Steven Bartlett started ‘The Diary of a CEO’ with a $100 microphone. Now he says it’s on track for $60 million in annual revenue
Source: Fortune ·
The podcast host says he rejected a deal that would have meant more ads and leaving YouTube. Now, his business extends beyond sponsorships.
From the source
Steven Bartlett started his podcast with just a laptop and a sock pulled over a $100 microphone. Before there were guests, it was just Bartlett, reading from his diary at 2 a.m. and trying to make sense of what he had written that week. He eventually began interviewing other people about theirs. Now, The Diary of a CEO is one of the world’s biggest podcasts, and is on track to overtake Joe Rogan as the most-subscribed podcast on YouTube. The show has grown into a business Bartlett forecasts will generate about $60 million in revenue this year. But growing it has also meant turning down money—including a deal that would have required more advertising and taking the show off YouTube. He described the proposed arrangement as a trade: accept a large payment, put 12 advertisements in the podcast, and have little say over those ads. “One of the central reasons why I turned down such an offer is because that is four times more ads than I have to put in now,” Bartlett told Fortune’s Ellie…
BestAIBroker analysis
- Finance-aware sentiment: neutral (+0.00 on a -1 to +1 scale).
- Event classification: OTHER.
- Market importance score: 31/100, weighting entity relevance, source credibility, multi-outlet coverage and recency.
- Symbols referenced: BBC.