The New York Time forks, we pivot to soaps and then end with an original pod from Drew Barrymore

Hello from a draft written early Saturday Morning on the East Coast, where it is rainy and gray but there are far fewer craps tables so going to take that as an emotional win for the day.??

Also Dall-E 2 is now open to generate all your own uniquely idiosyncratic cover art. Still working out sizing but first attempt graces the newsletter today. Fun, impressive and potentially scary stuff in terms of what can be done on the video side but that is a topic for another day and perhaps a different newsletter. In the meantime, I'm going to vow to be nicer to my toaster in anticipation of the day it achieves sentience and then looks to enslave us all.

Last week, I was surprised to find a new show in my feed - Hard Fork.? A technology pod hosted by journalists Casey Newton and Kevin Roose.? The pod hasn’t launched yet but it has dominated a certain subset of discussion on Twitter because of how it was launched.? Want to point out now - we’re not approaching this from a place of Schadenfreude.? As we’ve noted before and will note again, and again (and again) it is HARD to launch a podcast, no matter who you are.? The landscape remains crowded, there are a lot of good pods out there already, and getting people to add another to their already crowded playlist is no easy feat.

So it’s understandable, we’re all trying to figure out ways to bring people in.??

One of the most valuable things that a podcaster (and in some cases, a podcast company) has is the RSS feed.? Without getting too deep into the technical details, the RSS feed (which stands for Real Simple Syndication) is somewhat akin to a newsfeed or your instagram feed.? When you, as a podcaster or publisher, put out a new episode, it goes into the feed and all the platforms to which you’ve syndicated your podcast automatically pick that up and update accordingly.? From a listener perspective, if I subscribe to a pod on Apple Podcasts (or Spotify, or Overcast or where you get your pods) all the new pods on that feed show up automatically.? This way you’re not constantly searching for new content from your favorite (subscribed) pods, it comes right to you.

This means that a strong and healthy feed can be extremely valuable.? It’s how you efficiently deliver content and how your listeners grab it.? It is also a place where, if you choose, you can add in additional content.? This can be bonus episodes of your existing pod, best ofs, teases, whatever you want.? It is your feed and you can do with it what you will.? Of course, how you utilize that feed and whether your listeners continue to subscribe are correlated.? Publish compelling and exciting content that speaks to what they are looking for and your feed will continue to thrive and perhaps even grow.? It’s an interesting push/pull between how many additional bonus episodes go in a feed, why, what purpose they serve and the fan reaction.

As an example, within The Daily Show Ears Edition (one of our largest shows and feeds) we also publish episodes of The Daily Show: Beyond The Scenes and The Daily Show: Hold Up.? The content is a direct tie into the show and we thought fans would be excited to consume it.? As numbers have held or grown over time, this hypothesis has been proven out.

It is a very natural inclination when you want to drive or launch a new show, to lean into those feeds because of their power.? And, back in the day (which, weirdly for podcasting is probably only two or three years ago), the feeds themselves were for sale.? It wasn’t unusual for podcasters who were willing to spend, to purchase a feed drop, placing their episode within the feed of another pod (ideally one with a similar tone, editorial bent or fanbase).? The practice has, for the most part, stopped due to everything we’re describing above, but interesting to note it historically and as things advance.

Which takes us to Hard Fork.? Kara Swisher recently finished her run with The Times and her podcast, Sway.? The Times owned the pod, and thus the feed.? But with Swisher gone and no new episodes, the feed was essentially dormant.? Fans could still access old episodes but the (what I imagine would be large) audience had no new content to consume.? So The Times made the determination that Hard Fork, as a tech podcast and also featuring friend (and tenant) of Kara Swisher, Casey Newton, would be a smart usage of the feed.

And, as you might now surmise, unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.? Swisher pushed back via Twitter, others joined in and The Times issued a statement.? Also worth noting that neither Casey nor Kevin were blamed in this – it was viewed as a choice made by The Times.

Calling it out here as more of a collective object lesson as all major podcast networks continue to cross-pollinate amongst the portfolio and also think about extending and expanding their growth strategies.? As with all content, if you give people what they want and are upfront about it, you are, hopefully, in a good place.? But it can be a delicate balance as to what is wanted versus what is expected (the Apple / U2 album was referenced multiple times).? Fine line, one that we continue to think on as we extend our pods and look to bring the collective strength of? our audience across all of them while maintaining the trust of each listener.

(and for the record, I’m excited for Hard Fork - Casey and Kevin do strong reporting and the space feels open to me - while there are a lot of tech pods they tend to be somewhat wonky, so curious to see what direction they take here).

And speaking of taking a tech topic that can get very wonky, very fast, and approached in a far more accessible manner, this feels like a nice segue into our first of three (I know, three - we are truly living in a world of podcast plenty) podcast recommendations for the week.??

Crypto Island - Podcast Recommendation #1?

The pod is Crypto Island by PJ Vogt.? It is worth noting that this is the first pod from Vogt since he left Reply All and I think this article from Nick Quah at Vulture does an excellent job of providing the necessary context.? Specific to Crypto Island, Vogt does what he did so well on Reply All, digging into the human story to help understand more abstract or technological concepts.? This series is no different with Vogt lining up a series of fascinating interviews and stories around the world of Crypto that also, unexpectedly, timed to the crash of the market itself this summer.??

The Young and The Restless - Podcast Recommendation #2

We spend a lot of time on the podcast team thinking about the audience and how they might relate to a podcast.

Do they like the show or do they love the show?? How often do they engage with the show?? What is it about that particular show that they really connect to?? And would that translate to audio?

Really excited about what we’re doing with our partners at CBS with The Young and the Restless.? This past Friday (50th anniversary of the show) we launched our showcast - an audio pull of the linear show. ? Admittedly, a showcast of a Soap Opera is not necessarily an intuitive leap.? The show is sonically dense, tons of characters, a lot going on in every scene.

HOWEVER…

The people who love the show, LOVE the show.? Like have been watching for 30+ years love the show.? It is very much a part of their world and their daily lives and they know the characters, plots and most importantly for an audio lift, their voices, exceptionally well.

This pod isn't meant to replace the video version.? But for the times when the fans can’t get to an episode or are in a situation where video is unavailable, we believe the pod will be a surprisingly effective substitute product.? And we are thrilled to be supporting a fan base that cares so deeply.

Congratulations and thanks to everyone involved at CBS and the Paramount Global Podcast Group on putting this together.? Lots of pieces and some amazing work navigating them.

And before we finish, would be remiss without a quick series of historical fun facts about the Soap Opera Genre because if nothing else, we can serve as a fountain of somewhat bizarre tv trivia.? OK, here we go…

The first “soap opera” was actually done for radio (thus bringing the showcast concept all the way back around to where it started) where the format thrived for many years

• The show was called Painted Fences, premiered on WGN in Chicago in 1930 and was created, written and starred the prolific Irna Phillips, known as “The Queen of Soaps”
• Shortly thereafter Proctor and Gamble sponsored the 15 minute radio serial Ma Perkins via Oxydol Laundry Soap creating such a strong connection that the show was often referred to as “Oxydol’s Own Ma Perkins’ and thus was born “the soap opera”
• The format continued in radio form but transitioned to television in 1949 with “These Are My Children” also created by Irna Phillips
• Will save Don Hewitt’s 60 Minutes “Radio Edit” and Orson’s Wells War of the Worlds debut on the Columbia Broadcast for another newsletter but safe to say the blood of radio pumps strongly through the veins of CBS

Drew’s News - Podcast Recommendation #3

And we finish with another CBS podcast - Drew’s News.? The second podcast from The Drew Barrymore Show (and the first pure play original), the pod expands on an existing segment within The Drew Barrymore Show.? This follows one of the strategies that Paramount Global is well situated to do (and, frankly, other streamers that have yet to set up the infrastructure) - to dig in to existing popular IP, using the showcast as a foundational device to bring awareness and exposure and then move into original content shortly thereafter to capitalize on growth and excitement.

?To that point, we are delighted with the launch and believe this will be just the start of the podcast “Drewniverse” (looking at you, MCU).

The podcast is one of those pieces of creative that is, wonderfully, exactly what you think it can and should be.? Drew is an amazing talent and a uniquely wonderful human.? The pod is just pure joy in audio form.?

?Thrilled to get this one out there and congratulations and thanks to all involved at The Drew Barrymore Show (especially EP Jason Kurtz, CBS Media Ventures and, of course, the Paramount Global Podcast Team.