Short version: Michael Geoghegan and I have decided to move IT Conversations, the longest-running podcasting channel, from GigaVox Media to The Conversations Network.
A year ago, we moved IT Conversations to GigaVox as a for-profit venture. But since then, GigaVox’s mission has moved away from the podcasting-content business, and to be brutally honest, we weren’t really giving IT Conversations the attention it deserved. And then there’s the confusion that IT “Conversations” wasn’t part of
The “Conversations” Network. Hey — it was confusing for us, too.
For all of these reasons, we’ve decided to move IT Conversations back to the non-profit Conversations Network. So what does that mean?
1. FUNDING. As a 501(c)(3) non-profit, we’ll be looking for NPR-style corporate donations instead of traditional advertising. I’m on the prowl for $100,000, which will run IT Conversations for an entire year (360+ programs). That’s an extraordinary promotional opportunity, by the way, at a very low CPM. Perhaps your company wants to support us, get terrific exposure to IT professionals, and do so for a fraction of what it would otherwise cost.
2. STAFFING. Part of the magic of The Conversations Network has
been TeamITC, the part-time staff all over the world who produce our programs. During the GigaVox Media year, we moved towards utilizing a smaller number of people, each of whom produced more shows. With this change, we’ll be moving back to the more distributed model, and involving far more people once again.
3. RE-INTEGRATION. It’s going to be a technical nightmare, but over the next three months we’re going to bring all of our channels together into a single content-management system and make it easier for each channel to cross-promote the others. Please bear with us while the transition is underway. It’s going to get worse before it gets better. For now, there are still separate logins for The Conversations Network (Social Innovation Conversations and PodCorps.org) and GigaVox Media (IT Conversations).
I’ll have more news over the next few weeks, but I wanted to get this
word out to our loyal fans and listeners ASAP. Thanks for your continued support of our mission.