The Ringer founder Bill Simmons recently spoke at Bloomberg Screentime about the business of podcasting, and shared his thoughts about where the medium is headed.
When asked about the where the industry went wrong, Simmons said he hadn’t believe it did anything overtly incorrect yet.
“I don’t think the industry went wrong. I just feel like things move in phases and you have little errors, right?…Some things work. Some mistakes were made. And I think by 2023 I think people really have a sense of what works, what doesn’t work, and what the challenges are,” Simmons said. “I’m pretty bullish on it because I just think we’re moving into a new era of wherever it’s going.
“And the old era is definitely done. The deals are changing. I think the standards for what works for podcasts — people have a better idea. And so you can’t just be famous and have a podcast. That can’t be. It can’t be the sixth thing you’re doing. It can’t be something that you didn’t spend any time on,” Simmons acknowledged. “People are making choices and the quality of those choices and the things you’re picking has to hit a certain standard. I think everybody’s starting to realize that and the stuff that is elevating above is the stuff that’s good. It’s either the first or the second most important thing the person’s doing.”
Bill Simmons was asked what The Ringer considers a successful podcast audience but admitted that isn’t how the company measures success.
“I try not to look at the audiences. I have an awesome inner circle and they’ll tell me if something’s doing bad. But for the most part, I honestly genuinely don’t know what Matt (Belloni’s) audience is. For example, I don’t know when like Derek Thompson’s audience is, but I know that those guys have a piece of turf that matters for what they’re trying to do and if there’s some big topic or some important topic, I’m going to care what they think…There’s 20 million podcasts out there. How do you stand out? How are you different? And if you’re competing against a bunch of people in the same space, why are people gonna listen to you instead of this other podcast? That’s how we think about it.”
Bill Simmons later said that the more podcasts that start, the more likely it is that the bigger podcasts will see growth due to an overwhelming amount of choices and the familiarity that large shows provide.
“People kind of gravitate toward the trusted people, the bigger people, the people they know, and the best stuff. So in a weird way, the more podcasts that there are, the better it is for the bigger podcasts because there’s too many choices. People are like, ‘Oh, I know that one’. If it’s a personality, or it’s an angle? I think that’s gonna win.”
