EP 429: Maybe bigger isn't better?
On June 8, Skye Pillsbury opened the latest edition of her newsletter, The Squeeze, with the header RIP Gimlet. She continued:
I’m heartbroken over the news that Spotify has laid off another 200 podcast employees, though I’m not shocked.
— Skye Pillsbury, The Squeeze
I devoured Alex Blumberg's Startup when it first came out, which was about a year before I started podcasting. Then, I inhaled Reply All when it launched, and despite its later troubles, was genuinely moved by its final episode. I lapped up Blumberg's earnest interviews with entrepreneurs on Without Fail. I even had the privilege of interviewing Blumberg during a course I taught at CreativeLive.
I followed Gimlet's acquisition by Spotify with interest (and a healthy dose of skepticism). The bumpy ride that they've had since then was utterly predictable. Though, like Pillsbury, I find the news that Gimlet is no more—at least in any recognizable sense—quite upsetting.
This short dispatch is about podcasting and the podcast industry—but really, it's about why we shouldn't judge success—or run companies—using the logic of Wall Street.
Footnotes:
Footnotes:
- "RIP Gimlet" in The Squeeze by Skye Pillsbury
- "Spotify to Layoff 200 Employees in Podcast Strategy Shift" by Amanda Holpuch, New York Times
- Startup by Alex Blumberg & Gimlet Media (Excerpts from Season 1, Episodes 1, 2, and 4)
- Reply All by Alex Goldman, Emmanuel Dsotzi, PJ Vogt, and Gimlet Media
- Without Fail by Alex Blumberg & Gimlet Media
- "Podcast Companies, Once Walking on Air, Feel the Strain of Gravity" by Reggie Ugwu, New York Times
- "A U.F.O. Podcast Zooms Past the Competition" by Reggie Ugwu, New York Times
- "Crooked Media Hires Vice’s Lucinda Treat as First CEO, Gets Funding From George Soros’ Investment Firm" by Todd Spangler, Variety
- "'You Paid WHAT?!' Or, How Echo Chambers Distort Prices and the Way We Think" by Tara McMullin
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Or, share the show with a friend! You'll help out What Works and start a great conversation!
Every episode is also published in essay form at: taramcmullin.substack.com
