Sorry if asked already. Now that you are on the TWIT network, any discussion of maybe resurrecting TWiF. Unfortunately since TWiF ended, Martin Sargent has been less visible, and that is a shame Do you still see him periodically?
I get so many questions about TWiF every single day, so here’s my all-encompassing answer so I don’t keep repeating myself.
(If you’re confused, “This Week in Fun”, AKA “TWiF”, was a weekly podcast I used to do for the network “This Week in Tech”, AKA “TWiT”, that has been on an extended hiatus since mid-January. If you don’t care, just skip this post and enjoy your evening.)
Yes, Martin’s one of my closest friends and we still hang. I said we were going on hiatus back in January with the assumption that we’d bring TWiF back when Martin’s new job calmed down and my health issues stabilized. But it hasn’t really worked out that way. He was pulling 80-hour weeks and then I was between jobs and traveling and our schedules weren’t colliding. Now I’ve got my full-time job at TWiT (the network TWiF used to be on, though I’m now working on other projects) and everyone seems to agree that TWiF doesn’t really work on a tech network. Even though a lot of people thought the show was funny, I always worried that others just thought it was out of place. Martin’s also getting married in a few months and his free time has gotten scarce, and I know better than to create more stress for him right now.
The thing is, TWiF’s numbers weren’t off the charts great, so frankly I’m a little surprised that there now seems to be such a fan base out there. I love the fact that you guys are out there, btw! It just surprises me. Shows don’t need a million fans anymore, but without sponsorships to recoup production costs, it doesn’t make sense for TWiT to keep putting resources toward a show that isn’t a huge success, at least in financial terms.
Martin knows I’d be thrilled to do TWiF again in some form. I hope we can make it work. Until then, hiatus. Consider us in the same camp as a lot of shows with a passionate fan base that didn’t quite fit the mold, or haven’t found the right one yet.
Web video is still trying to find the right business model(s). In the meantime, numbers are all we have to go on and that whole thing is kind of a mess because with all the different ways to watch content, numbers are scattered across the Internet. 850 views on YouTube might not accurately reflect 3700 iTunes subscribers and neither of those numbers even get close to what may have been 22,500 live streams, but they all count toward the total audience number. It’s cumulative and can be tough to monetize all that data. Believe me, I know.
So I implore you- if you love a show and want it to continue, watch it. Stream it, subscribe to it, like it on FB, share it with your friends. Do whatever feels right and unspammy, but spread the word if you believe in the show. Internal promotions/marketing departments are not gonna cut it anymore. It’s a crazy oversaturated video space out there, and show creators need you. Otherwise, people with money will lose confidence that they’re putting that money toward something great, and creators will need to move on. Anyone who’s trying to make a living out of this will, anyway.
LONGEST FORMSPRING ANSWER EVAR. OK BEER TIME!
