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AdamSachs

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Posts posted by AdamSachs

  1. Posted

    Hey everybody,

     

    As most of you are probably aware by now, I’ve decided to step down as the CEO of Midroll Media (and Earwolf). My last official day as CEO was Friday June 10th and I’ve now entered into a period of consulting for the company, to help make the transition smooth. I approached Scripps leadership a few months ago to talk about what a transition plan might look like and together we agreed that the one year mark from the time of acquisition would make the most sense and would allow me to help with the integration of our newest acquisition, Stitcher. For those who are curious about it, an upcoming Wolf Den episode will talk a little more about the thinking behind the Stitcher acquisition.

     

    My decision to move away from the business is a bittersweet one. Being the CEO of Midroll has been the highlight of my professional career. Working with the Earwolf hosts made everyday in the office fun and exciting. It was easy to get out of bed and come into work knowing that the shows we make brighten the days and lives of countless people. It's been an honor to have had even a small role in helping to bring these shows to our listeners. And yet at the same time I’ve spent nearly the past decade running startups (Stepout before Midroll) and I’m ready for a breather. At my core I’m an entrepreneur. I still have the fire in my belly to build businesses and after a break, I’ll be out there again working on something new.

     

    As for Earwolf, it has never been in better shape. Two years ago we didn’t even have a dedicated content team. Today, Chris Bannon and his team represent the largest division of our now 65-person Midroll operation. We care more about content and we’ve invested more in content than ever before and that isn’t going to change. As you (hopefully) know, I’ve been a big champion for Earwolf, its hosts, and its fans and rest assured that whoever replaces me in this seat will be as well. It’s simply a prerequisite for the job. When we do have a new CEO in place, I’m sure that he or she will be properly introduced to you all here too.

     

    I want to extend a hearty thanks to all of you. Earwolf is fortunate to have the best, most loyal fans in the world. Thank you all for listening, for being patient when we try new things, for speculating about our future plans, for holding us to a high standard, for creating a dialogue here in the forums & Reddit & Twitter, for coming out to live shows, for sporting Earwolf gear, for sending us fun, crazy, weird fan art. Thank you for giving a shit. All of you make Earwolf the special place that it is. I have been so proud to be a part of this family and that isn’t going to change. I’m a huge Earwolf fan and I’m not going to stop wearing my Earwolf hoodie around town.

     

    And finally, this news has really hit the Hollywood Handbook guys the hardest. Please send your thoughts and prayers to Sean and Hayes during this difficult time.

     

    Keep in touch!

     

    All the best,

    Adam

    • Like 22

  2. Posted

    One feature I'd love to see with the app, and something that would make me more likely to use the app rather than the podcasting app I've been using for years, is the ability to create curated playlists of my favorite episodes. And for those playlists to be sharable with other users. For example, a playlist of every Marissa Wompler appearance on CBB, or a playlist of my favorite Andy Daly appearances, a playlist of my favorite episodes of 2013, etc.

    Thank you. Noted!

    • Like 2

  3. Posted

     

     

    Thanks for the help Fister!

     

    #3 is definitely my big concern. I've got limited data plan on my phone and want to be able to use this but when I'm on the subway or flying or anywhere I won't have service I don't want to be leeching my data plan down on something that used to be as simple as putting it on my device as an mp3. Really hoping there is the ability to download/listen offline in the app. Over on Reddit they seem to think it's possible so here's hoping.

     

    I'll have to wait for an Android app before I can enjoy Howl.

     

     

    Again, this is all exciting and scary. I knew this day would come but as long as I'm still getting Scotty and the boys (and gals) of Earwolf I'll be happy.

    Offline mode is an absolute must. We definitely agree. and it's coming as soon as we get approval from the iTunes store on our latest submission.

    • Like 1

  5. Posted

    Hi everybody, Adam here again. Hope you're all surviving the doggy days of auggy doggy.

     

    First and foremost, I want to thank you all again for checking out Howl, giving us your feedback (positive, negative, constructive and everything in between), and just generally being engaged. As a company we know we're lucky to have fans who give a shit and who have strong opinions and so for that we're very appreciative.

     

    We've been tracking your feedback closely and working hard to make improvements to the app in real time. We're waiting on iTunes to release our latest update submitted last week and we're already prepared to submit yet another update to the iTunes store. These updates are driven by your bug reports and feature submissions so keep 'em coming.

     

    As for the Android app, I can assure you that we're working incredibly hard to get it to you as quickly possible. We have a world class Android team working on it, and we expect to release it in a matter of weeks (not days, but not months either). Android apps are difficult beasts, they require a lot of QA to account for various devices and we're trying to incorporate in the Android app a lot of the updates that are being added in real time to the iOS app. It would be foolish not to.

     

    One thing that's become clear is that we underestimated the importance of releasing the iPhone and Android apps concurrently and for that I'm sorry! I really am. To make sure that none of you Androiders get "punished" by the delay, we've decided to hold off on putting the archives behind the Howl subscription until the Android app is released. So for now the archives remain ad-full and entirely available for your listening and downloading pleasure. In the meantime, while I realize it's not perfect, Androiders can still access the Howl Premium content on the web and via a mobile browser on your device.

     

    We're very excited about the road ahead for Howl. We have lots of amazing new miniseries planned for the coming months. We also have some great new app features we're confident you guys will love. One of our goals for Howl is to create an amazing listening experience; both for fans who choose to subscribe to Howl premium, and those who choose not to. We want to create an experience so good that Howl becomes your go-to podcasting app for all the regular free podcasts you love. And not just Earwolf shows. Every show under the sun will be available in Howl eventually. So please keep giving us feedback on the app! We're listening very closely to everything that comes our way.

     

    Ok that's all I got for you now. Again, feel free to reach me directly at adam [at] midroll anytime.

    • Like 4

  8. Posted

    Hey Adam, thanks for taking the time.

     

    I am neither an android nor an ios user. In order for the new arrangement to work for me the whole catalog needs to be downloadable from the website. Is this in the works as well? I'm more than willing to pay and in fact have already subscribed. But continuing to do so will be contingent on not being reliant on an app.

     

    Thanks, Pete.

    Hey Pete, I don't know if the entire catalog will ever be downloadable to a pc (although it is right now) down the road. We’re still thinking through the ramifications of keeping the downloaded content secure. We’re discussing it though.

  9. Posted

    Hello there. Set aside the non-support for android so far, the idea of mainly streaming podcasts (who does that? I listen to podcasts when I'm e.g. traveling in a train and there isn't always a connection available...and I need to keep my traffic on my mobile low), I'm curious if the credit card only payment is restricted to the US? Because if it is, non-US-listeners like me are officially out of the picture it seems. :(

     

    I made my way from CBB #1 to currently #220 and it was a blast. I'm sad things are changing so fast in such a weird way. I hope I manage to download the remaining episodes before you pull them and in the future I'd gladly pay 5 bucks every month IF you let me download podcasts normally on my pc like it should be. Sorry, but streaming podcasts is a rather terrible idea.

     

    Greetings, some confused german listener and fan.

    Thanks for being a listener for so long and I appreciate the concern. You will not be forced to stream content. The iOS app and the upcoming Android app will both allow you to download into the respective app so that you can listen offline. The non-archive episodes (most recent six months) will be able to be downloaded to a pc the same way they're available today.

     

    I don't believe credit card payments are restricted to the US. We process using Stripe on the web and they should be accepting international payments. I know we already have a number of international subscribers.

  10. Posted

    Adam, can you give us any information on upcoming Howl exclusive podcasts?

     

    Is there the potential for video to be added at some point?

    So there are definitely additional episodes in the works of some of the series that have already been released (Superego Forgotten Classics, Joel Stein's series, and more). We'll be releasing more and more standup comedy specials too. As for the other new original series that are in the works, I can tell you that it's happening, but for now, we're planning to keep a lot of it a surprise. That makes it fun right? I'm sure we'll leak some teasers soon enough.

     

    Video is something we're talking about and we can tell that it's something that people are looking for. The VPN relationship was fun, but it also helped that VPN was bringing the video expertise. Video isn't an area where we really have expertise. So we're talking about it. We can tell that it's something people want. Not sure if we'll be able to pull it off, honestly. But if we can, we'll try!

    • Like 4

  11. Posted

    Hey nong men and women. Adam here. Sorry I haven't been around this week. Had a very poorly timed work trip that kept me busy from Monday (launch day) through today. Anyway, just wanted to make myself available here to answer questions and let everybody know how much I appreciate all of you checking out Howl and providing feedback. I hope you can tell that we're taking the feedback very seriously and updating our product roadmap so that we can continue to make the ios app and website (and upcoming Android app. I know, I know. It's coming I promise) better and better based on your suggestions. We're also tracking your feedback on the shows/specials themselves so that we can make more of the stuff you like.

     

    I'm grateful that Scott and Shannon have both been around to answer questions, provide some insight and transparency, and absorb the well-intentioned venting sessions.

     

    Anyway, that's all I got. Feel free to shoot me an email directly if you have questions or comments - adam [at] midroll. Thanks everybody.

    • Like 4

  13. Posted

    Hey everybody, you probably saw the news that Midroll Media (the parent company for Earwolf and Wolfpop) was acquired by EW Scripps. I wanted to reach out here just to let everybody know that we're very excited about this deal, particularly because we feel like Scripps is a perfect partner.

     

    Scripps is a content company (even their CEO is a journalist) and the quality of our Earwolf and Wolfpop content was one of the major reasons they were attracted to us — well that and Matt Gourley's unmistakable charm. All kidding a salad, from our perspective, we knew we could only partner with a company that would let us make our content our way. Scripps has made it explicitly clear to me, Scott, and the team that they will not interfere with our content. Plainly speaking, they're not going to fuck with a good thing, and they are huge fans of freedom of speech.

     

    Don't expect anything to change except for the fact that we hope to have more resources to make more great shows.

    • Like 6

  14. Posted

    Admittedly, I don't listen to Wolf Den all that much, but I wanted to thank you guys for this episode, simply because (shocking! I know!) I hadn't ever heard Dan Carlin before, and this got me interested in his HH 'cast. Heard a few now, think I might be somewhat hooked.

    I'm glad this helped you discover Dan and his awesome show. He's really a unique guy. And thanks for listening to the Wolf Den!

    • Like 1

  17. Posted

    Thanks for the nice comments and feedback.

     

    Salmon, while I'm not an Eagles fan, I do have a deeply rooted love for NJ and its surrounding areas. I really appreciate the nice words about the show! Jeff created a great open book culture and I'm just trying to continue doing what he started. Listeners like you are what bring me closer to my ultimate goal of overtaking Hollywood Handbook once and for all.

    • Like 1

  19. Posted

    Thanks, Adam!

     

    I love this show and I want it to have awesome sponsors. The other sponsors have been great, btw--so many interesting products and services out there to check out (audible, loot crate, dollar shave club, and cards against humanity come to mind).

    I'm very glad to hear that!

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    I hope you all had a good holiday weekend.

     

    I just wanted to reach out to this thread again with an update. Art of Charm will no longer be advertising on Nerd Poker. Ultimately, I think everyone involved agreed that it wasn't a good fit. As I'm sure you all know, we're always focused on keeping the lights on through sponsorship while balancing that with matching advertisers that fit audiences of our shows.

     

    Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. We all really appreciate it.

     

    Best,

    Adam

    • Like 10

  21. Posted

    Thanks everybody for bringing this to our attention. Since it's a holiday weekend, we have a lot of people away on vacation. But we'll discuss this internally asap and be back in touch with you all. I really appreciate - and certainly always welcome - the feedback.

     

    Adam

    • Like 5
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