Jason Calacanis Says He Will Shut Down Podcast Network ThisWeekIn.com, This Week In Startups Will Continue
Jason Calacanis has announced via blog post that he's planning to wind down his podcast network ThisWeekIn.com and return the remaining funds to investors.
Context & Ripple Effects
Jason Calacanis has spent the last several years cycling through media ventures after leaving TechCrunch: a declared 'revenge' editorial project to rival his former employer in 2010 (Revenge is a new editorial project), then a settlement walk-away from the TechCrunch lawsuit in early 2011 (walking from the TechCrunch lawsuit). ThisWeekIn.com was the network vehicle he built around that period, anchored by This Week In Startups.
The shutdown announcement traveled almost entirely through Calacanis's own channels — LAUNCH and his personal account — rather than broad syndication, which itself says something about how far the network's reach had contracted by December 2012.
First-order effects
- ThisWeekIn.com's investors get their remaining capital returned, an unusually clean unwind for a media startup and a signal Calacanis judged the network model uneconomic.
- The flagship asset survives intact: This Week In Startups continues independently, decoupled from the network infrastructure around it.
Second-order effects
- Calacanis concentrates his media effort on the single show plus the LAUNCH brand, raising the bar for any future multi-show network he or peers attempt to fund with outside capital.
- Other angel-backed content networks face the same investor math: if a well-known operator returns capital rather than keep burning it, limited partners will press similar portfolio companies on whether a network wrapper adds value over a standalone show.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, podcast economics consolidate around host-owned franchises rather than venture-funded networks — the durable asset being the audience attached to a named personality, not the production company around it.
The trend: Venture-backed podcast networks are giving way to personality-owned shows, with investors funding the host's franchise rather than the network around it.