Ira Glass has news to share about some things happening here at This American Life.
Hey there, podcast listeners.
Ira here not with a new episode of our show, but to say a few things about some of the backstage, behind the scenes stuff going on at our program and to make an announcement.
The reason for the announcement is there have been some changes in the podcast industry.
Basically, the ad market has dropped.
It's hard to run a podcast by selling ads, and it's affected nearly everybody who does a podcast.
In the last few years, we've watched friends at podcasting companies all around us as they made massive staff cuts.
Some companies have gone under.
Ad revenue is crucial here at our show.
Advertisements are the main way that we pay for everybody's salaries and all the production costs.
And because of these changes in the industry this coming year, we expect our ad revenue to be a third less.
A third less than what we brought in just a few years ago.
It's just a ton of money.
And if we don't figure out how to make that up some other way, we're going to have to change the way we make our show, which we don't want to do.
Fortunately, we have a secret weapon, and that's you.
You are the way that we can make up that shortfall.
I know hearing those words might not be the happiest news for you.
Let me say more.
We have tried to figure out a way to make this worth your while, to make this more than a donation, more than charity.
And this brings me to our announcement.
We're starting a premium subscription version of our show.