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.