Ad Age Interview

Wow - great article, Leo -- Fantastic press!

The way you do the ads, actually saying them in the show, rather than playing a prerecorded soundfile, gives it an old-timey kind of feel. It makes it seem somehow more authentic.

Maybe it's your delivery; it feels like a friend recommending a service he genuinely likes. :)

Leo, continue the great work...

However, I think there is a big cultural difference between the US style of advertising and that we see in Europe - we just do not get presenters advertising products in the UK, at least not as part of the same program.

Personally, as a whole I have no problem with advertising in your podcasts, as long as there is no danger of your advertisers influencing your content, and I am sure you are ethical enough for this not to happen.

However, you saying the ads as part of the flow of the podcasts really gives the impression that this would happen - it must do... I can't imagine that you would be able to have a 5 minute TWiT discussion about Dell share-trading issues, or quality control problems, and then go straight into a "why I recommend Dell systems" ad... In the same way, if some news story crops up about some Visa security flaw, are you going to cut to a Visa ad in the same flow. Seems to me you are setting yourself up for a fall.

Please, oh please, can you go to having pre-recorded ads narrated by a person unconnected to the podcast content, e.g. similar to the Earthlink ads on Buzz Out Loud... This would also give you the ability to "take a commercial break" should you get a situation where the podcast isnt going as you would like, in order to sort out guests or technical issues - TWiT57 anyone?!?

Stuart

It's one thing I really miss about TechTV - endorsed products brought up in viewer calls or discussions have been great choices for me - call it luck if you want, but I was never burned by things that were mentioned if I was looking for one.

On the subject of just who reads the ads - the listener experience is better by a mile with ads by the station (err podcast) staff. I have listened to a funky radio station for years that I used to be able leave on 12 hours and enjoy - when the ads were by the station staff. Now they have been bought by a 'Media Group' and these jarring awful national commercials for snake oil and steel buildings reduce the tolerance to about 4 hours.

Lastly - Leo is classic radio. Though the voice sometimes dips into a Tom Campbell (Bay Area inside joke) the delivery is uber-cool. I once was terrified to speak in front of groups. I adopted the 'over the top' Leo style and can now finish a speech without sweating or trailing off.

Nice interview, you came off pretty well. I'm an avid TWiT listener and I support the ads, like you said it's odd for us here in the UK to hear ads done like that but I think it works well. Glad to see someone making a living from something the love doing and thanks for changing the way I get my news.