Closing Time?
Previously written & published on October 26, 2021 5:40 pm
Over the past four years, I’ve written challenging updates.
Dear friends, I have cancer.
Dear friends, we’re closing our physical space due to COVID.
Today, the opening line of this newsletter is:
Dear friends, we might be shutting down, for good.
And somehow, it feels the most surreal.
It’s surreal, because we’ve made it. We’ve won awards. We’ve landed respectable clients. Maintained caring partnerships. Sustained a supportive and talented community of hundreds of producers. We’ve met payroll — every — two — weeks without coming up short, even once. We’ve offered full-time employment with benefits in an industry built for contractors. We’ve run a non-profit offering podcast incubators to elevate historically marginalized voices in media. And we’ve proved that spaces like ours, brick-and-mortar hubs centered on community, story, and art, are still critical in a WFH world.
Here’s the work in a few numbers. We have:
- Welcomed 307 members to use House of Pod as their home studio with each member often representing teams of one to four people. The result, is approximately 500–600 creators have used our space.
- Convened 125 podcast events, classes, and workshops for a community of 1,000+ creators, ranging from live storytelling events (Spokes!), high school courses, podcast scavenger hunts, podcast races, podcast book clubs, marketplaces, feedback sessions, remote classes, and so much more.
- Launched 21 podcast productions where we managed the editing, ideation, and production of the show. And there are countless other productions we have supported as collaborators, consultants, or audio editors.
- Paid and employed 30+ producers and mentors through our programs and operations.
- Ran 2 podcast incubators supporting 11 new shows produced by women of color.
We’ve weathered significant events and emerged tired, but eager to produce. We’re burnt out, but we still have fuel for stories.
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And yet here I am. Writing to you that House of Pod might close by the end of the year. Why?
The details are outlined in this post, which breaks down the podcasting industry from where I sit, and how this relates to the only slice of fluid mechanics I understand — hot air balloons. I think and believe some of your questions might be answered there. Click the link below to read the extended version of everything.
The short of it is, for us, community membership covers the cost of our space. And our productions cover the salaries of our team of five. The space cannot run without the staff. And salaries cannot be paid without a pipeline of productions.
We’re now wrapping up our fall productions for 2021, and unfortunately, we have no additional funded projects lined up for 2022.
Without a local team to run the space, House of Pod will close our physical location, and our production company will transition to contract-based employment. This is so we are better able to weather long periods of time between productions, and lower our operating costs.
This is a viable solution to keep some of our work alive, but it’s also sad. It’s sad because we’ve built a Denver-based audio production house centered on equity, well-produced Colorado stories, and inclusive spaces designed for storytellers. We’ve achieved a lot, and now, we’re looking for help.
We’re asking our community at large to get in touch with us if they have access to any of the following:
- An investor to purchase part of the company, enabling us to produce original content, and launch our own network.
- A large production contract we can sink our teeth into.
- Advice or referrals.
In announcing this news in this way, we’re opening our doors for ideas and support in hopes that we don’t have to shutter our existing operations. If we do end up closing, we will be running our last tours at House of Pod on December 10th, and closing the space fully by January 31, 2022.
Thank you for being part of this journey.
