Summaries Entrepreneurship and Startups Podcasting Success Tips from Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media

This is a summary of a YouTube video "Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media" by Y Combinator!

4.1 (78 votes)

The key idea of the video is that to succeed in podcasting, one must find their passion, engage their audience, bring production value, and learn from the best resources available.

• 🎧
  00:00

  Starting a successful podcast requires finding a concept that is not too binding and finding someone with a vision and expertise to make it happen.
• 📈
  06:39

  Wendy's team helped her increase her productivity and maintain quality, Y Combinator acquired The Pitch, Josh's drive led him to Gimlet, media companies are grappling with objectivity but NPR strives for it.
• 🎧
  11:03

  Podcasts are a growing industry that provide companionship, storytelling, and education while allowing for productivity.
• 🎧
  19:46

  Podcasts are becoming more mainstream and require a robust marketing strategy to gain listeners, with partnerships and YouTube being effective ways to promote content.
• 🎧
  28:41

  Podcast creators seek a more direct connection with listeners for revenue opportunities, but the technology for achieving this is uncertain.
• 🎧
  34:30

  True crime podcasts are popular, Gimlet Media is transitioning some audio content to video, highly produced content can attract a different audience, but sustainability and passion are key for success.
• 🎧
  39:57

  To succeed in podcasting, find your passion, engage your audience, bring production value, and learn from the best resources available.
• 🎙️
  46:07

  Listen and encourage emotional honesty in interviews by asking great questions to engage the audience.

Detailed summary

• 🎧
  00:00

  Starting a successful podcast requires finding a concept that is not too binding and finding someone with a vision and expertise to make it happen.

  • Podcast teams have their own editorial process for sourcing stories, which involves reading widely, talking to people, and being curious about the world.
  • Starting a TV show is about being specific enough to remember it, but also very open, and you always need a couch.
  • Podcasting is about finding a concept that is not too binding and can be regularly occurring, and it can come from inside the company, outside pitches, or acquiring existing shows.
  • When starting a podcast, it's important to find someone with a vision and expertise to make it happen.
  • Acquiring content requires finding showrunners with skills, vision, and leadership abilities who have a good audience and are engaging, such as Wendy Zukerman's Science Vs. podcast.
  • If you have reached 100,000 independently, you are doing well and it's just a matter of how much more exposure and help you can get.
• 📈
  06:39

  Wendy's team helped her increase her productivity and maintain quality, Y Combinator acquired The Pitch, Josh's drive led him to Gimlet, media companies are grappling with objectivity but NPR strives for it.

  • Wendy's audience was multiplied and surrounded by a team to help her get more work out at a quality she was striving for.
  • Acquiring content as a sole creator is a huge advantage, as observed from Y Combinator's latest acquisition of The Pitch.
  • Josh from the Mojo podcast had a vision and drive to take his show to the next level, which made him a perfect fit for Gimlet.
  • The company looks for creativity, ability to complete tasks, and empathy in applicants, often giving a trial assignment to assess editorial thinking and curiosity.
  • Media companies, including NPR, are grappling with the issue of objectivity and audience perception, but NPR strives for objectivity and has a diverse listenership.
• 🎧
  11:03

  Podcasts are a growing industry that provide companionship, storytelling, and education while allowing for productivity.

  • The surprising number of listeners from different backgrounds, including evangelical pastors and Brooklyn hipsters, enjoyed the first season of startup, with occasional feedback from Trump supporters.
  • Our society is racist and white supremacy is real due to historical events such as slavery and the Civil War, but acknowledging this is often perceived as political.
  • Four out of five black intellectuals discussed the pervasive myths about the Civil War, which is about slavery, and the lack of representation of black voices in conversations about the conflict is crazy and needs to be addressed.
  • The podcast doesn't have a defined goal, but they take engagement seriously and aim to make their content both informative and enjoyable to listen to.
  • People listen to podcasts for companionship, to be told a good story, or for educational purposes.
  • Podcasting is a productive way to learn something while doing other tasks, and successful podcasts incorporate storytelling, companionship, and education, with the industry rapidly evolving and growing.
• 🎧
  19:46

  Podcasts are becoming more mainstream and require a robust marketing strategy to gain listeners, with partnerships and YouTube being effective ways to promote content.

  • Podcasting is becoming more mainstream, which means content creators need to bring their A-game and have a robust marketing strategy, and platforms like Spotify, TuneIn, and Apple are starting to pay more attention and compete for deals around content.
  • To gain a good amount of listeners for a new show, podcast networks rely on their existing network of listeners and also work on finding new audiences who are not familiar with podcasting.
  • Podcasts are like startups that need time to establish themselves, and the best way to find listeners is through partnerships with other podcasts, while YouTube is an effective way to promote older episodes.
  • The podcast uses YouTube as a marketing tool to reach a wider audience and the YouTube views often surpass the number of podcast downloads.
  • Audio media has the advantage of existing in a separate realm, but the downside is that it only competes with other audio and music.
  • Sharing media through social media platforms doesn't capture the full context and magic of the content, especially with podcasts and narratives.
• 🎧
  28:41

  Podcast creators seek a more direct connection with listeners for revenue opportunities, but the technology for achieving this is uncertain.

  • Gimlet Media is focusing on their strengths in editorial podcasts, but have recently hired a head of product to incorporate technology in their future plans.
  • Building a podcast platform is unlikely due to competition from established platforms and the fact that individual podcast hosts are incentivized for downloads and don't want to be captured by platforms.
  • Podcast creators want to deepen their relationship with listeners and explore revenue opportunities through a more direct connection, but the mechanism and technology for achieving this is still uncertain, and there are concerns about how the podcast landscape may change with the availability of more analytics.
  • Analects will help increase advertiser interest in podcasting by providing better analytics.
  • Analyzing inventory demand in space can be improved with existing information from other platforms, making it less surprising to discover different listen through rates.
  • Direct response advertisers like Squarespace and Macaw Pers use a formula to determine if advertising rates are worth it, and the market test shows that it's working.
• 🎧
  34:30

  True crime podcasts are popular, Gimlet Media is transitioning some audio content to video, highly produced content can attract a different audience, but sustainability and passion are key for success.

  • True crime podcasts have become a popular genre since the success of Serial, with a variety of shows discussing and following criminal cases.
  • Gimlet Media is transitioning some of their audio content into video, including the ABC sitcom Alex Inc and their first fiction podcast Homecoming, which has a two season deal with Amazon starring Julia Roberts.
  • Highly produced content can attract a different audience than less produced content, but there are exceptions like Joe Rogan's talk show.
  • The speaker's podcast has high engagement and is easier to produce than video content, but requires more skill in controlling conversation energy during recordings.
  • Sustainability is key for making money from something that people want to hear about, and it only makes sense to continue if the team is passionate about it.
• 🎧
  39:57

  To succeed in podcasting, find your passion, engage your audience, bring production value, and learn from the best resources available.

  • It's better to find a host's passion rather than trying to match them with material, as demonstrated by the success of "The Nod" podcast celebrating black culture.
  • Having a strong and engaging vibe is critical for podcast success as many listeners choose their favorite shows based on their connection with the host, and poorly executed podcasts can put people off and perpetuate negative stereotypes about the medium.
  • To grow your podcast audience beyond a small group, you need to bring production value and there are many online resources available to educate yourself before starting.
  • There are free resources on Transom, run by Jay Allison, which is an invaluable platform for learning from the best and most exciting people in the public radio and podcasting universe.
  • The manifestos and tutorials on setting up a system for passive income, such as those by Pat Flynn, are invaluable resources for those looking to tackle this task.
  • Find a friend you trust who's easily bored, copy your hero to start, understand you'll be worse, but eventually find your own voice through copying and learning along the way.
• 🎙️
  46:07

  Listen and encourage emotional honesty in interviews by asking great questions to engage the audience.

  • A good interview for a podcast consists of two fundamental building blocks: a story with a beginning, middle, and punchline, and emotional honesty.
  • In an interview, it's important to listen and encourage the interviewee to open up about their emotions without being confrontational.
  • Ask great questions as an interviewer to keep the audience engaged, as demonstrated by the success of a show called "The Giant Full of Money."
  • The lecture discussed the 2008 mortgage crisis and how a man was able to obtain a half-million dollar loan without any paperwork despite having a low income and unstable employment.
  • In an audio interview, the speaker emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions and being present to create drama and engage the audience.