PW Daily’s Rachel Deahl reports on Quick and Dirty Tips, an online network of downloadable audio snippets just launched today by Holtzbrinck. The move marks the first attempt by a publisher to establish a money making podcast business and features Grammar Girl‘s Mignon Fogarty as well as five other podcasters who, according to Holtzbrinck, have collectively been downloaded more than 10 million times. The site will generate revenue through online ads and content licensing agreements.
Publicist Claire McKinney confirmed to PW that the hosts – some of whom Holtzbrinck brought into the fold and others who were brought on by Fogarty – are established, to varying degrees, in the podcast world. The first additional podcaster, a Harvard M.B.A. named Stever Robbins, will be added to the site in September, to host a show about what the house dubbed “personal productivity” called Get It Done Guy. When asked how this business model differs from other podcasting sites, Richard Rohrer, Holt’s director of marketing (who also has the new title of executive producer for quickanddirtytips.com), said other sites are a “catch all” for audio content. Not so with Holtzbrinck’s venture. “Each podcast gives one piece of actionable advice,” he explained. “You don’t have that consistency of purpose with any other podcasting-dedicated site.”