Ben Thompson: prediction

Transcript context

…Was launching Dithering a business decision or just, this is going to be a fun thing with a good friend, or both? Both, and then also, I had this technology for paid podcast. That was a way to do it. We launched it. It's been successful. I think from day one, we had 10,000 subscribers, and then it leveled. It's like, where are we stuck? We didn't churn it all? How do you grow paid podcasts? We haven't done anything around free episodes in marketing. We will, but that was a de facto price raise of my best customers. What I wanted to explore this space, it's like, well, is my market as big as it can be? Is there a way to go broader? I figured out the newsletter thing. I think subscriptions make tons of sense for podcasts. Because people get so attached to a podcast, they get so attached to a particular host, and it becomes such a part of their routine to a much greater extent than reading, which is more of an affirmative choice. You have to go read this where it's like, oh, this is my podcast player. I guess I'll listen to this next. I think it's a great product for subscription, but it's totally unclear how you actually build a podcast, particularly a paid podcast. It's really hard to get people to start to listen to it. In general, I think writers tend to succeed with podcasts because writing is a good marketing medium. Again, it spreads easily, you just pass a URL. People will become familiar and like, yeah, I'll try your podcast because I like you as a writer. But if you're just a pure podcast, how do you grow? What I've decided to do is Dithering is no longer going to be an add-on. It's going to be a part of a Stratechery subscription. Now, again, your Stratechery subscription is worth more, because you have this extra piece. You got it for "free." So you don't sell it separately at all?…

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