Tech pundit and icon gives the keynote. Takeway: Twitter is problematic because of its single ownership. (Rough notes, not verbatim.)
Leo Laporte, Technology Journalist
Laporte hosts and produces some of the most popular podcasts in the world, including This Week in Tech, Security Now!, net@nite, The Daily Giz Wiz, Windows Weekly, MacBreak Weekly, Jumping Monkeys, and Munchcast under the TWiT banner. He currently hosts “Leo Laporte, the Tech Guy,” a national radio technology talk show, every Saturday and Sunday from 2 to 5 p.m. (ET) on the Premiere Radio Networks, which include XM Channel 158. He also appears regularly on television and radio programs, including “Live with Regis and Kelly.” In May 2008, Laporte launched a live streaming video version of TWiT called TWiT Live, which features 25 hours of original programming each week. More than 2.6 million people watched TWiT Live in its first month. Laporte began his career in radio broadcasting, but went on to write everything from computer software to books. “Leo Laporte’s 2003 Technology Almanac” was Pearson Publishing’s Book of the Year in 2003. His television career includes “Internet!,” a weekly half-hour show on PBS, and “The Site,” an hour-long technology newsmagazine for which he won an Emmy in 1997.
Started with Rip and Read news – old wire teletype. Rip story off the machine, edited with a pencil, run into the radio booth and read it.
I learned my first lesson in broadcasting was that my college experience wasn’t enough. First job in a Monterey station in a converted brothel with little rooms. Fell in love with computers early – drooling over an Apple Lisa that no one could afford.
Became a daytime talk show host. First SF station he went to had the slogan “Light rock, less talk” and he was the talk. But talk radio was what we do now in interactivity. Booted out of midday show when Rush Limbaugh took over the day. Moved to 8-hour on air on weekends. To fill space, they let him do 2-hours of computer talk. When you are the only person who understands a niche, you can make a name for yourself. Worked with early CNET and Ziff-Davis. 1993 NBC partnered with Microsoft, needed a host for MSNBC. Pitched “The Side” Networks not hot on technology people, so instead turned him into a virtual reality character. Was basically a puppet. Won an Emmy for it – in competition with a sock puppet.
ZDTV for Ziff Davis. To satisfy the programmers, did material about what was on Kenny Rogers’ iPod. Music fans didn’t like it; tech fans didn’t like it. So network no one liked. But on off-air time, moderated online discussions. Extremely popular among tech folks.
Told by a TV exec: Brand is the refuge of the ignorant. Smart people research their own products – we can’t sell to smart people on TV. Network didn’t want to try shows aimed at techies.
TWIT - Became convinced that there was a niche audience, but not one you could afford to reach on TV. Went online with a podcast. Hugely popular. Reach about 7 million people. Get $1.5 million revenue a year with costs of about $300,000.
Advertisers are no longer engaged with loosely engaged people who may not be talking to each other. They want targeted audience. Advertisers won’t pay for the big sums for people they don’t want.
Charge $70 CPM for ads. Only take products he uses and can talk about. One ad every half hour. Get $8,000 for an ad.
Podcasting is dead. I knew it was dead they day it started. It’s too darn hard. You have to figure out where the podcast is, go to iTunes for something that is free, push a scary “subscribe” button and figure out how to get it on you iPod.
Set up an alternative – live streaming site with record function. Next will put it on the Roku box. Makes it both on demand and live. http://www.roku.com/netflixplayer
Journalism is important and vital to society. But the platform it is on are dying.
The strength of TWIT is not our platform, but our audience. They want and need us, and want an need you.
Question session
There will always be storytellers. People already read just what they are interested in (section, etc). The papers can’t compete with the Internet, but there is always a need for the storyteller. There are fact-gatherers and pundits. The hell of it is there is no money in fact-gathering. We are seeing the rise of the pundit – you reporters are the monks of the Internet age.
Public no longer believes in an objective set of facts. I think that the people who are going to be most successful are the people who can synthesize and explain things.
(Laporte has said he has gone beyond Twitter)
I think Twitter is an intermediate solution. The problem is that it has just one provider. It depends on our free sweat equity to drive it. But it is the start of the nervous system for Internet.
It is the beginning of the nervous system – the zeitgeist. Twitter is best not when you tweet “I had toast for breakfast” but when you tweet “Have you read this article.?”
It is great, but I am not crazy about one company controlling it. I don’t think it will be that way for long.
(Q- your foundation was built on traditional media. How does the generation without traditional media find you?)
Soon you will no longer be able to use mainstream media as a launching pad. They way to be found now is to do great content. I believe this new Internet nervous system will find you. I believe in the meritocracy. Before it was a monopoly of those who could afford it. Now everybody has the tools to do it, so just do great stuff.
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