Hopefully, Revision3 Has Learned Some Lessons
I have been staying tuned to the constant news of an economic bust where people are losing homes, jobs, and retirement savings. In my city, there is a definite squeeze where costs are being cut to try and avoid some job losses. In some cases, it isn’t because of a lack of revenue; it’s to save money for a nuclear winter in the event that money is not available in the future. It’s a mode that many businesses are operating under, and from my radar, it’s most visible in the tech sector.
While I don’t pay attention to tech blogs like I use to, I still hear about the effects of the down economy on tech companies, primarily Silicon Valley startups, via my regular tech podcasts. One company that was recently affected was Revision3, a new media company that focuses on IPTV shows. On October 27, Revision3′s CEO, Jim Louderback, announced show cuts and layoffs, which included axing popSiren, Internet Superstar, and Pixel Perfect. Later, the GigaOm Show and The Revision3 Gazette were also canceled from Revision3′s lineup after the original blog post. Revision3 also ended its distribution deals with Wine Library TV and EPIC FU and laid off approximately 10 of their staff, which included popular hosts Sarah Lane and Martin Sargent. This wasn’t a surprising move to me since many startups are announcing cuts. What also wasn’t surprising was the comments left by Revision3 “fans” on the blog post and message boards.
The familiar toxic environment that I grew tired of at the Digg community spilled over to Revision3, which is unsurprising considering Digg’s Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson are two of Revision3′s founders. Many commenters started off berating Louderback’s “crazy” decision to axe the wrong shows before they eventually starting denouncing the man himself. The mob then turned their attacks on Rose for “hanging Sarah Lane out on a limb” by promoting their joint appearance on an upcoming Digg Reel via the TWiT podcast. They seem to think that Rose knew that Lane would be getting laid off yet promoted a joint appearance on the number one tech podcast. While I don’t know Rose, I find it hard to believe he would embarrass himself, Lane, and his company by promoting their appearance on TWiT if he knew she would be laid off the next day. Now, is it possible Rose knew cuts were coming? Probably, but it doesn’t mean he knew who would be getting cut until the Revision3 board made their decisions. The tidal wave of backlash coming at Rose even prompted him to make an official post on his blog and not just his Twitter feed. After the mob ceased their attacks on Rose, they once again turned on Louderback and some of the recent business decisions at Revision3. It is the latter that I will focus on.
After sifting through the noise, I finally found some comments that I agreed with. Those comments include Revision3′s decision to build a studio in San Francisco and allegedly make shows relocate their production there (to use the new studio) or get canceled. When I watched Lane show off Revision3′s construction efforts on their studio (in a Revision3 Gazette episode), I was surprised that they were spending their venture capital money on that. I felt that building a studio at such an early stage of the company was unnecessary. In hindsight, it seems that Revision3 may be regretting it as well since they’re renting it out and only producing a couple of shows (Tekzilla, Systm, and the Digg Reel) in the studio at this point. Had Revision3 not built a studio, perhaps they could have retained the people and/or shows they had to cut. Shows like the Totally Rad Show (taped in a garage in Los Angeles) and EPIC FU (taped in a room in Los Angeles) prove that you don’t need a studio to produce a really good show. New media viewers won’t care where a show is produced as long as it has good content, good hosts, and is edited professionally. This is something that Revision3 seemed to understand in the early days of its life but forgot over the past year with the launch and failure of several new shows.
Under Louderback, Revision3 was growing and expanding fast with a goal to launch new shows each quarter. I found this goal ambitious but flawed. Instead of launching new shows every quarter to find out if one (or none) would stick, I think Revision3 should have focused on making the shows that were doing well better. I have watched some of the new shows under Louderback’s reign and found some pointless and/or tweaked copycats of shows they already had. Sometimes, less really is more. I’d rather have a smaller stable of well-produced shows with good and distinctive content over a large number of shows with bland or overused hosts and redundant/pointless content.
I also found that a few of the show hosts just weren’t good on-screen personalities – a must if you want people watch a weekly video podcast. This is one of the reasons why I think Revision3 should have stayed in Los Angeles. There are plenty of out of work (or trying to work) actors/actresses, cameramen, editors, etc. looking for gigs, and Revision3 would have had a bigger and better selection than what’s available in San Francisco (based on some of the hosts/editors, etc. they’ve had). While I enjoy some Revision3 shows, some of the camera work and editing has an unprofessional slant written all over them. This was fine when Revision3 was still a very small operation without office space and only had a few shows. However, if they want to convince the rest of the world that they’re the next hot thing in new media, then they need to show it by hiring professionals with experience. Hint: if Steve has camera/editing friends, hire them.
I have been cheering for Revision3 ever since I discovered Diggnation in 2006, but over the past year, the little IPTV company that could took a wrong turn with unnecessary spending and odd business decisions. Hopefully, they’ll get back on track after learning some hard lessons on what not to do to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
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