I mean they could have written up their investigation as well, I'd love to know what happened but I don't listen to podcasts and I'm presumably not alone in that so - ThreadSky

youngvulgarian.marieleconte.com • 176 days ago

I mean they could have written up their investigation as well, I'd love to know what happened but I don't listen to podcasts and I'm presumably not alone in that so

Reposted from Zamira Rahim

I've heard murmurs that folks at Tortoise are disappointed by the muted reaction to their stellar reporting on Neil Gaiman. The entire, remarkable podcast series is worth a listen www.tortoisemedia.com/2024/07/03/e...

Comments

cesigno.bsky.social•176 days ago

maybe she's a good journalist, but Rachel Johnson also seems an odd choice for a host. so many of the target audience will just associate her with her brother and switch off

jim.londoncentric.media•176 days ago

Think she got the story, for whatever reason, then took it to Tortoise.

dhanendran.co.uk•176 days ago

That’s right - they explain it in the podcast. The first woman to come forward brought the story to RJ after hearing her on a radio show. Re write-up/transcript, I was also puzzled. My thought was they’d hoped a print outlet would pick it up and serialise but nobody has.

jim.londoncentric.media•176 days ago

Some thoughts (not a moral case):
1) He’s famous but in a narrow way
2) it’s disputed by his lawyers
3) The “scoop” has gone elsewhere so less incentive to allocate resource to a knotty tale that needs space
4) If there’s an institutional “fact” (eg police) it is much easier for a quick follow-up

juanincognito.bsky.social•176 days ago

And the people who know who he are the fandom and used to really like and respect him.

See his previously big Bluesky profile

nicander.bsky.social•176 days ago

I also don't know what response they want. His career is essentially over. Even if most aren't aware of the allegations or even who he is, enough are that he can't do press for a new project and anything sold on his name will be pilloried. We don't know impact on his existing projects yet either.

nicander.bsky.social•176 days ago

Eg is David Tennant really doing another season of Good Omens now? I doubt it.

dhanendran.co.uk•176 days ago

Do you think so? You and I might not buy his stuff ever again but there’ve been plenty of stories of people in this position who later go on to get work, even after they’ve been charged. *If* he is charged and then if he is convicted, that might make things more concrete.

dhanendran.co.uk•176 days ago

This all makes a lot of sense. The fame thing is a good point - he is *so* famous (possibly the most or second most famous person) in a couple of niche fields that it’s easy to forget that those fields are not the mainstream. As you allude to, he’s not “front page of The Sun famous” in that way.

gj4man.bsky.social•176 days ago

Yeah. I have heard of him, but I don't have the first idea why.

garyhudson.bsky.social•176 days ago

Indeed you’re not alone - I don’t know how people find the time to sit through a podcast. Oops having said that I’m very happy to binge-watch Netflix series

oshaymoishe.bsky.social•176 days ago

Yet you're on podcasts!

sianushka.bsky.social•176 days ago

It’s the first long form podcast I’ve ever listened to

gellyfish.uk•176 days ago

I'm glad I'm not the only one who doesn't listen to (spoken word,) podcasts.

joxley.jmoxley.co.uk•176 days ago

Also you can't screen shot a bit of a podcast and post it, so you don't generate momentum that way.

miniannette.bsky.social•176 days ago

How come you don’t like podcasts? I’d have thought they were totally your kind of thing

gingoddess.bsky.social•176 days ago

Nope, not alone. Can’t cope with having people talking in my head - it’s crowded enough already

thehames.bsky.social•176 days ago

I’m the opposite. I like to drown out my internal monologue as I’m an idiot.

jdorchen.bsky.social•176 days ago

There is an accompanying text that contains plenty of basic info. I don't know how it compares to the aural cuz I haven't listened to it. But it's there at the link you posted.

onelifestand87.bsky.social•176 days ago

I don’t know why but it feels much more exploitative to do a story like this as a podcast series. It feels like jumping straight to doing a true crime series to report a murder

alanbeattie.bsky.social•176 days ago

Also post a bloody transcript! There may be one posted there somewhere but it’s not obvious. I don’t have time or focus to listen to podcasts but will absolutely read a transcript.

donoghuek.bsky.social•176 days ago

Amen to that. Also, some of us are deaf.

alanbeattie.bsky.social•176 days ago

I wrote a col on food prices recently and obviously had a look round https://ft.com first to see what else we’d said and ta-da! Peripheral issue in the piece so might not have listened but absolutely worth a read.

Transcript: The cocoa boom https://on.ft.com/4bstFKO

mayfaircynic.bsky.social•176 days ago

"This podcast could have been an email"

acuity.design•176 days ago

I run podcasts thru OtterAI sometimes (while doing other work) just to get transcripts

alanbeattie.bsky.social•176 days ago

I’ll do that for work (seminars etc) where I really have to but don’t really have the time, patience or spare computers to do it for non-essentials.

theomnisis.bsky.social•176 days ago

Unless that podcast is coming with subtitles and a different way for my brain to work, then no, i need it written too.

alisonauciel.bsky.social•176 days ago

I believe there are transcripts of the episodes on Bluesky although not by Tortoise.

robfreemanfluff.bsky.social•176 days ago

I don’t listen to podcasts, so I don’t know much about the allegations, other than the report on Gaiman’s defence, which was so bad, he might as well have just admitted that everything was true.

zamirarahim.bsky.social•176 days ago

yeah it is wild to me that they didn't do a rollout of news writes to accompany it, everyone else who picked it up got the clicks

jameschalmers.bsky.social•176 days ago

Struck a day or so ago by how this interesting-looking BBC/Tortoise podcast is advertised with incredibly vague details, presumably in an attempt to force you to commit to the four hours rather than googling and reading a few news articles.

whosthedadaist.bsky.social•176 days ago

They seem to have left that to David Aaronovitch.
https://bsky.app/profile/davidsonofaaron.bsky.social/post/3l33feo7poa2a

corneliusbeers.bsky.social•176 days ago

Didn't help that they broke the news during the election.

It was weeks before I was aware of what was going on.

helenbarnard.bsky.social•176 days ago

It’s a slightly odd reaction - blaming the audience for not engaging enough rather than look at how the dissemination could have been improved. And using only a single medium was surely always going to put a ceiling on reach? Why weren’t they writing about it, doing columns for other outlets etc.

burntcopper.bsky.social•176 days ago

I mainline podcasts but if i can't take the voice or style of delivery i nope out so hard. ( Varies from nails down blackboard to one actually interesting content whose delivery was so boring i zoned out constantly. And let's not get into interviewers who talk over guests)

katebevan.com•176 days ago

Yes, this. I wonder what the reach of a podcast vs a written piece is.

foodycatalicia.bsky.social•176 days ago

Their written pieces are paywalled, aren't they? A friend was fairly evangelical about their "slow media" approach for a while, but I could never navigate the site. Which may have been a user error.

zamirarahim.bsky.social•176 days ago

I do think outlets need to be willing to take articles they know can break through out from behind the paywall. It's free promo for the stuff that's locked away + you see it work on a small scale for freelancers on Substack all the time

janetmusgrove.bsky.social•176 days ago

Their main written output is the sense maker which is free to sign up to. I’m not aware of any paywalled articles since they moved to podcasts

mrspingu.bsky.social•176 days ago

Being older than a millenial, I hate being forced to take in a lot of (non-practical) information via video or audio when I can read so much quicker. (Fair enough if I want to know how to strip down a washing machine, for example)

antoniabance.bsky.social•176 days ago

I don’t get the Tortoise model at all. It really feels like they have created a bubble inside which they do great reporting but it’s impenetrable to everyone else? I never see them cited by anyone

martinpompeyfan.bsky.social•176 days ago

I listened to some of their pods for the first time 2 weeks ago. V good but I’d never had a ‘hook’ to try any before. I listen to loads of politics and policy pods but all have an expert, institution or personality to recommend them

owenwmichael.bsky.social•176 days ago

Tbh, this does kind of feel like an org whose model is supposed to be around avoiding trying to go viral being annoyed at not having gone viral?
I recognise its more complicated than that, but....

spinebusterkeaton.bsky.social•176 days ago

signalthirteen.me•176 days ago

Same. Something about audio clips, whereas I can deep dive with text reporting all day.

thornfieldhall.bsky.social•176 days ago

Ditto. I want to digest news and information in my own time and to be able to scroll through to the parts that interest me. I don't enjoy having to commit to a whole programme.

jwripple.bsky.social•176 days ago

I have never listened to a podcast. Even if I am interested, highly likely that micro-sleep would intervene.

thornfieldhall.bsky.social•176 days ago

😂😂😂 that is my trouble, too!

jwripple.bsky.social•176 days ago

Lifelong for me. Not just extreme old age.

catus14.bsky.social•176 days ago

Yes, perhaps if I was back to long driving commutes I would listen, but prefer reading. Again I feel guilty because rather than choose which of 15 valued writers I should pay for, I tend to avoid "pay for my daily musings" authors. I subscribe to 2 newspapers and read other writers free content

neverella.bsky.social•176 days ago

muted justice is better than frothing outrage that becomes its own spectacle, I reckon. some commentariat types want to make a bang more than they want anything else.

davidstainer.bsky.social•176 days ago

I thought it was just me who doesn’t do podcasts! Always being told how odd this is of me.

valentinabass.bsky.social•176 days ago

It should definitely have had a greater impact. A disturbing listen

owenduffy.co.uk•176 days ago

I just get the impression that most podcasts doing sustainable numbers are ongoing, not limited series.

curtissparkles.bsky.social•176 days ago

Gaiman seems to be a seriously bad dude. JFC, why do people who can obviously attract willing sexual partners insist on being so fucking abhorrent? Also, Rachel Johnson. I can totally do without all that.

soozbee.bsky.social•176 days ago

Power. It’s all about power over someone else.

curtissparkles.bsky.social•176 days ago

It's all kinds of fucked up. People are fuckers.

theangelremiel.bsky.social•176 days ago

I do listen to podcasts, but usually not for news. I would much prefer this in the form of a detailed long read I could more through at my own pace.

janetmusgrove.bsky.social•176 days ago

They moved to podcasts because people weren’t reading their long articles a couple of years ago

flexasync.bsky.social•176 days ago

At least publish a damn transcript then? A lot of us don't have time for podcasts, it's a weird decision to make in attempting to _widen_ your audience

janetmusgrove.bsky.social•176 days ago

There is a transcript below the podcast episode on Apple Podcasts

flexasync.bsky.social•176 days ago

But not anywhere else? Bearing in mind how often people who don't listen to podcasts are going to go looking on there?

glitterninja.bsky.social•176 days ago

Do you need to be subscribed to Apple to get access to the transcript, do you happen to know? I've been out to that page but can't find a transcript. If you don't know, that's fine, I just thought I'd ask!

janetmusgrove.bsky.social•176 days ago

Sorry I’m not sure, I thought it was just a free app on my phone

glitterninja.bsky.social•176 days ago

No problem, thanks!

elsieyork.bsky.social•176 days ago

Someone wrote up a transcript, in case that is of interest.

https://bsky.app/profile/kathryntewson.bsky.social/post/3kwknr7zarn2d

legalminimum.bsky.social•176 days ago

Was going to call on Kathryn for her transcript. Leaving happy.

as-j.bsky.social•176 days ago

Person who regularly appears on podcasts wants other journalists to produce written material because they "don't listen to podcasts".

glitterninja.bsky.social•176 days ago

I have a more than passing interest in this topic but I don't (or, more accurately, can't) do podcasts so I haven't listened, either. I have searched for a transcript a couple of times but haven't found one yet

sarahdavieslaw.bsky.social•176 days ago

Quite - I am sorry, but the Podcast format is no good at all for the interested but time poor

belleanna23415.bsky.social•176 days ago

I find this perspective fascinating as I am completely the opposite. I am time poor, but that is *why* I listen to podcasts over reading. I can listen to podcasts, etc, while doing other things that require my hands cleaning, standing on public transport, etc. I find reading time-consuming

hughster.bsky.social•176 days ago

Same here. And these days I find reading strains my eyes, especially as most of it now is on screens and I spend my whole working day staring at screens anyway, and there are too many distractions like, er, here.

jayzedbee.bsky.social•176 days ago

Also even amont that audience - I know they shouldn't but I think a lot of people will simply dismiss something they perceive to be a Johnson family vehicle of some form outright

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