Gossip

Now it's meta-meta-blogging; Podtech in the news, for sure - but in the money?

Anybody who does a blog is jealous of Scoble. "Robert Scoble's Podtech.net video podcast has been criticized for sometimes being overly long and coming across like a conference panel discussion that has lost steam. But if we are to believe Scoble's claims, despite the naysayers, the Podtech show is already a quiet success."

Naysayers? Who they?

Well, for example: Valleywag might qualify.

"PodTech.net, one of Silicon Valley's most-hyped video networks, is fake. A media network needs content, an audience, deals, a plan, and momentum. In all of these, PodTech is deficient."

 Ouch.

And in case you think they aren't sure:

"PodTech's dead. There's nothing good to watch, no traffic, no pickup, no significant deals, no standout talent, and nothing really there. So another startup will go tits up unless the owner foists it upon some unsuspecting buyer. The story of PodTech's creative bankruptcy and business unsavvy is also a template for how not to run a media network and a warning to those who think that all it takes is some cameras, a boring interviewer, and a site to stick the shows on."

And Scoble? Well, Scoble was the man who had all the inside track on Microsoft. If you remember, he worked for Channel Nine inside Redmond HQ, doing videos about cool new tech; and he blogged it, giving us all a Deep Throat source.

For reasons which probably require expert analysis, the move from inside track to media wilderness doesn't seem to have affected the popularity of Scoble's own blog. He continues to appear in the top ten WordPress list, and people not only read it, but link to it. He is (as Valleywag remarked recently) Podtech's "only star."

Sample Scobelizing:

I'm sitting here with PodTech star Loren Feldman. The dude is funny. I wish I was funny. Even 1/100th as funny.

  We're also hanging out in New York with Rachel Clarke (she does marketing for a bunch of big consumer companies that she'd rather me not name) and machinima expert Paul Martino. Anyway, earlier today I visited the Fast Company offices. Here's their blog. Damn, they are awesome offices.

Don't knock it: it's popular. And, says Scoble, he's coining it. Valleywag again:

"So does Robert Scoble's revelation, that Podtech is earning more than $400,000 a year from his show, prove the economic viability of podcasting?"

"PodTech's dead. There's nothing good to watch, no traffic, no pickup, no significant deals, no standout talent, and nothing really there. So another startup will go tits up unless the owner foists it upon some unsuspecting buyer."

And in case you think they don't really mean it, not truly: 

"The story of PodTech's creative bankruptcy and business unsavvy is also a template for how not to run a media network and a warning to those who think that all it takes is some cameras, a boring interviewer, and a site to stick the shows on."

And there's the piece our Editor wrote last November. He didn't sound impressed either. Jealousy, I'm sure... as was the other piece in June. Well, one thing I can tell you is: nobody here earns six figures. Not even in dollars.