The meta show: Ben and David turn their gaze inward and examine the podcasting industry through E. W. Scripps’ recent acquisitions of the Midroll podcast advertising network and Stitcher podcast client. Featuring discussion of our own product process and metrics at Acquired.
Sponsors:
Statsig: https://bit.ly/acquiredstatsig24
Vanta: https://bit.ly/acquiredvanta
Crusoe: https://bit.ly/acquiredcrusoe
Topics covered include:
Top Google search results for “acquired podcast"Midroll’s origins in the comedy podcast Comedy Bang Bang (now an tv show on IFC) and exit last year to Scripps The structural challenges inherent to podcasting as a medium and the gap between audience size/engagement and industry revenuesOpportunities for independent podcasters and our own audience and business metrics at Acquired Stitcher’s long corporate history as a venture backed company, first acquisition by French music company Deezer, and now second acquisition from Deezer by ScrippsProblems with Stitcher as a product and industry reaction to the acquisition including John Gruber's response, Ben Thompson’s article on Stratechery, and Ben & James Allworth's discussion on their excellent podcast ExponentHandicapping Stitcher+Midroll’s chances for success within Scripps, and opportunities for new startups & innovation in the podcasting spacePioneer Square Labs’ own past efforts in the podcasting space and their process for evaluating potential new company ideas Shoutout to Pocket Casts and our listeners down underFollowups:
Twitch: bringing tipping onto the platform with the launch of Cheering + Bits (H/t Slack community member jamesk)Facebook Instant Articles: pour one out for Facebook Paper (developed by the Push Pop Press team)LinkedIn: the hotly anticipated SEC filing detailing all the negotiation drama is now live (scroll down to "Background of the Merger” on p.31)The Carve Out:
Ben: Mark Titus, AKA @ClubTrillion is joining the RingerDavid: OKR’s and regular goal setting, including great “how to" from GV partner Rick Klau