Business

There are 13 posts filed in Business (this is page 1 of 2).

Can worker’s cooperatives be successful?

Hamilton Nolan/How Things Work: Interview with Erik Forman, labor activist, and creator of The Drivers Cooperative (via Tracy Durnell). Three points I found interesting were Erik’s comments about (1) businesses could be capitalized (started) for $200K-$300K in loans, (2) “… could we just start companies that are owned by workers from the start, and are therefore run by workers in their own interests, and return wealth to the community instead of extracting it?”, and (3) “The main barrier is access to capital. We can build businesses that generate profit, but because the business is worker-owned, it doesn’t fit in the normative forms that venture capital prefers, and there really isn’t a large supply of risk capital for initiatives that serve a social purpose. It’s kind of the entire problem of capitalism, right? Workers don’t have capital. Definitionally. Otherwise we would not be workers.”. I enjoyed the article, and thought about myself as a career worker. I think that most people want a job, not a business, that starting and running a business is too much work, they would rather be paid for their labor and not deal with the other aspects of business ownership. For people working in the tech industry (computers, aviation, whatever tech you want to look at), it seems to me that there may be opportunities at the low end (small businesses), but few examples of cooperative business with a large number of employees. Certainly something to think about….

Elle Griffin writes about recent BigPub merger settlement (merger did not go through), and how few new copies of most books are sold, and lots of other interesting financial details. I mostly buy used books, so I can believe this story (via Simon Willison). Killer quote:

The DOJ found that, of 58,000 books published in a year, “90 percent of them sold fewer than 2,000 copies and 50 percent sold less than a dozen copies.”

https://www.elysian.press/p/no-one-buys-books

Waxy.org: The Quiet Death of Ello’s Big Dreams by Andy Baio – A fairly detailed story of the birth, life, and death of a social network/platform (that I never heard of), that started off with good intentions, but after taking venture capital, headed down the road to ruin.

The end of podcasting, chapter 61

Well, I did not think I would be writing another chapter so soon, but here are some links to the latest podcasting industry downturns:

  • TechCrunch: Spotify cuts 17% jobs amid rising capital costs
  • TechCrunch: Everything you know about the podcast industry is a lie – Analysis of the Spotify layoffs
  • Leo LaPorte: “Radio got about a hundred years, podcasting got a decade’ – Leo Laporte on his recent layoffs (link to 3 minute audio clip)
  • Nick Hilton: A Year On From the Death of Podcasting… – Talks about his similar “death of podcasting” post from 2022, discusses Spotify layoffs, advertising issues, talent issues,….

I think my podcast from chapter 60 still applies….check it out!

The end of podcasting, chapter 60

Well, my faithful readers, it’s time for the next chapter of my ongoing documentary of the end of podcasting (it’s been over a year since I last addressed this topic!). I listened to a podcast on podcasting recently (saw it on Dave Winer’s linkblog), and suddenly felt myself turning into Keith Olbermann….no….stop…stop!….

Recently, I finished listening to an episode of the On The Media podcast, which had two stories about podcasting. The first story was something of an origin story, and was glad that Dave Winer and Adam Curry got a mention. It was interesting that Kevin Marks was a featured interviewee, as a person who created a script to copy podcasts to iPods back in the early 2000s. I have not thought of Kevin as someone who was a primary or secondary player in the development of podcasting, so it was curious how he made it into this segment. The show focused on the impact Apple has had on podcasting, with the main feature being that Apple maintains a directory of podcasts based on submissions from podcast producers. This is it? This is how Apple controls podcasting? The producers left out how there is another podcast directory maintained by Adam Curry and his group PodcastIndex.org. The producers also seemed to forget that there are some little things called…wait for it… search engines…I think one of them is called Google…The second story was about the business of podcasting, reviewing the ups and downs of the “podcasting industry” since 2014, and the cost of producing “prestige podcasts” (I had never heard that before!) or long-form journalism podcasts as opposed to “talk show” podcasts or other interview podcasts requiring much less resources to produce. I am sorry to have to bring this up – but – WHO CARES? Do people write stories about production company problems for television networks or streaming services? Do people get upset that Disney+ has not made a profit? Why do people think that the podcasting industry is a “darling” that should be mourned over or lamented about economic downturns? Get a life, people! If an organization is spending more money than it brings in income, they either figure out ways to increase revenue or cut expenses, or say goodbye! The technical term, I believe is called “business”. Whether it is a publicly funded organization (NPR, WNYC) or commercial companies (Spotify, Gimlet Media, iHeart), the business aspects are the same. Let’s get out there and compete people! Come on!

Keith Olbermann taking over this post…

Whew…what happened? Hmm, looks like someone named Keith left me a podcast….wonder what it sounds like?

The end of podcasting, chapter 59

This week, a Substack newsletter was posted about problems that podcasts from former podcast studio Gimlet Media were experiencing (getting cancelled). In 2019, Spotify purchased Gimlet Media for $230 million dollars (more here on other Spotify podcast acquisitions). Why did people think being acquired by a big company was going to allow them to keep their artistic freedom and continue to do things the way they had done them? Demonstration of control of the channel (a la CBS/NBC/ABC of the 60s/70s/80s – you had to convince them to approve your show to get on the air) – maybe go back to producing podcasts yourself? After all, you must have a lot of money after that acquisition. Chapter 57 of this story discusses the Joe Rogan move to Spotify, and I wrote in 2019 about how to avoid the corporate takeover of podcasting. As Joel Grey and Liza Minelli sang in the musical “Cabaret“, money makes the world go around. If people want to produce podcasts to make money, there are ways to innovate, but the best place to start is to make great podcasts.

A tale of pizza shops – then and now

When I was in college (early to mid 1980s), I remember that Domino’s Pizza’s big selling point was “Delivered in 30 minutes or it’s free”. I did not eat a lot of Domino’s, or have much pizza delivered, but I saw a lot of their ads. I don’t remember ever getting a pizza in more than 30 minutes. Another watchword was “don’t order without a coupon”. Paying full price was a pretty significant hit. Every pizza I ever got from Domino’s had a sheet of coupons glued to the top of the box, and I saved those for my future purchases. It wasn’t the greatest pizza, but it was fast. 

Now, fast forward to today’s Domino’s Pizza. In my town, there is one Domino’s, along with Pizza Hut, Little Caesars, Papa Murphy’s, and a local chain, Abby’s Pizza. You can see that we are covered pretty well for pizza, and that they are all doing well. I have seen 6 cars at a time at Little Caesars waiting to get their “Hot and Ready” pizza. Anyway, this summer we have been taking advantage of ordering Domino’s Pizza online and picking it up at the store. The average order time is 20-25 minutes. Every time I have picked up pizza, and been there long enough for them to answer a phone order, they tell the person that it is a two hour wait for delivery. And some people still order the pizza! So much for fast delivery. The coupon rule is still a good one. The online site tells me how much I am saving versus the regular price (almost 50% most of the time). When someone walks up to order pizza, and doesn’t have a coupon, the “specials” that the employee tells the customer are considerably more expensive than ordering online. Oh well…some things never change. From my observations, most of the orders are online for takeout. 

As a cross-check, I got some pizza from Abby’s Pizza this past week (the local chain). Before they started accepting online orders, you either had to go there or call ahead. Sometimes, I had to call up to 10 times before I could get someone on the phone (kept getting a busy signal). They are a pretty popular pizza place, and could always use a few more employees. After making my online order, I headed over to the restaurant. Their standard time for pizza orders is “ready in 30 minutes”. The pizza was ready within 30 minutes, but I had to wait for them to make a sandwich. While I waited, the next four people to come to the counter were all picking up online orders. Yep – online ordering is the current wave, all right. 

The end of podcasting, chapter 57

The recent news of Joe Rogan moving his podcast to Spotify has started a predictable stream of posts about “the death of independent podcasting” or “the podcasting world is now Spotify versus everyone else“. I think Wendy Grossman is more on target saying “it will be much harder for their creators to find audiences and revenues as Spotify becomes the primary gatekeeper…”. And, of course, Dave Winer rightly  points out that “Podcasting is booming.” and “It’s open, no platform vendor, anyone can use it.”

I think this points up several topics. The first is “why am I making a podcast?” (hat tip to Simon Sinek). If it is to make money, then sure, go ahead and make a deal with a company (like Joe Rogan). Anyone who creates content or a body of work can choose how they want to monetize that (think Patreon, subscription based-sites, etc.). The semantics of calling that “a podcast” could be debated (John Gruber had a good post on that topic when Luminary bought up some content last year).

If some makes a podcast because they have a topic they are interested in, or for fun, or some other non-money-based reason, go ahead! (See Dave Winer comment above…). Also, see blogging…nobody keeping anyone from starting a blog out there….

If someone wants to get/grow an audience for a podcast, the solution is simple (although not necessarily easy). Do good work, create value, market yourself – this hasn’t changed with the Spotify deal. After the Luminary deal, I commented in May 2019 that there were some areas that there were some ways to compete on distribution:

  1. Innovate on features and discoverability
  2. Find ways to help podcast producers know more about their listeners

To me, it looks like those are still good areas to work on – anyone working on that? If not, get busy on it – or just get on with making the best podcasts you can make!