¶ Podcast Industry Challenges
Hey there, podcast listeners. Ira here. Not with a new episode of our show, but to say a few things about some of the backstage, behind-the-scenes stuff going on at our program, and to make an announcement. The reason for the announcement is there have been some changes in the podcast industry. Basically, it's hard to run a podcast by selling ads. And it's affected nearly everybody who does a podcast. In the last few years, we've watched friends at podcasting companies all around us.
as they made massive staff cuts. Some companies have gone under. Ad revenue is crucial here at our show. Advertisements are the main way that we pay for everybody's salaries and all the production costs. And because of these changes in the industry, this coming year, we expect our ad revenue to be a third less, a third less than what we brought in just a few years ago. It's just a ton of money.
And if we don't figure out how to make that up some other way, we're going to have to change the way we make our show, which we don't want to do. Fortunately, we have a secret weapon. And that's you. You are the way that we can make up that shortfall. I know hearing those words might not be the happiest news for you. Let me say more. We have tried to figure out a way to make this worth your while, to make this more than a donation, more than charity. And this brings me to our announcement.
¶ Introducing This American Life Partners
We're starting a premium subscription version of our show. And the idea is that you pay us some money and then you get all kinds of stuff that we're not giving out with the free version. And I want to be very clear before I say anything else. You do not need to subscribe.
If you just want to hear our show every week, our show is still going to be everywhere that it is now for free. That's not changing. But if you subscribe, you get bonus episodes, you get exclusive content, Ask Me Anything sessions. recordings of live events that we do on stage, and you get the show ad-free. We really like that we can offer that to you. It's kind of ironic that the solution to ad rates dropping is that we are going to offer some people a version of the show with no ads at all.
So you can get that. And if you subscribe, you also get access to this special version of our archive where I went in and handpicked over 250 of my favorite episodes. So... You know that situation where you just want something to listen to for half an hour, you're doing some errand, you're whatever, and you're scrolling, you're looking for something. Here's my promise to you. Take any one of these episodes and you will be very happy. These 250 episodes will appear right in your podcast app.
Once you subscribe, like right under the most recent episodes, you'll find these. There's not going to be any hunting around. So that's the stuff you get. We talked a lot around here about what to call the subscription version of our show. We considered This American Life Plus. Or This American Life Premium? Boring. This American Lifeboat? Too desperate. This American Lifesavers? Too likely to get us sued by a candy company.
This American Life with benefits? Too dirty. I like what we settled on in the end. This American Life partners. Or maybe you should say it, This American Life partners.
¶ Subscription Benefits and Call to Action
You will be our partner in making our show live and thrive. So, if you're in a position to help out, and if you like our show, if it means something to you, I really hope you'll step up and subscribe. And we really have knocked ourselves out trying to invent stuff with this new subscription version that'll make it worth your while. I just recorded a bonus episode with Nancy Updike where she played me a thing and it actually made me cry. So there's that.
So do it for the stuff. Do it to help us keep making the show. The way you do this is that you go to thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. The link is also in the show notes to the episode that you're listening to right now. thisamericanlife.org slash lifepartners. Or if you happen to be listening to us on the Apple Podcast app, you can sign up right in the app on our show page. All right. We're going to be back in a couple days with a new episode. Thank you for listening