Site Stuff: When podcasts passed radio in actual usage
Proper journalism doesn't change all that much, truth be told, including in sports. The same principles apply. And for the most part, so do the same approaches.
What changes are the platforms.
Even if it takes forever for some to recognize that.
I've told the tale of how I walked away from newspapers in 2014 to form this company, in large part because anyone with open eyes could see where print was headed ... but the people running the newspapers weren't operating with open eyes. So I took the big jump, heeding the sage advice of a smart executive with the Penguins who'd tell me at the time, "The biggest risk you'll ever take in your life is staying where you are."
(Much more on all that, by the way, in a series I'm writing that'll be published this month.)
It still took a seeming eternity for that to penetrate, the reality that online would bury print, including with advertisers. Until, of course, it did.
I thought of all that this week upon reading from Edison Research that, as of this year, podcasts have overtaken radio in popularity when it comes to spoken-word audio. It's only by a hair -- 40% of listening time for podcasts vs. 39% for radio -- but the long-term trend's as unmistakable as the one that ended newspapers:
TECH CRUNCH
In a way, as the linked article attests, it's impressive that radio held on as long as it did. Considering that podcasts offer the listener so many more options of convenience, not least of which would be listening to whatever they'd want whenever they'd want and wherever they'd want. It wasn't a fair fight in the first place.
Here, too, advertisers were terribly slow to adjust. Embarrassingly slow, to be blunt.
In radio, like TV, advertisers are expected to take the word of the Nielsen agency for how many people are listening/watching at any given time based on ... what, exactly? Attaching a handful of boxes to people's living rooms or cars -- only 40,000 in the entire country! -- and assuming those can represent an entire region?
How very 1976 of them, yeah?
Whereas the metrics of podcasts come from the very latest high-tech technology and, more important, from every single user anywhere. What's more, in the case of YouTube, the industry's giant in pretty much every field, they come from Google while also PAYING THE CREATOR for that content. Which is to say, they'd have zero motivation to stretch the numbers.
At the end of every Site Stuff, for a dozen years now, I've listed all our data, our page views and our multimedia listens/views. And I've done that for a reason: We've got zip to hide. We WANT potential advertisers to see what we're doing and know that it's easily verifiable.
The punch line to all this: Podcasts have poked through, even through the perception barrier.
In the past two years, we've been approached by more advertisers -- not once the other way around, since we don't have a sales staff -- than in the previous five years combined. Some of them, as you can hear on the shows, are smaller and local, and some are mega-corporations. And what they've all figured out is that, if they come to us -- or to other multimedia like us -- they don't have to guess at whether or not people are getting their message. They ask from Dali -- and receive -- intensely detailed reporting about everything we do in all directions with their message. They don't just presume it's taking place just because it did a half-century ago.
It's been amazing for me, in isolation, to witness this not once but twice in my career. Because in both cases, this business boarded the right train well before most had left the station and, from there, both boomed while the predecessor bombed.
We'll likely have to keep making such moves further into the future, though, and I don't pretend otherwise. And I also won't ever pretend that any fading/dying media is a bigger deal than the one that's rising in revenue and now, for the first time, is No. 1 in usage. Because that's now the reality, perception be damned.
Happy to talk about this further in comments. Let's hear from you.
SPECIAL WORKERS DRIVE: 345
For the week on our annual Special Workers Drive, we had 19 new subscriptions -- including 0 the past two days -- committed for a total of 345 toward our goal of 1,000.
For anyone unfamiliar, we offer deeply discounted subscriptions to teachers, police, fire, EMTs, nurses and volunteers, and we have this drive to ensure we're not doing so at a long-term loss. Many of those people share that they'd never otherwise have signed up, so it's been worthwhile.
• I've been piece-by-piece filling out my Grind feed with weekly features, complete with some fancy new names and looks: Monday: The 21 Takes bullet column. Tuesday:Reader polls, three or four new ones each week. Wednesday: Breakdown, a more in-depth analysis of something specific. Thursday:Snap Shots, the pics I take Downtown or wherever I travel. Friday:Live Qs. Saturday:Site Stuff. The goal's to keep my feed as fresh as possible with written content.
• App alerts are better than ever. Meaning those sent by our staff, and those that come from other subscribers replying to your comments. Open your profile -- top left corner on the home page -- thumb down to Preferences, then Notifications, and tap Select. Once there, atop that list, you'll see 'Show Alerts in Bell.' Toggle that ON.
• Check out our all-new baseball statistics, standings, schedule and scoreboard. Of course, we'll add those for football and hockey once those seasons approach.
• Travel ahead: José Negron's in Washington with the Pirates. The following week, Chris Halicke will cover the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
• Feel free to add a review of any aspect of our business on our Google business listing, or on our Appleand Spotify podcast channels. Makes a real difference.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for our most recent full seven-day span, June 26-July 2, were 881,210, thanks largely to NHL free agency. Our most-read original piece was my 21 Takes this past Monday, at 14,189, which also was led by the Penguins and free agency.
• Our video views, also for June 26-July 2, were 221,051. Our most-watched program was my Monday Daily Shot of Steelers on an optimistic outlook on the Steelers, at 6,549.
THE ASYLUM
Site Stuff: When podcasts passed radio in actual usage
Proper journalism doesn't change all that much, truth be told, including in sports. The same principles apply. And for the most part, so do the same approaches.
What changes are the platforms.
Even if it takes forever for some to recognize that.
I've told the tale of how I walked away from newspapers in 2014 to form this company, in large part because anyone with open eyes could see where print was headed ... but the people running the newspapers weren't operating with open eyes. So I took the big jump, heeding the sage advice of a smart executive with the Penguins who'd tell me at the time, "The biggest risk you'll ever take in your life is staying where you are."
(Much more on all that, by the way, in a series I'm writing that'll be published this month.)
It still took a seeming eternity for that to penetrate, the reality that online would bury print, including with advertisers. Until, of course, it did.
I thought of all that this week upon reading from Edison Research that, as of this year, podcasts have overtaken radio in popularity when it comes to spoken-word audio. It's only by a hair -- 40% of listening time for podcasts vs. 39% for radio -- but the long-term trend's as unmistakable as the one that ended newspapers:
TECH CRUNCH
In a way, as the linked article attests, it's impressive that radio held on as long as it did. Considering that podcasts offer the listener so many more options of convenience, not least of which would be listening to whatever they'd want whenever they'd want and wherever they'd want. It wasn't a fair fight in the first place.
Here, too, advertisers were terribly slow to adjust. Embarrassingly slow, to be blunt.
In radio, like TV, advertisers are expected to take the word of the Nielsen agency for how many people are listening/watching at any given time based on ... what, exactly? Attaching a handful of boxes to people's living rooms or cars -- only 40,000 in the entire country! -- and assuming those can represent an entire region?
How very 1976 of them, yeah?
Whereas the metrics of podcasts come from the very latest high-tech technology and, more important, from every single user anywhere. What's more, in the case of YouTube, the industry's giant in pretty much every field, they come from Google while also PAYING THE CREATOR for that content. Which is to say, they'd have zero motivation to stretch the numbers.
At the end of every Site Stuff, for a dozen years now, I've listed all our data, our page views and our multimedia listens/views. And I've done that for a reason: We've got zip to hide. We WANT potential advertisers to see what we're doing and know that it's easily verifiable.
The punch line to all this: Podcasts have poked through, even through the perception barrier.
In the past two years, we've been approached by more advertisers -- not once the other way around, since we don't have a sales staff -- than in the previous five years combined. Some of them, as you can hear on the shows, are smaller and local, and some are mega-corporations. And what they've all figured out is that, if they come to us -- or to other multimedia like us -- they don't have to guess at whether or not people are getting their message. They ask from Dali -- and receive -- intensely detailed reporting about everything we do in all directions with their message. They don't just presume it's taking place just because it did a half-century ago.
It's been amazing for me, in isolation, to witness this not once but twice in my career. Because in both cases, this business boarded the right train well before most had left the station and, from there, both boomed while the predecessor bombed.
We'll likely have to keep making such moves further into the future, though, and I don't pretend otherwise. And I also won't ever pretend that any fading/dying media is a bigger deal than the one that's rising in revenue and now, for the first time, is No. 1 in usage. Because that's now the reality, perception be damned.
Happy to talk about this further in comments. Let's hear from you.
SPECIAL WORKERS DRIVE: 345
For the week on our annual Special Workers Drive, we had 19 new subscriptions -- including 0 the past two days -- committed for a total of 345 toward our goal of 1,000.
For anyone unfamiliar, we offer deeply discounted subscriptions to teachers, police, fire, EMTs, nurses and volunteers, and we have this drive to ensure we're not doing so at a long-term loss. Many of those people share that they'd never otherwise have signed up, so it's been worthwhile.
If interested in helping, email me directly: DK@DKPittsburghSports.com
INSIDE THE WORKS
• I've been piece-by-piece filling out my Grind feed with weekly features, complete with some fancy new names and looks: Monday: The 21 Takes bullet column. Tuesday: Reader polls, three or four new ones each week. Wednesday: Breakdown, a more in-depth analysis of something specific. Thursday: Snap Shots, the pics I take Downtown or wherever I travel. Friday: Live Qs. Saturday: Site Stuff. The goal's to keep my feed as fresh as possible with written content.
• App alerts are better than ever. Meaning those sent by our staff, and those that come from other subscribers replying to your comments. Open your profile -- top left corner on the home page -- thumb down to Preferences, then Notifications, and tap Select. Once there, atop that list, you'll see 'Show Alerts in Bell.' Toggle that ON.
• Check out our all-new baseball statistics, standings, schedule and scoreboard. Of course, we'll add those for football and hockey once those seasons approach.
• Travel ahead: José Negron's in Washington with the Pirates. The following week, Chris Halicke will cover the All-Star Game in Philadelphia.
• Feel free to add a review of any aspect of our business on our Google business listing, or on our Apple and Spotify podcast channels. Makes a real difference.
BACK TO BUSINESS
• Our page-view numbers for our most recent full seven-day span, June 26-July 2, were 881,210, thanks largely to NHL free agency. Our most-read original piece was my 21 Takes this past Monday, at 14,189, which also was led by the Penguins and free agency.
• Our video views, also for June 26-July 2, were 221,051. Our most-watched program was my Monday Daily Shot of Steelers on an optimistic outlook on the Steelers, at 6,549.
• Our company social media: 72,215 followers on Facebook, 62,786 on X, 61,419 on YouTube, 18,661 on Instagram, 10,388 on TikTok, 7,024 on Threads.
• We make mistakes. If you see one, big or small, email: Typos@DKPittsburghSports.com
• Our company-themed merch can always be had in our online store.
• Anything you need, email: Help@DKPittsburghSports.com
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