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How Podcasts Became a Seductive -- and Sometimes Slippery -- Mode of Storytelling (newyorker.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: Podcasting has offered advertisers a new means of reaching demographically targeted consumers. Many podcasts feature extended endorsements, read by the host, that often include a discount code for a product or service. For listeners accustomed to a separation between advertising and editorial, the blurring of lines can be disconcerting (or embarrassing, such as when podcast hosts like Joe Rogan and Tim Ferriss expound on how much they enjoy wearing Me Undies). For advertisers that have spent heavily on podcasts, like the omnipresent Casper and Blue Apron, the effectiveness of such campaigns can be measured in increased sales. A representative for Blue Apron, which has launched its own branded podcast, "Why We Eat What We Eat," in addition to advertising on hundreds of shows, told me, "We view podcasts less as an advertising channel and more as a content channel to win new customers and engage existing customers."
Podcast advertising remains a relatively new science. Producers and advertisers can instantly tabulate how many times a show has been downloaded, but it's harder to ascertain how many people have listened to the whole thing. A commercial marketplace puts pressure on podcasters to create content that can attract millions of listeners, which does not necessarily make for the strongest, or most subtle, content. Linsky, with some frustration, noted that it doesn't matter much to an advertiser if a podcast takes an hour to record or months to report; all that matters is whether it attracts a lot of listeners. New ways of monetizing podcasts are being explored, including a paid-subscription model; apps such as Stitcher Premium offer ad-free listening and bonus episodes.
Podcast advertising remains a relatively new science. Producers and advertisers can instantly tabulate how many times a show has been downloaded, but it's harder to ascertain how many people have listened to the whole thing. A commercial marketplace puts pressure on podcasters to create content that can attract millions of listeners, which does not necessarily make for the strongest, or most subtle, content. Linsky, with some frustration, noted that it doesn't matter much to an advertiser if a podcast takes an hour to record or months to report; all that matters is whether it attracts a lot of listeners. New ways of monetizing podcasts are being explored, including a paid-subscription model; apps such as Stitcher Premium offer ad-free listening and bonus episodes.
I'm just glad we have Slashdot, which never has advertisements posing as new articles, like those nasty podcasts.
The combination of original and advertising has long been the standard in radio, and is just accepted as the cost of keeping the lights on. What's so special about podcasts?
Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)
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I listen to a lot of Joe Rogan podcasts and I've never heard him talking of Me Undies. Are the 'ads' on the MMA shows? I don't usually listen to those.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
A radio announcer promoting products and reading advertising is far from anything new. Unless you were born in the last decade and wasn't aware of radio(A type of podcast broadcasted wirelessly to radios(old school iPodlike devices which didn't hold music internally, but rather "streamed" it wirelessly)).
For advertisers that have spent heavily on podcasts Can you tell us exactly what "heavily" means? Compared to what? If you are buying ads on YouTube vids, 90% are usually completely unrelated to the subject material. Why do folks want to advertise unrelated products on a welding channel? And why do they pay Google for the privilege?
It's over, you pissed it away because you don't like "free speech".
Get out and buy things to fill the void where your humanity used to be.
This message brought to you by McDonalds, our slogan is "buy this hamburger or else you are racist!"
With the exception of actual radio shows distributed as podcasts, it seems to be the norm to talk about absolutely nothing and make nonverbal "filler" sounds for the first couple of minutes. This is repeated throughout, presumably to pad out 10 minutes of material to a 20-minute podcast.
It seems like somebody is getting paid per-minute for this stuff.
If you have something to say, just say it.
I know, I'm old. But seriously, they're directly copying this form of advertising from Radio. I actually found it charming when Pat the NES punk started doing it. The clearest indicator that radio is dying was when the advertisers move to the new media.
To be honest I'm not going to be sad to see the old media go. The new media can be just as bad, but it can also be better
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If paid by the hour, listen, if not, read.
Or do as Trump, neither listen nor read.
This is the same kind of crap that some morning radio show hosts will do. They will start about how great a product is and how it has just made the world of difference in their life and you should definitely check it out because I'm just so entertaining I must be right!!!
This one has no ads, no filler, is non-radio, and by the way has unique content.
Seriously!
How is this any different than QVC or infomercials?
Sounds like the writer was given a topic by her Editor and she just ginned up a bunch of garbage to fill the columns.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
The combination of original and advertising has long been the standard in radio, and is just accepted as the cost of keeping the lights on. What's so special about podcasts?
Plus, it is super easy to skip an ad. My podcast software has a "skip 30 seconds" button (configurable to any length, but 30secs seems to be standard ad length).
"I would like to tell you about a product..." skip " and now back to the show..."
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
That I never listen to podcasts. Never.
Want to tell me a story? Write it down. Then I might read it.
And I have never watched a pre-roll video. Try to force an animated ad of some kind on me, and I close the window and do something else (sometimes reluctantly, if I really wanted to read the actual content).
I listen to podcasts in the car, and only in the car. It's generally frowned upon to read whilst sitting in the drivers seat of a moving vehicle.
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I've seen YouTube replays of the old Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where during the middle of the show, Ed would do a Budweiser or dog food commercial without a "station break".....you saw this thing quite often in the middle of shows on TV in the earlier days.
This type of thing is only new due to the podcast being a relatively "new" media outlet.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I"m too busy watching TV or streaming a movie over netflix on the dash.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
I disagree. When guys like Glenn Beck transition seamlessly from show to advertising gold I turn to something else. I find it disgusting. NPR has both less ads and when it does mention a sponsor you know it. You don't have to listen to podcasts that pull stunts like this, and you don't have to listen to radio that blends their content with their advertisements.
I bet you also leave the movie theater when Iron Man drinks a Dr. Pepper. How do we know it is a Dr. Pepper? Because, he picks it up is a very weird way so that the label is clearly exposed.
I also doubt you have ever listened to Glen Beck long enough to hear him transition to an advertisement, because I've never noticed it to be seamless. It is generally quite jarring.
Aah, change is good. -- Rafiki
Yeah, but it ain't easy. -- Simba
Before TV, it was a regular feature in radio programs. Literally as a part of the story, without any break from the plot. A neighbor would come over to visit the main character, make small talk, and casually mention "By the way, I wanted to tell you about my new Veeblefetzer dishwasher. Ever since Melvin bought one for me, housework has become so much easier!"
The term in the industry is "native advertising", when you roll the ad directly into the program without demarcations (eg, vertical blanks before commercials). Usually they're host-read, although sometimes a secondary host will perform the duty. The latter has been very common for game shows in the past.
There's an obvious joke at Millennials' expense here, but for the podcasting community the question reaches a bit deeper. Game show hosts, interviewers, and other "company men" can give a native ad, and even an ostensibly bona-fide endorsement and for the most part the viewership is a) aware they're watching an ad, and b) cognizant that a personality endorsement is as valid as the host itself's reputation.
For podcasters -- especially small-scale podcasters or YouTubers with a small team of 1 or 2 perhaps helping them -- there's more question about how it might affect objectivity in the regular content.
Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
And that is in my field of vision.
I seriously pity you, then.
I really wish all my favorite podcast creators would go the route that Sam Harris et al have, where ad-free versions are available to people who support the podcast directly or through Patreon. I know Patreon has its issues but being able to easily and automatically support content creators I trust and enjoy seems to be the antidote to the awful ad-based revenue system we've settled into these days.
The combination of original and advertising has long been the standard in radio, and is just accepted as the cost of keeping the lights on. What's so special about podcasts?
Because it's backwards from the radio side of things.
Broadcast radio had clear - and large - upfront costs. One needed a broadcast tower, radio transmission equipment, a microphone, and a place to put it. One also needed frequency on which to broadcast...which meant an FCC license, which also had compliance rules that needed to be observed. Those things needed to be maintained and managed, so engineers were needed. All of that stuff cost a massive amount of money, meaning that one either needed a pile of money or an investor with a pile of money before broadcast could begin. I don't recall Carnegie or Rockefeller having enough interest to go into broadcast, so pretty much everyone who wasn't a university or a massive corporation depended on advertisers to help pay the costs of broadcasting.
Podcasting can be done for peanuts. Libsyn will host for $15/month, but an industrious person can use Wordpress and a shared web hosting account to do it for half that. I've occasionally spent more than that on lunch. Apple and Google will list your podcast in their respective directories for free, or people can subscribe by clicking a link on an RSS feed. Add in $250 in up front costs for a Shure microphone and a Presonus audio interface if you're feeling fancy, and anybody can start podcasting for literally thousands of times less money than it cost to start a broadcast radio station.
It was impossible to be a hobbyist AM radio broadcaster*. It is very possible to be a hobbyist podcaster. Earlier podcasts seldom had advertisements because those broadcasts were either straight up hobbyists doing it for the love of whatever-their-topic, or extensions of something else (e.g. churches distributing Sunday sermons). The audience was largely incidental, and the costs were fixed.
As podcasts grew in popularity, sea level rose, meaning people were looking to get money in exchange for a higher quality product. Podcasts needed money to help make that happen, meaning episodes started to end with donation requests, or advertisers started to offer money in exchange for airtime.
It's not that podcasts are special, it's that making money off of them was ex post facto to their surge in popularity, while broadcast needed it from the outset.
*Yes, pirate radio and similar low powered transmissions for hobbies are a thing. However, the reach was never going to get big enough for advertising to even be on the table. It's entirely possible for a small, home-based podcaster to get a sponsorship deal, which is a further extension of the point being made.
This is just an indicator they don't know how to do a professional job of prepping their podcast.
Cheap storage VM.
Right? This is literally product advertising in podcasts.
It's not a new thing at all. It's been used for decades.
In fact, the only real new thing out there in that area, at least for the UK, was the regulator started allowing this on TV with a little icon to be displayed to notify watchers there is product advertising during the program. (not that most would know what the logo meant, even with the ads stating what it meant that ran for years!)
The bigger issue is the odd clashes of product advertisements, if anything.
I don't mind advertising at all if it is natural, or unobtrusive. When it starts shouting at you, destroying your computer or such, then it can get to fuck. Hi I'm Barry Scott!!