Podcast Corner: Some shows are still struggling with paywall model
American politician Hillary Clinton features in the Press Box podcast.
An interesting discussion took place on the Press Box (Ringer Podcasts) last week - well, that’s a given. Hosted by Bryan Curtis and David Shoemaker, the show has been going for over five years, covering various aspects of US media, from behind-the-scenes wranglings to political journalism to overdone Twitter jokes and try-hard headline puns of the week.
Slow Burn host Leon Neyfakh joined recently (on the August 3 episode) to discuss his latest podcast series under the Fiasco title. Despite being some 40 episodes and four series deep, if you haven’t heard of it, you’re not alone. Behind the Luminary paywall (€5 a month) it’s quite heady for Irish ears.
Previous seasons have covered Bush v Gore and the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, while the current season focuses on Benghazi; the 2012 US strikes on the Libyan city, and how it proved a turning point in US politics, for Hillary Clinton among others.
On the Press Box, Shoemaker asked Neyfakh about ‘service journalism’, whether his podcast has been covered for ‘connecting the dots’ of this relatively recent event. Neyfakh replied: “I’ll be honest, it hasn’t gotten the kind of attention I want so far… It’s true that we don’t have breaking news in the series. We’ve added texture to the story, we’ve added first-person testimony from a lot of important people.”
He continued: “I’ve found it hard to get journalists interested in the story, just from pitching it around to people as something to cover. I think part of that is because people don’t have an appetite for Benghazi. I think there’s an allergy that’s just there. Maybe six episodes was too many, even if we thought we were making it shorter than we could’ve.
“And then the other part - this is not a secret - we’re behind a paywall and I think paywalls are still a new thing in podcasting. We are available on Apple Podcasts now through their new subscription platform… There’s so many free podcasts that it’s hard to get the same kind of attention if you have one that is locked up.
“I think it’s a fact of the podcast industry right now - in order to get the budget you need to make a show this ambitious and sound-rich and this labour-intensive, you need to be working with the paywall streamers. I think that’s fine, people will catch up, but for now it’s pretty tough sledding out there.”
They’re all thought-provoking opinions on where the podcast industry is right now. Every show wants to have an impact like Serial (season one, anyway), but competition is fierce and deep. What happens to series like Fiasco - and myriad others - going forward?
