Rooster Teeth Podcast, has proven to have greater appeal in recent years. There has been no word yet on a possible acquisition of the podcast network.

Some news from last week’s On Air Fest: serial Will return on March 28th. Ten years after hit podcast launched, serial The history of Guantanamo will be explored.

serial Host Sarah Koenig said during a panel discussion at OAF that she and other producers have been figuring out how to tell the story for a decade. “Dana [Chivvis] For years, I’ve been trying to figure out how to craft a story that captures the true feelings of those trapped in this vast, flawed experiment—not just the prisoners, but the staff who built and ran it . For a long time, all the best stories we heard went unrecorded. But now people are ready to talk,” she said.

serialwhich was developed as a derivative of this american lifewas sold to this New York Times Aired in 2020. The show, which has published several seasons since its debut, tells the story of Sergeant Bowie Bergdahl, a soldier captured by the Taliban and accused of desertion, as well as the ordinary events of a Cleveland courthouse.