Whatever happened to Rob Gray?
- Thread starter NWICY
- Start date
Is Jay on the premium boards? His breakdowns of ISU games were a favorite several years ago.
JorBo should be replaced with Rob Gray on the podcast, and Whitver should be replaced with Rob Gray on game days.
It amazes me people’s inability to say they miss more articles without dumping all over another medium of information. Just because YOU like a medium better than anothe does not mean everyone else does as well. It also doesn’t mean the other one is bad or lazy. It is just preferences yall.
The best preview video he’s ever done was a couple years ago from outside his apparently massive house, with massive dip in and his face all busted up to hell.
For my busy lifestyle, I prefer to read a 5 min article compared to a 1 hr podcast but I get that they can reach more ppl with podcasts, get sponsors from podcasts, and it probably requires less of their time for a podcast. If podcasts means more content then I’m good with it, even if I’m a few weeks behind on catching up. I also recognize the podcasts generate revenue and everyone needs to make a profit so it makes a lot of sense for CF to focus more energy on podcasts.
That’s funny. For my busy life style I only consume media that I can consume while doing mindless tasks. Aka driving (not really mindless, but you get it), mowing the yard, doing the dishes, etc. That’s why I said that there is room for both types of media, as they fit different needs and likes.
I could listen to Blum talk 12 hrs/day. Guy is a fount of Cyclone and sports knowledge in general. Stanz is really good also. CF is lucky to have those two.
I'm glad this thread was started as it gives me an opportunity to explain a few things.
When we got CF from Jeremy, 100 percent of the site's revenue came from digital banner ads. Since that day, I'd say the value of those ads have dropped by 80-90 percent.
Today, subscriptions and local advertisers (off the top of my head) provide, probably 80-85 percent of the site's revenue. Probably five comes from merch and the other 10 would be from the web traffic. I haven't sold a banner ad to a local company in close to five years. Nobody wants them.
In addition to that, our podcast downloads generally trump "clicks" on articles. Rob is the best writer we have ever had but the articles he would spend hours on would often times get half the traffic of a quick kick time announcement press release. The audience has changed greatly.
The thing is, yeah, we have pivoted by not very much. The overwhelming majority of Jared and Connor's roles come from writing articles. We still provide more written coverage on Iowa State than any other entity out there. We just happen to do a ton of podcasts too, as it's the direction that our partners and audience has pushed us over the years.
Personally, if I could just write for 100 percent of my job, I'd sign up for that right night. I miss the hell out of writing. But we also have a business to run and being the guy at the top, I've got to make decisions to pay our people, serve our clients and make our audience happy. It's always a fine line and we won't ever please everybody all the time.
When we got CF from Jeremy, 100 percent of the site's revenue came from digital banner ads. Since that day, I'd say the value of those ads have dropped by 80-90 percent.
Today, subscriptions and local advertisers (off the top of my head) provide, probably 80-85 percent of the site's revenue. Probably five comes from merch and the other 10 would be from the web traffic. I haven't sold a banner ad to a local company in close to five years. Nobody wants them.
In addition to that, our podcast downloads generally trump "clicks" on articles. Rob is the best writer we have ever had but the articles he would spend hours on would often times get half the traffic of a quick kick time announcement press release. The audience has changed greatly.
The thing is, yeah, we have pivoted by not very much. The overwhelming majority of Jared and Connor's roles come from writing articles. We still provide more written coverage on Iowa State than any other entity out there. We just happen to do a ton of podcasts too, as it's the direction that our partners and audience has pushed us over the years.
Personally, if I could just write for 100 percent of my job, I'd sign up for that right night. I miss the hell out of writing. But we also have a business to run and being the guy at the top, I've got to make decisions to pay our people, serve our clients and make our audience happy. It's always a fine line and we won't ever please everybody all the time.
Rob worte some great stuff for CF and The Seniors podcast was great. Rob has also co-written a book and now works back at the CR Gazette. You can read his stuff there. Rob was recently on the Old Man Strength podcast and talked a little about it. Given their social media interactions there isn't any bad blood, it's the opposite. Both CF and Rob are in great places. I truly think Jared grew with Rob's help and the Gazette has a quality Cyclone writer on the Easter side of the state.
This sucks. I actually enjoy the Morning Rush when it was Travis, Heather and Sean. For mex it's just as good with Ross and Travis. I feel like KXNO missed an opportunity to have Emery and Sean host the afternoon show. Heather would've been great with Ross & Travis, some balance for those two. Emery and Sean could've been Fanatics 2.0.
