I'm listening

Speaking of Steve Gillmor, we caught up this morning via Skype. He lives near San Francisco, and I’m in Sydney. Apart from a few minor feedback issues, voice quality was amazing, and it cost zero dollars. I love the Internet…

Anyway, in the course of our discussion we talked about The Gillmor Gang, a web-based radio show Steve hosts with his “gang” and one guest each week. I offered my two Aussie cents: The Gillmor Gang is a bit like the breakfast TV show model translated for a radio audience. Here you’ve got five people sprouting opinions, recapping news and predicting the future of technology. And you won’t get this kind of discussion in many other places. They are, in a sense, a form of IT news and thought-leadership aggregation. (There’s an RSS angle here too, as Steve observed, but I’ll save that thought for another day.)

One interesting aspect of the show is that it’s an hour long, without a break. In our ten second attention span society, that’s a long time. Even breakfast TV has ad breaks. So when it comes to listening to the stream on your PC (downloading it to an iPod is a different scenario), it’s hard to justify taking out an entire hour from your day. I guess some people might switch off for that reason.

Speaking for myself, I tend to listen while doing other stuff. I browse the web, blog, answer email, click “pause” when someone comes into my office, and so on. It’s part of my working day. The downside is that I will sometimes miss subtle comments, or even chunks of discussions. My attention fades in and out, just the way it does when I’m making coffee and toast at home with the brekky TV show on in the background. But I still get the big picture, and I can rewind if needed.

Taking this line of thought a step further, the important thing about breakfast TV shows, we both agreed, is that they make truckloads of cash for TV networks. That model is true in both the US and Australia. And in free-to-air radio land, breakfast shows (which coincidentally also have two or more presenters) are cash cows. The radio ratings war is won and lost largely on the basis of your breakfast show’s ability to entertain and inform.

Now, while plenty of strategic thought has gone into the creation of The Gillmor Gang, it’s also a labour of love. But as we say in publishing land, good content always comes first and sponsorship second. Build an audience then invite the dollars. I don’t know if/when the dollars will flow into The Gillmor Gang, but I see no reason why not. If you want great content, someone’s gotta pay. In business, love doesn't equal charity.

Of course, I should make clear that I'm not attempting to solicit a few bucks for The Gang. What I am observing here is that this is a working model for making the giant leap from print publishing to other mediums like radio and TV. CNet TV is obviously another example.

I’m intrigued by how something as simple in concept as a radio show is slowly changing the way we view the Internet. As broadband proliferates, our radio and TV viewing habits are shifting to include more web-based content. And that opens up a whole new can of worms in terms of integrating written, video and audio content. Steve, you’ve got my attention (.xml).