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You might know it as the shop that houses, well,Serial,along with the 2017 hitS-Town.
(The Wall Street Journalbroke this storya few hours ago.)
Okay, lets go back to the acquisition.
TheTimeswas the lone company he cited as a potential buyer.
(Actual details of the deal size were not disclosed at this time.
Believe me, I asked.)
We have been enormous admirers ofThis American LifeandSerialfor a long time, said Dolnick.
Whats the biggest swing we could take?
So we started to talk with Ira Glass aboutThis American Lifeand what kind of partnership that could look like.
When I asked ifThis American Lifewas ever on the table as an acquisition, it was a flat no.
For Serial Productions, the decision to sell fit neatly into its philosophical priorities.
It felt exactly like something we wanted to be doing more of, she said.
We didnt have start-up entrepreneurial visions of saying, We want to be pumping out podcasts, she said.
We also werent the kind of thing where we were like, Lets set ourselves up to be acquired.
Beyond that, Snyder simply didnt have much interest in running a company.
Its not where I come from, you know?
Once over at theTimes, Serial Productions will be largely independent from the rest of theTimesaudio operation for now.
Were thinking about Serial Productions as being adjacent to theTimesnewsroom, said Dolnick.
An HBO of Podcasts, as it were.
At the same time, audio is agreatadvertising business for us, and its a growing business.
Our goal is not to changeSerials DNA at all.
I should note: This deal comes during a year thats already rich with podcast acquisitions.
But Id argue that acquiring Serial Productions is perhaps the most justifiable of all the recent deals.
That organization occupied a complicated place within the context of the industry.
Who else is out there?
In theTimes, it found a logical fit.
The Gray Lady offered a home thats in line with Serial Productions editorial and journalistic values.
Plus, its good validation.
Now, it can.
