CGR Mark IV

It seems to me that a lot of podcasts start off as passion projects without being profitable, but if they get popular they do become profitable. Mark wanted his podcast to be profitable from the get-go, which was never going to happen, especially it is behind a paywall. There is no way to grow a sustainable audience that way.

Yeah, I got the impression it was a different goal than most podcasts.

In general, they don't charge, so you either are doing it for fun/exposure, or you're trying to get popular enough to get advertisers.  Mark was doing it as more of a value-add for the Patreon, so didn't release it on normal podcast services, didn't seek sponsorship, etc.

With some other Patreons that I follow, that have one or more podcasts, they incorporate advertisers into it.  So they might have a few slots open for $100-500 a month that includes their ad copy being read out on every podcast for the month.  They get a nice mix of actual corporate sponsors, and then the occasional well-off Patron who just wants to hear the host read their sponsorship message for the month.  In those cases, the podcasts are released first for Patrons, and then a few days later for everyone else.

For the CGR 2085 Podcast, it seemed like one of Mark's attempts to add more value to the Patreon membership.  But, doing a quality edit as he did, takes quite a bit of time, and with Patreon numbers still slipping, I can see why he decided to give it up. Still, we had more than a year of good episodes.

The frustrating thing is, I think he did try a lot of decent things to add value. The podcast, longer reviews, early access, behind the scenes videosetc, but kept bleeding numbers.  As I mentioned before, I think this is for a lot of reasons...other creators that shift to Patreon often see an initial boost, but interest dwindles over time, people don't intend to subscribe forever, etc.  Even before they shifted to Patreon, you'd notice that Youtube channel might have 400k+ subscribers, but most videos wouldn't get past the 10-20k views mark.

I do think Mark made the right call for him to diversify and shift into publishing, both financially and for creative satisfaction.  Checking the Patreon now, it looks like he's at about 250 subscribers, and the rewards are mostly based on his publishing stuff.  Those are the kind of numbers that would be enough to support an expensive hobby, and justify the time investment...or serve as one portion of a large business as it does now.

Looking back, the only I could think that Mark might have tried on the CGR front would have been more direct community engagement, like live streaming but...honestly that was never his thing, and I don't know if it would have helped. Again, looking at other Patreons that I support that have a lot of community engagement, they're usually a team of people, not a single guy.

I wouldn't say I'm burned out on CGR, as I still really enjoy Mark's delivery, but I don't need to see it every day.  And that's normal for me with a lot of media.  I'll be a big fan for a few years, but my interests shift, and I'll focus on other things while still enjoying the old ones occasionally.  That's why I was really happy to see the 20th Anniversary Spectacular.  If Mark wants to put out the occasional prestige like this once every year or two, I'll definitely buy it.

I really want to know what Mark thinks of the Mandalorian TV series. I know he was a big fan of Rogue One, So I think he's also enjoying this also.

Thanks scipioafricanus. I thought he'd like it.