As any student of media knows, birthing new media can be a tremendously fun, engaging and rewarding endeavor, but it’s also rarely a straight shot to success.
15 years ago we were posting magazine articles to the web; fast forward to today and it has morphed into blogs, Twitter and Facebook.
You’ve got to try a lot of different things to figure out what works. And the metrics for success also shift as the medium evolves. What’s right in the beginning often isn’t the best long-term solution.
We’ve had a number of great successes here at Revision3, including Diggnation, Tekzilla and The Totally Rad Show. But not everything pans out. Just as in the past, when we ended shows that just weren’t building audiences or driving revenue, we had to make changes. As you may have heard, today we had to make some tough staffing decisions as we ended the run of a few of our shows.
For our long-running Photoshop show Pixel Perfect, it’s the end of a show that’s done over a hundred episodes, and delivered essentially a graduate level course in graphic design and technique. For PopSiren and Internet Superstar, it’s the end of 2 shows that had great promise, but never really found their audience.
For two of the shows, we’re simply stopping our distribution agreement, but the shows will live on. You’ll still be able to watch Epic Fu, and Wine Library, both at their own sites, and through new and existing distribution partnerships. Epic Fu will be available on Revision3 through mid December, Wine Library ends its Revision3 run today. We remain huge fans of these two shows, even though they don’t fit our long-term plans at Revision3.
All past episodes of these shows, as well as all other shows no longer in production, will still be available for download from Revision3.com in our show archives.
Even though we’re sad to see these shows end on Revision3, in today’s economic climate it’s essential for us to focus on what we do best, and where the best opportunity for success lie.
We’re continuing to develop and invest in new properties. We launched seven new shows last month, for instance, on Revision3 Beta, and we’ve got high hopes for an expanded lineup there – and seeing some of that first crop graduate to Revision3.
We’ll be talking more about 2008 and plans for 2009 over the coming weeks. Until then, join me in thanking these show teams for bringing their insight and entertainment to Revision3, and wishing them well in their new efforts.
