space36 /// richard.heath

Maybe I’m labouring this topic a little, but my post from yesterday attracted a bit of heat for suggesting that John Gruber’s integrity could be damaged by moving The Talk Show for financial reasons.

The reason I’m a little disappointed in Gruber now is because I was so impressed with the approach to work he outlined in a brilliant talk with Merlin Mann from SxSW 2009 – HOWTO: 149 Surprising Ways to Turbocharge Your Blog With Credibility! – also summarised his philosophy in a Daring Fireball post: Obsession Times Voice.

My muse for the session was this quote from Walt Disney: “We don’t make movies to make money, we make money to make more movies.” To me, that’s it. That’s the thing.

Now admittedly the target of the talk is chasing pageviews through sensation which is not the case here, but I can’t help but feel that The Talk Show affair entirely contradicts the sentiment of that Disney quote.

The (old) Talk Show had built “an audience based on deep mutual respect” and, whatever the arrangement at 5by5, I’m sure it had presented Gruber with at least some kind of financial benefit for being a host, if not as much of a share as he will take now.

Keep in mind that Daring Fireball sponsorships earn Gruber $7,500 per week and are consistently sold out. Now Gruber is selling sponsorships directly for The Talk Show (2 @ $2,500 per weekly episode), he stands to make up to make $12,500 per week – $650,000 per year – from a blog and a podcast.

Of course he’s fully entitled to reap the benefits from building both of these to their current status, I just struggle to see how this fits with the philosophy he’s spoken of in the past.

Separate to this, I feel there’s also a talent vs. network discussion to be had – however helpful Gruber was in building-up 5by5 as a flagship host, he seemingly always played that on-air talent role which is a very different position to that of Dan Benjamin as the network owner / producer first and co-host second.

Anyway, enough about that!

John Gruber’s first mention of The Talk Show affair on Daring Fireball:

I want to thank Dan Benjamin for doing both of the previous incarnations of The Talk Show with me. Dan’s a natural born co-host, and we did an awful lot of good (and occasionally, dare I say, great) shows together. Two years ago, Dan had the idea to launch and grow a podcast network targeted not necessarily at the biggest tech/nerd audience, but rather the best tech/nerd audience. He was right, it worked, and I’m proud The Talk Show was a part of that.

But, most interestingly:

I’m selling sponsorships for the show directly. Two spots per episode, $2500 per spot.

On episode 2 of The (new) Talk Show, Gruber said:

“It was a business disagreement – long-standing and significant. Dan the co-host is obviously very popular and extremely talented … Dan the owner of a podcast network I have long-standing disagreements with – it came to an end.”

So it sounds as though the suggestions made at the time were pretty much accurate: a fundamental disagreement over the cut of sponsorship money, etc. with Gruber able to earn significantly more from the podcast by taking it to Mule.

Ben Brooks commented on the matter, saying:

Sometimes a scandal just isn’t the scandal that the Internet wants it to be.

…but sometimes the Internet nails it.

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I understand it’s just business, but it’s a real shame how things have turned out for something once-great which will, quite clearly, never be the same. Gruber’s integrity has undoubtedly been damaged by making it clear it’s all about money.

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Coda 2 from Panic is out – the best HTML & CSS editor for Mac from the best Mac software developers in the business.

Coda does a lot of things – “text-editing, CSS-styling, WebKit previewing, file-managing, FTPing, terminal-accessing, web-site-building and publishing” … and now includes a full GUI for MySQL management.

It’s far from a minimalistic approach and is jokingly being compared to DreamWeaver – but that’s ok because it’s all you need, it’s aggressively innovative, and incredibly well thought-through.

(The website is also brilliant – a demo video that transforms position & orientation using CSS – not easy.)

But it’s Diet Coda for iPad that’s big news – pitched to “make quick web fixes on the go” but, in fact, a fairly full-featured web code editor which includes Panic’s Prompt SSH Terminal and facilitates the new AirPreview feature to preview designs between Mac and iPad.

One unfortunate issue is the lack of iCloud sync (sites & clips) between Mac and iPad at launch…

Secret: sync was done, but iCloud is really unreliable. We got scared. It’ll come back. —C
– @panic

Coda 2 and Diet Coda are on sale at 50% off for the first 24 hours – a must-buy if you work on the web.

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John Gruber, posting on Daring Fireball, out of the blue:

I am, uncharacteristically, genuinely excited to announce that my Oscar-, Emmy-, and Grammy-winning podcast, The Talk Show is now on Mule Radio Syndicate.

Sad times for the myriad of 5by5 fans for whom these shows are far more than podcasts and form an integral part of their day-to-day lives.

Big news in the Apple community, which descended into scandal mode.

» Quora: Why did John Gruber’s “The Talk Show” switch podcast networks?

John Gruber left 5by5 for Mule Radio because of money, and/or potential money.

Some interesting suggestions from “Anon User” which centre around Gruber approaching Mule as a result of disagreement on cuts on sponsorship, t-shirt & app money.

A particularly interesting suggestion that Mike Monteiro initially paid Dan Benjamin to host Let’s Make Mistakes on 5by5 before leaving to set up Mule Radio.

Monteiro is the founder of Mule Design and is perhaps best known for his “F*ck You, Pay Me” talk and his courting of controversy on Twitter, such as this in response to the uproar about Gruber defecting to his network:

Seriously, the next time one of you leaves AT&T for Verizon I am going to go ballistic and stick my dick in your eye sockets.
– @Mike_FTW

Gruber’s wife tweeted:

When I was 11, on Christmas day, my parents told me they were divorcing. OMG this podcast thing feels just like that!
– @AmyJane

Dan Benjamin responded himself with a 5by5 Special podcast:

“My favourite talk show hosts … over time became my pals … these were the people I “hung out” with every day”

“I wish that John and I could have found some way to do one more episode of our Talk Show together – to laugh about things coming to an end and to say goodbye to each other as friends do … I really wish we could have done that for you”

Unbelievably well-delivered to take the high ground and be totally disarming – even plugging the new show on the competing network. Almost impossible for Gruber or Monteiro to respond to effectively.

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It’s fascinating how something seemingly trivial can affect a community and the individual. Perhaps it’s because these shows’ audiences are a little more insular – designers, developers, etc. working from home or in their own world with headphones – but you get the sense that people take it personally when there is a falling-out between their “pals” who they “hang out” with.

The Talk Show continues with Gruber plus guests, but indications are that it’s going to be very different. You realise now that Dan may have been the one who brought focus and professionalism all along (not least when reading the sponsors, which was painful from Gruber).

But perhaps Gruber’s irreverence finds a better fit at Mule, where drinking stories and ass jokes are standard fare.

5by5 remains the leader in its space by a huge distance almost entirely due to Dan Benjamin’s professionalism and focus, but admittedly with a little help from Gruber’s notoriety over the years.

If you properly shuffle a deck of cards, in all likelihood, the resulting deck has never been seen before in the history of the world.

If you could fold a piece of paper in half 50 times, its thickness will be 3/4 the distance from the Earth to the Sun (71 million miles).

A pencil has the potential to draw a line 38 miles long.

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All the inconvenience of a laptop with all the inconvenience of an iPad.

For me, there’s a clear distinction between use cases for laptops and iPads, and both can be unpleasant to use for certain tasks.

I feel we’re trying too hard to wedge the iPad into a position it doesn’t naturally fit in, and undermining the iPad’s principal feature: compact simplicity.

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Dates for the 2012 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference have been announced: 11th–15th June in San Francisco.

It’s the week we’ve all been waiting for.

Note the new, colourful version of the Apple logo following on from the one used at the iPad (3) event.

Unravelling, indeed.

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The trashing of a once-great British brand continues.

Ford started with the Range Rover Sport targeting the bling market.

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Upping the ante, Portland, OR, is the home of BikeBar, where you can pedal stationary bikes that actually generate electricity for the organic micropub.

Hilarious.

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