June 6, 2006

How to Destroy a Podcast Network  Comments 

Filed under: Rants, Business & Marketing — SFEley @ 11:38 pm — Viewed 67291 times

In eight easy steps:

  1. Have a great idea for a podcast network. To pick a random example:1 The Sci-Fi Podcast Network. Start with a major name at the head of it, and recruit some early leaders in your category. Make a cute alien mascot. Get a lot of people excited.
  2. Once you’ve got a solid base of resources built up, start screwing around with them a little. Message boards popular? Move them to a third-party provider with an inscrutable URL and inferior aesthetics. Wipe the archives. No sense living in the past!
  3. Keep experimenting with the stuff that works. Make every change for the worse. Repaint your site in a horrible Day-Glo green and purple that causes physical eyestrain.2 Replace the cute alien mascot with…a cow. Defend every decision with “Market testing shows people love this!” Ignore the opinions of members of your network. If people complain too loudly in the forums, delete their posts.
  4. Meanwhile, start to erode the brand identity of your network. People are coming to your site to find science fiction podcasts? How limiting! Start two other “networks” on other subject areas. Cross-linking them would be obvious and banal. Instead, make sure the original “Sci-Fi Podcast Network” URL points to a meta-network page, and make people hunt for a smaller link in the text to click through to the list of SF podcasts.
  5. Of course, the trouble with that is that there’s still a page somewhere with a list of science fiction podcasts. There are no synergistic cross-brand relational compatibilities to leverage there! So ax that page, and simplify things to much smaller lists on your front page again.
  6. Oh, and the name? Gotta go. Make a new name. Something with zazz. Something redundant. Something like… The Podcast Entertainment Network. Or PodcastPEN for short.3
  7. Finally, because you’ve probably got a number of pesky science fiction podcasts still hanging around, boot them all and hide their forums, and make them resubmit to your new network under a more restrictive set of guidelines. The new terms of service will require them to promote your non-brand more regularly and consistently, and maintain a show format according to a strict formula that conforms to your “right way” of doing podcasts. Oh, and it will also contain such gems as:
    Each show host should think in terms of a minute of ads per 15 minutes of show. You will keep (to use or sell) one of the 30 second spots and the network will fill the other (with a network show ad or an ad a sponsor has purchased)… PEN offers a generous revenue sharing program (50%) for each audio ad we secure for your show. If you do not wish to participate in our advertising program, please provide your reason on our submissions form. Exceptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis.
  8. Voilà! You’ve just driven away everyone who thought it might be fun to be listed in a science fiction podcast directory, but doesn’t want to be told how to podcast or how to advertise.
This might seem mean-spirited. Perhaps it is, although I didn’t start out meaning to be mean. But this really bugs me. A couple of people whom I really liked4 had a good, simple, effective idea and implemented it well — and then, over the course of a year, allowed their unfocused business ambition to dissolve a good community into nothingness. It’s a shame. I’m not upset that they wanted to change things. Nor that they wanted to make money. (Although a 50% ad commission is just wrong.) I’m upset because they didn’t realize what they had, and in trying to make it something else they lost something of benefit to everyone.

It’s a shame. And no, I don’t intend to just bitch about it. There are positive steps that can be taken, ways that it could be done right. The obvious response to my complaint here is, “If you think it could be done better, smartass, you try it!” And I think that’s a good answer. But that’s another post.


  1. Okay, so it isn’t. You got me. ↩
  2. To be fair, they did back off on the colors after some of us raised a rallying cry for listeners to check out the site and send feedback. The green and purple didn’t go away, but it retreated to the edges. ↩
  3. The “P” in “PEN” stands for “Podcast.” Again. So it’s really the Podcast Podcast Entertainment Network, or PPEN. Turtles all the way down. ↩
  4. And still do like, honestly, although I suspect that after this blog post they’ll never want to speak to me again. ↩

6 Comments »

  1. The Pedant wrote:
    “If you think it could be done better, smartass, you try it!” And I think that’s a good answer. But that’s another post.

    Is that a very subtle hint that you might be planning another sf network…?

    Comment by Matthew Wayne Selznick — June 7, 2006 @ 4:26 pm

  2. I shure hope that is a subtle hint that slammed into my head and caused severe trauma. If anyone can make an SF network do the genre justice, that would be you Steve!

    Comment by Paul Puri — June 7, 2006 @ 9:09 pm

  3. I’ve been with a SciFi podcast network that almost fits the description in this post.The only difference is the network that I was a part of never made any of the changes mentioned above. Well at least I don’t think they did because I never received so much as a email from them for the entire length of my membership.

    Steve, please tell me you’re thinking of starting a SciFi network of your own. I would be very interested in seeing the high quality line up you put together.

    Comment by Andy Doan — June 8, 2006 @ 6:05 am

  4. Just to be clear: I’ve no intention of starting a “network” in the sense that it’s commonly being used these days. I just don’t see a need to bring a bunch of podcasts together under one brand.

    A better topic-oriented directory, now, that might have some benefit. A site where listeners who wanted to find more of a certain kind of podcast could access a decent listing. But it wouldn’t be restrictive or exclusive. I’d rather see a web than a network.

    Comment by SFEley — June 8, 2006 @ 8:41 am

  5. Steve, No one can argue with what you have said. TSFPN was a great idea run into the ground by people saying “You Know What Would Be Neat.” and no one Sying “NO”. TSFPN or more properly PEN was so anti costumer feed back that they regularly deleted network critical posts. As for myself I would like to know what would make them run off a traffic generating show, I Should Be Writing. That was not the smartest move. Not that we are bitter or anything its only 100+ threads and hundreds of posts. Along with our Crit Forums.

    Comment by C.A.Sizemore — June 8, 2006 @ 9:11 am

  6. Yup, PEN dropped “The Bear’s Grove” after I was a proud supporter of TSFPN and talked about it to everybody I knew. They didn’t send me an email or anything saying they were making the change, they just dropped me. One day I go over to their home page, and whammo, I’m not there anymore.

    Got in touch with them via Skype and they said, “Oh - you didn’t get the email?” No…and they had my current email.

    Oh well. I haven’t bothered to sign up with them again because, frankly, the Goblin Broadcast Network (http://gbncom.com), which has no agenda other than just exposing new, cool Gaming podcasts, has been the most instrumental in driving traffic to my site.

    Good bye, and good luck, PEN! Let me know how it works out for you.

    Comment by Sam Chupp — June 20, 2006 @ 1:41 pm

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Leave a comment