Lexicon Valley podcast notched up 650,000 downloads

[Ben Zimmer]

Note that the 650K figure is for one particular episode of the
podcast, the one on vocal fry that caused a bit of controversy:

http://www.slate.com/articles/podcasts/lexicon_valley/2013/01/lexicon_valley_on_creaky_voice_or_vocal_fry_in_young_american_women.html

Bob Garfield's crotchetiness in that episode let to this Amanda Hess
post on Slate's XX Factor blog:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2013/01/07/vocal_fry_and_valley_girls_why_old_men_find_young_women_s_voices_so_annoying.html

No other episode has attracted that kind of attention. According to
the Soundcloud stats, the number of downloads is more like 550K:

https://soundcloud.com/slateradio/lexicon-valley-24-get-your

...but perhaps there are another 100K via some other means of
downloading (iTunes?).

--Ben


On Sat, Feb 9, 2013 at 3:11 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole wrote:
>
> List members might be interested to know that according to an article
> at the website paidContent the podcast Lexicon Valley at the Slate
> website is quite popular.
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Slate is now producing nine separate podcasts, some of which rate
> highly on iTunes; one episode of the show Lexicon Valley recently
> notched up 650,000 downloads. Slate would not disclose how much ads,
> which are read by show hosts, bring in but said “advertisers pay some
> of the highest rates in the industry” for the podcasts.
> [End excerpt]
>
> The above excerpt is from the following article. Note: The web page
> includes a picture that might be considered NSFW. Its illustrative
> value to the article is unclear.
>
> Title: The brain of the New York Times, the body of BuzzFeed" -
> Slate’s third act
> By Jeff John Roberts  Feb. 5, 2013
>
> http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/05/the-brain-of-the-new-york-times-the-body-of-buzzfeed-slates-third-act/
>
> Short link:   http://bit.ly/WMAJqO

--
Ben Zimmer
http://benzimmer.com/

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