Goal: Produce episodes of “The 9pm Edict” over summer

Hello, I’m Stilgherrian. You may remember me from such podcasts as The 9pm Edict and Corrupted Nerds. You may also remember me for other things, but let’s not talk about that just now.

You do want more of The 9pm Edict, right? Especially over summer?

ESPECIALLY WITH SOMETHING SECRET AND SPECIAL ADDED BECAUSE IT’S SUMMER?

Well, you’re in the right place. Contribute, and the podcasts will happen. The more you contribute, the more podcasts there’ll be.

Listen to this quick 2-minute summary, if you like.

Target 1: $2500 = ACHIEVED! Two podcasts before Xmas

SUN 17 DEC: Public House Forum 5, recorded at a pub (TBA) with a live audience in or near the federal electorate of Bennelong in Sydney during the afternoon and streamed live. It’ll sound a bit like the last one, which you can listen to it here, or on SoundCloud, Spreaker, or my own website.

FRI 22 DEC: A regular episode of The 9pm Edict, streamed live in the evening — maybe from a special summer location. It’ll sound like this one from 24 October. You can listen to it here, or on SoundCloud, Spreaker, or my own website. NOTE CHANGE OF DATE.

Target 2A: $4200 = Three Podcasts, including two Forums

Hit this first second target, and there’ll be another Public House Forum episode in early January, in addition those first two episodes already conformed for 17 and 20 December. 

Target 2B: $5200 = Four Podcasts, including two Forums

Hit this second second target, and there’ll be another “regular” episode, bringing it to four in all.

Target 3A: $6800 = Five Podcasts, including three Forums

Hit this first third target, and there’ll be a total of THREE Public House Forum episodes before the end of January, plus two regular episodes.

Target 3B: $7900 = Six Podcasts, including three Forums

Hit this second third target, and there’ll be a total of THREE Public House Forum episodes before the end of January, plus three regular episodes.

Let me tell you about my teeth

My dentist is disappointed with me. I don’t see him often enough. Back in July, I had to see him urgently. He fixed that problem, but found six other teeth that need refilling. He looked at me with his puppy-dog eyes, and suggested I see him again very soon. Three times, in fact. And he’d kindly charge me about $2000.

IF WE HIT TARGET 3, THEN MY DENTIST WILL BE LESS DISAPPOINTED WITH ME. I WILL THEREFORE EMAIL A PHOTOGRAPH OF ONE OF MY TEETH TO EVERY CONTRIBUTOR. HOW’S THAT FOR ENCOURAGEMENT!

A note about the rewards

If you choose 25 WORDS HATE or TWO MINUTES HATE, or ONE TRIGGER WORD or THREE TRIGGER WORDS,  or a FORUM QUESTION, I’ll be in touch once we’ve confirmed the podcast dates and guests. You’ll want to choose which podcast they’ll go in, and tailor them appropriately, right?

The time allocated for 25 WORDS HATE and TWO MINUTES HATE does not include introducing the topic or acknowledging your contribution.

Further rewards may be added as the campaign progresses. Suggestions welcome.

Your contributions will provide me with an income while producing the podcasts, and cover costs such as taxis, catering for guests, and of course the fees charged by Pozible, PayPal, credi card processors, etc.

I’m basing my calculations on the MEAA award rate for casual freelance journalists, about $960 per day. As a casual rate, that already includes allowances for superannuation, leave, WorkCover and the like, as well as equipment costs. I’m discounting that by 30% to $672 per day because a lot of it involves copying and uploading files and other mechanical tasks, so I can do other things at the same time.

Each normal episode of The 9pm Edict takes roughly a day to research, prepare, present, and post. Each Public House Forum episode takes two days all up. This included individual episode promotion.

In addition, I need to rebuild the podcast’s presence in iTunes and across other distribution networks. Apple dumped it from the iTunes catalog because the RSS feed contained errors. Other distrbution platforms have spring up since the podcast first started. Building the audience is important. Charging a proper rate for producing the podcasts will give me the time to do that.

This is slightly more than the $500 per standard podcast in previous campaigns, but I think you’ll understand.

Pozible’s fees, bank fees and other administration costs take about 9% of the total funds raised. On top of that there’s 10% GST, something I’ve forgotten about in the past.

If you want to see my working, check the numbers (PDF).

The first target is discounted by $130 because I’ve already received some contributions.

When reading these numbers, bear in mind that my freelance jouralism doesn’t pay these rates, and health issues prevent me from working full time. This is all about filling the gaps.

Producing media, and managing other people who produce media, are what I’ve been doing for most of my adult life. There’s no real challenge here. I do this stuff every week.

The keys risks when producing any media to a defined schedule are that there won’t be any interesting content, that the production crew runs out of time, or that they’re suddenly not available due to illness, accident or disaster.

There’s plenty of potential  content, given how dreaful 2017 has been. In fact the real challenge — not that there are any challenges, sorry — the real production issue will be selecting what to cover.

As for the schedule, I know precisely how long it takes to make media. I’ve already blocked out time in my schedule.

The worst-case scenario — unless I’m actually completely incapacitated or even dead for the duration — is that the podcasts will be delayed.

If I die, you’ve blown your money.

There’s also a good chance that Donald Trump will end up getting us all killed. In which case these podcasts will be very special indeed. Consider all-out nuclear war a bonus.