Alex Blumberg, co-founder of Gimlet Media, describes the commercial success of NPR's Planet Money T-Shirt Project, which funded global reporting trips through merchandise sales.
Opinion
Blumberg: Successful Podcasts Should Be For-Profit Rather Than Non-Profit
“With planet money, I was like, no, there's, you can turn a profit on planet money. That's like advertisers want to be in that show. The audience is big enough. It can be profitable. And if it can, it should be. It doesn't make sense to force it into a structur…”
Insight
Blumberg: Media founders undervalue institutional support behind their success
“I think I was a risky venture. You know, like, there's not that many places that are set up to, like, take that kind of risk. Even though I didn't feel like a risk, even though I felt like, well, I know how to do this, and, like, obviously I've done it before,…”
Opinion
Blumberg: NPR was sitting on financial gold with Planet Money
“I felt like we were sitting on gold. I felt like we, they recognized the editorial gold, but I felt like we were sitting on financial gold with Planet Money, and people love it, and it's brand new, and it's different, and they're consuming it in a different wa…”
Disclosure
Blumberg: Initially offered co-founder Matt Lieber only 1% to 10% equity
“I think it was, I think I said in the range of one to 10. I'm key to the success of the company, and I want to feel I want to feel that that is reflected in the cap table, I guess.”
Disclosure
Blumberg: Recording the Startup podcast was originally a marketing ploy
“So I had to do something that was going to attract attention to what we were doing, and I figured, like, okay, a guy recording himself trying to start a company. That'll be good. It was like a marketing ploy.”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Blumberg: No investors offered funding until Matt Lieber joined Gimlet
“Nobody was offering me money until, I literally, nobody, I don't think anybody offered money until Matt and I teamed up. I think when I was doing it by myself, I didn't even get to that point.”