The Podcast Network Loses Another, Producers are Silenced
I was absolutely blown away today to learn that The Podcast Network lost another show recently. This time though it was a big loss for the network, The Digital Photography Show. This podcast was one of the biggest on the network and most successful, these guys were even making real cash from podcasting!
Scott and Michael are great guys and deserve all the success in the world, but one thing that saddened me is that unlike us they were prevented from posting their last show. This has meant that they were unable to point people to a source of information for their up and coming new podcast. They were also unable to say good bye to their listener’s faithful.
On the Digiphoto blog what would have been their last post has been replaced with a post from Cameron Reilly C.E.O of TPN saying that Scott and Michael won’t be doing the show anymore and a call for new hosts. While that is the truth, there is a bit more to it. Some of the comments on this post call for the posting of the last podcast, which does exist by the way; to which Cam replied:
“Sorry folks, there isn’t a show 98. The guys did record something but it didn’t meet my quality standards.”
Nice excuse and total bullshit, I am sure that the show was no different in quality to every other show, which seemed to meet the standards just fine when they were raking in very big numbers on TPN. Sure Cam might have felt that it was not in his best interests to publish the show, but it is bad kama in my book to act like a school kid and refuse the listeners the opportunity to hear out Scott and Michael. But then again the comments on the last Global Geek Podcast were edited and deleted, that was bad form as well.
The truth is this from Scott’s post;
“We wrote TPN on September 26th that we would no longer be doing the show. Upon receiving my note, TPN immediately changed the passwords to our account, effectively silencing our voices.”
They were muted and prevented from posting or saying anything. Quality my arse.
Scott and Michael’s story might have been ours had we not left TPN the way we did, which involved a lot of planning and timing that was precision. We also put some measures in place to help us here, sad that the Digital Photography Show lost that chance when they were locked out of their blog as soon as TPN got wind of them leaving. I am going to do what I can to give them a voice and point people in the right direction to learn about the new show they are planning.
Scott and Michael should have been able to post their last show. Guys you should release it on one blog or the other at some stage.
Lastly, we left TPN and did the right thing. We were honest and left with integrity. There were no hard feelings on our part. But there was some behavior after we left that was uncalled for. This too was uncalled for and just not cricket.
Good Luck Guys and you can count on the Aussie Geek Podcast to do anything to help out. Congratulations on your 98 shows, yes I am counting the unpublished #98. I am calling it the lost episode. I hope Cam get’s a spine and releases it; until then lost.
Read Scott and Michael’s side of the story on Scott’s Blog. Subscribe to it and keep up to date with what they are up to. I am looking forward to it!
Just for the record; these words are mine and mine alone, I have not been asked to say what I have said and Scott and Michael are far more diplomatic than I am.
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Hmm, there seems to be a trend starting here.
I hope it stops.
Hrm… I wondered what happened to the guys, I usually listen to their podcast all the time. In fact I often promote(d) it…
I’d sure like to hear Cam’s reasons why… The DPS was a huge feather in TPN’s cap and I’m betting it was pulling in some decent cash for Scott, Michael AND Cam…
Gonna go check out Scott’s blog.
Nothing happens without a reason. It’s a bit naive to expect the listeners to believe that 97 episodes were fine but the hosts recorded something really dreadful in episode 98 just for kicks.
Yeah this is a massive tear in an already fraying network, it will not help the TPN whatsoever.
I think we need to start a grass-roots style push for the new show once they get it up.
I’m suggesting that each and every one of us writes a blog post or create an audio promo, or at least tell 10 friends about the new show.
And finally, I can’t help myself to say:
The TPN is DEAD, Long Live the DPS, Viva La Revolucion!
Very sad to see this happen. Podcasters and bloggers have a hard enough time trying to vie for legitimacy against traditional media without fighting amongst ourselves.
Hopefully common sense will see the final episode of the DPS posted to TPN where it belongs — of course then I’ll probably grow wings and fly before that happens.
Good Luck to Scott & Michael; your AGP brethren (and sistren) will be here to promo ya!
Interesting. I didn’t listen to their show so perhaps I should seek them out. Apart from Cam’s G’Day World, none of the other shows I subscribe to from TPN have been updated for ages and ages. Hopefully the Digital Photo people will thrive on their own and morph into something similar, like the GGP has done with the AGP.
Could not agree more with the sentiments expressed here. I think that the DPS guys will become something much bigger and better than they were. We proved it here at the AGP that there is life after TPN. This show has certainly become something much bigger than the show itself and that could never have happened while we were constrained by a network.
That said, I said before and I am going to say it again; I do believe in what Cam and TPN were trying to do and the vision that was there (?is). It was a difficult decision for us to leave, as it must have been for the Scott and Michael. In the end I had to accept the fact that in order to build the show into what it is becoming we had to leave. I just wish we could have done it at TPN and helped keep that vision alive.
Thanks for the comments and I agree with Tim, lets help the guys out when their new show gets off the ground!
Comments on the DPS blog aren’t being moderated right now (ie: they’re not showing up) and Cam is apparently bopping around in the USA right now. So either he hasn’t had time to go over and release the comments, or he has effectively closed the debate.
In any case, I’d like to hear the reasons why it ended like it did. I’ve always been a supporter of TPN because it wasn’t like other podcasting “companies,” but this is getting to be a bit much for me.
A lot of the TPN shows I used to listen to haven’t updated in quite a while, and a couple of the feeds in iTunes show up as “dead” or “broken.” So I’m not sure what’s happening over at TPN–I know Cam has gone through some personal life changes recently, but I don’t know if this has affected his visions for what TPN is and what it is to become.
Amusing. I just saw the featured video on an eTrade commercial on the TV… they just used the spitting up part…
This video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XFmpo_QATA
The most recent update on the Digital Photography Show blog from Cam says the following;
The simple fact is that Scott and Michael had a contract with TPN and chose to break the terms of it. If you have issues with that, take it up with them. It wasn’t my decision, it was theirs. Despite their lack of regular programming lately, I’ve kept the show going. When they broke the contract, they lost the rights to TPN’s platform. It’s pretty simple. If you think that’s unfair, then that’s your right I guess.
This could be true, or it might be an excuse, who knows? And judging by the number of comments from people who are unhappy, this could be bad for TPN.
@Herne - This is clearly an excuse, Cam is running the TPN with his tail between his legs, the TPN is a platform that needed to be blown away and TOTALLY rebuilt from the ground up rather than just trudge on with the old tech and busted ideas about running a network.
For a person who has always purported himself to be of a high intelligence, Cam sure has made the wrong decision to cut the DPS off at the knees.
Sure they may have broken contract with the TPN, but its something that as a self proclaimed media personality (see Wikipedia) and network provider Cam has a responsibility towards the listeners of the show and the users of the TPN to release the last episode, and to make sure that the break from TPN is clean, not the messy loose end that it is now.
As I have said in my previous comment (See Here) this will only harm what little credibility that the TPN has left with the podcasting community and especially listeners.
The callous nature of the final blog post from Cam on the DPS page calling for new hosts of the show. He asks people to email in and offer a 5 minute audition to see if you can “fill their ample shoes”.
This is the biggest slap in the face to Scott and Michael, they lived and breathed DPS and spent so much time and effort building a following, something that you can’t replicate with other people.
Note to Cam:
“YOU’LL NEVER FIND REPLACEMENTS TO MAKE THE DPS ANYTHING LIKE IT USED TO BE”
I’m with Dave on this one, the TPN had potential, but when it came to the crunch it was managed badly, the podcasters were constantly being left in the dark, several MAJOR server issues that took shows off the air for days at a time, massive susceptibility to link scammers and copy blogs and a captain at the helm that ran into an iceberg a long time ago but can’t see the rats jumping off the ship.
If anything it makes me sad to see it take high profile podcasters to leave a service that could have been far greater than what it has become before any action may be taken to resolve its issues.
I used to believe in the dream the TPN stood for, but that dream died a long time ago, all the micro-management in the world won’t fix the network, it needs to be blown away and totally started again, with newer technologies and a greater scope.
I’m disappointed with the decisions Cam has made recently, but it is his company to run into the ground if he chooses to do so. I still think this is a symptom of a larger problem and he’s acting out because of it…
digiphoto.thepodcastnetwork.com no longer resolves… sad.
Must say, that is something I was not expecting. Must have been getting a crap load of flack over the whole thing…
I actually thought that the old GGP blog might have been canned after the post. In fact I thought it was almost certain after we left… All backed up though
Sad, yes. The blog represents a lot of work, a shame that no one can access it now
Ouch. Bad move on Cams part it looks like. I first became aware of this on Keiths blog. Considering what I listened to when Cam was on the air in an interview on the GGP, I would have never of thought something like this would be something Cam would do. Ever since the GGP was gaining traction, I tried my best to nudge Dave into doing something on his own because I felt that TPN was bringing the show down. Glad to see you guys finally jumped ship and now we live here at the AussieGeekPodcast.com blog and forum.
Ouch, I come back from the bush and the world has gone to shit. The interview with Cam in the GGP Ep. 50 gave my first insight to Cams disposition to for legal action when it suited him. It’s really sad three of my favourite podcast AGP, DPS and G’day world were a happy family, I feel like a kid in a very unhappy divorce.
Dave you behaved a lot better than I would have and props to you, what happened to you at the end was BS.
As a Aussie podcaster I thought of joining The Podcast Network fold, now I’m glad I didn’t.
As cam would say, blog it and get it out in the cloud.
On the last G’Day world I listened to he briefly mentioned the possibility of moving to a subscription model. It’s his business of course and he should do what he thinks will work - it can’t be easy making money out of podcasting, but as a listener I’m not sure I would want to pay money. Possibly to listen to an established podcast like the GGP was, but certainly not for the first few shows until I knew I liked them. It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the end.
Yeah I heard that as well - thought that I would listen to the intro to see if he mentioned the DPS. He didn’t. Which is a departure for him as he was always one to keep listeners in the loop. But the writing is on the wall for TPN and the “paid” model if another avenue that he is thinking about, so he gives it a poke to see what happens. It is, I think, and attempt to throw a life ring to the network which is obviously leaking cash to the point where if things don’t change soon it is curtains one way or another.
Don’t worry - no plans to make anyone pay for the AGP. We like being accessible and we are not really in it for cash - we would have left the game ages ago!
I see that Scott and Michael are back in the podcasting business already. Check out Digital Photography Life over on the PersonalLife Media site.
I figured Scott and Michael would set off on their own, but I guess this site offered them a better deal.
I was poking around iTunes today and I noticed something interesting.
Under “New & Notable” it lists Scott and Michael’s new show, Digital Photography Life, while under “Featured” it still shows The Digital Photography Show.
Can you say, “Big mistake, Cam”?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/theherne/3016152735/