Mar

14

PodShow Layoffs?

March 14, 2008 |

The rumor for the afternoon is that Adam Curry’s somewhat infamous podcasting outfit PodShow is about to lay off around a third of its staff.

Apparently, Valleywag got some inside information:

PodShow, the San Francisco-based online-video network best known for launching the career of CNET’s Natali Del Conte, is laying off about 20 employees, or as much as 30 percent of its staff. “There are no secrets, only information you don’t yet have,” is the slogan for former MTV VJ Adam Curry’s podcast. Curry, a PodShow cofounder, didn’t show up to deliver information about the firings; we’re told he left that to middle managers.

Judging from the careers site, they haven’t hired anybody new since last October, while before that, they hired about one new developer or engineer a month.

Mark Hopkins at Mashable is also trying to track the story down, but has only hit dead ends so far.

If you look at Curry’s last blog post, there is at least some indication between the lines that these rumors might be true:

2 main topics to discuss: Why the hell haven’t I been doing shows this week, what’s going on? The answer comes in two parts… One is my road trip and some interesting mainstream media action, the other and most important is the focused strategy and direction PodShow has embarked on. I go into deep detail on our business model, where the money comes from and how you can get your hands on that stream of revenue as an independent producer of audio and video properties.

If it is true that Podshow is downsizing, it really doesn’t come as a surprise. What does a podcasting company need 60 employees for, after all? Most of the great innovations that Curry promised never saw the light of day and for now, podcasting, while growing slowly, is still in a holding pattern, waiting either to really break into the mainstream or return into obscurity.

Podshow itself, as far as I can see, has seen very little publicity and mindshare lately, and no - I don’t believe that they grew by 29.000% in 2007. And even if they are doing just fine financially, at some point they must have come to realize that they just didn’t need that many people around as full-time staff.

Technorati tags: , ,

Share This

Related Posts

Comments

4 Comments so far

  1. Gabe on March 14, 2008 5:47 pm

    Excellent photo illustration. Really adds context to “Curry” that other coverage lacks.

    This was this today’s best photo illustration though: http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/03/will-google-fal.html

  2. Frederic on March 14, 2008 6:06 pm

    Thanks Gabe - I just couldn’t help myself. But the Salesfore/Google wedding picture definitely has me beat :)

  3. Jon on March 14, 2008 7:58 pm

    Keith and The Girl predicted this recently, and no one stepped up to fight them on it. Their fight is gone…

  4. Steve Runner on March 15, 2008 7:54 am

    Great post on an interesting subject, but I don’t take the PodShow layoffs as a bad thing for either PodShow or PodCasting.

    It’s sad that some great people had to lose their jobs, but I took this news as a good sign that PodShow is making an important strategic business move.

    Why is it that everyone seems to equate a company’s down-sizing with dire predictions of “the end”?

    I’m a former producer for PodShow who hopes (as I’m sure most do) that PodShow becomes incredibly successful. When companies like PodShow succeed, then PodCasting succeeds! I for one wish them the best and expect them to do well…and I honestly don’t look at this recent layoff as a “bad” thing for the company.

    I do feel bad for the people who were let go, but the fact that they were “layed off” is likely no reflection on the quality of their work, thus I’m certain they’ll all find other jobs.

Name (required)

Email (required)

Website

Speak your mind