Three months after his friend Kevin Rose had to lay-off a number of senior staff at Revision3, is Leo Laporte in trouble over at the TWiT network?
Are TWiT’s numbers cause for concern?
Leo Laporte has been showing up as a guest all over the place recently, plugging the excellent twit.tv network. Leo suggested at the end of his slot on Buzz Out Loud, that listeners / viewers were leaving TWiT, accusing him of ‘jumping the shark’. So, I took a look at the traffic numbers for twit.tv and it seems he might not have been joking!
According to compete.com, traffic numbers to twit.tv have dropped steadily since last October. Alexa.com also shows traffic down. Whilst neither compete or alexa can provide exact data, they both show a negative trend in Leo’s figures. This, after he’s invested massively in new broadcast equipment and lost Visa as a sponsor.
Less advertising & broadband caps – Ouch!
Internet TV needs advertisers / sponsors in order to survive, however, companies are cutting back on their advertising budgets as the economy struggles. These shows also need viewers too – Many of whom are now on capped broadband packages from their ISP’s. This might mean some people are having to think, before ‘investing’ in watching that full screen video stream, from TWiT every day. In my opinion, if you are keeping an eye on your download quote – TWiT is NOT the thing to drop – Leo ROCKS!
Could this explain the drop in figures – what do you think?
Not to sound like a low class person, but it seems like most of the podcast that Leo does don’t seem to be, well, about the topic at hand. It seems more like chitchat amoung the “upper class” (for lack of a better word of the top of my head) and less like a podcast. Any time I check out twit or mac break weekly, to me that’s all that I hear. As for the capped connections, if your downloading that much you must not have a job, or love the latest builds of any linux distro.
Just my two cents.
if you look into this this is the numbers go up and down, they actually have stabilised. You really need to investigate a little bit more.
As stated in the post, I was referring to the current quarter’s stats.
ok i’m calling BS on this one…
1) leo’s site doesn’t bring in his revenue … ads do
2) ads are paid by listeners, not site visitors
3) almost all sites take a dip in visitors during the holidays
therefore this article is complete and utter speculation based on … alexa?
please
have a nice day,
chris heath
Chris,
Thanks for the comment. As stated in the post, I’m a fan of Leo’s work and simply asked a question. How can you call BS on someone asking a question?
I also used compete.com and then checked that against alexa to get a rough idea of the direction of traffic to Leo’s site and not just alexa, as you suggested. As I said in the post Chris, these two metrics were not totally accurate – simply useful for showing trends.
I think Leo’s site numbers do matter – as his site, hosts the live content he produces. If the number of people viewing that content / advertising really is down, (and I hope the stats are wrong) could that impact advertisers?
You mentioned that all sites take a dip during the holidays. I took a look at some of my other favourite podcasters and saw the exact opposite. Take a look at Cali Lewis’s numbers over the same period (or Robert Scoble’s) and you will see they gained; as did Cnet, crankygeeks, dl.tv and many other podcast providers.
I agree 100% with you about the accuracy of third party stats providers like alexa and compete. I was just asking the question, that’s all.
Leo Laporte is a busy guy. He has to produce hours worth of video or audio content every day. So, why would he be turning up on so many other shows right now?
The only reason he was on all them shows this past week, was to try and get some listeners for his own shows. Oldest trick in the book is to turn up on other podcasts, when your own are not doing well, to get some new listeners.
Is that why he went to his longtime friends Scoble and the Buzz guys in the same week?
Am I the only one whos noticed that Leo’s shows are devoting more and more time to sponsor messages? Its like he’s desperate to sell something for them; maybe because hes worried they will leave?
@chris
Are you forgetting that Leo had to drop some of his twit podcasts recently because of the poor listener numbers?
@Mike
I checked with what the post said and they are right, it does show twit.tv numbers down over the last quarter.
I know this blogs a supporter of leo, but the truth is his stuffs so filled with sponsor messages that its painful to listen to. I gave up on the twit stuff last year. Leos great but those ads are killing his content. Also got bored of calananis talking crap and bragging about his battery car.
Nice blog jim.
Wayne,
yes, I am a keen follower of Leo’s work because I consider him to be the best in his field. I think you are being a little unfair complaining about the way he mentions his sponsors, as it is their sponsorship money that funds the whole business. No sponsors, no shows.
I agree about Calacanis’ constant bragging about his new car (Jason, you have a great car – we get it!)
I can’t blame Leo for all the sponsorship messages – after all it is his for-profit business. A guy’s gotta eat and support his family first.
Those listeners who accuse Leo of “jumping shark” just don’t get it. I’m with Samuel Chaboya that “the content” is just chit chat. This is a sure sign that Leo is spreading himself way too thin, his productions are lacking quality content and he is too comfortable with the numbers to think people will listen anyway- regardless of all the ads. The old way of having a guest, turn on the mic without a plan technique and toss in some ads is the radio version of a talking head on television – BORING.
“Jumping Monkeys” and “Munchcast” podcasts? he may be getting paid to produce these but it is a complete waist of his time and not worth it in the long run. Leo should cut the fat and give his audience something to chew on.
Brian,
An excellent comment – thanks.
Which TWiT podcasts do you guys listen to?
I listen to TwiT, Windows weekly, Mac Break and occasionally Security now.
Would appreciate your feedback!
I download my TWiT podcasts and listen to them at the gym. I listen to FLOSS Weekly, Security Now, Net@Night and TWiT.
I think podcast creators like Leo Laporte and Revision3 need to keep a wary eye toward their advertising dollars, but I don’t think they’re going away any time soon. If they do go away, I’ll cry.
When it comes to mentioning sponsors: The cool thing about Leo is that he incorprorates them into his shows. He doesn’t just use a pre-recorded spot every time.
More and more it’s getting off topic in the netcasts. It’s hard to find the time to devote to 1:30 ramble fests.
Net@Night stays on but i think that’s because of Amber Maccarthur.
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