That slate doubled, then doubled again, to include shows like “The Cost of Care,” about health care, “The Untold Story: Policing,” about police violence and “Good Sex,” about, well, sex. (Crises come in all sizes.)
Neither woman had ever set out to run a media company. “But there’s this weird thing that grief does to some of us,” Wittels Wachs said. “There’s this weird freedom in it where it’s like, we lived through the worst thing that’s ever happened. If this thing we do now doesn’t work, who cares?” The network, built on shared trauma and a laugh-to-keep-from-crying sensibility, is working. It will have 20 shows available by the end of this year. The staff, which began with Wittels Wachs, Cordova Kramer and their husbands, has swelled to 25 employees.
Current shows now receive an average of a million and a half listens per month, with the company reporting consistent audience growth. Lemonada brought in $1.5 million in revenue in 2020, with triple that projected for 2021. In two rounds of financing, they have raised $2 million from the investment firm Blue Collective, plus about $380,000 from friends and family, enough to stay independent, for now.
“There’s a ton of pressure to grow and yes, lots of people like to talk about what the future holds,” Wittels Wachs said. Lemonada recently announced a subscription service, via Apple Podcasts, for $4.99 a month, to deliver bonus content like extended interviews and early access to new shows.
What makes a show a Lemonada show? The founders have a checklist. Is it about a big problem? Does that problem affect a lot of people? Can the show offer solutions? “It’s not just, This sucks,” Wittels Wachs said. “It’s like, What can we do?” At times, that doing involves big-swing policy suggestions, but most recommendations are local and limited, often attitudinal, something typical listeners might achieve.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
