Alex Blumberg is known for his work on This American Life and Planet Money, and recently launched Gimlet Media as a result of his latest podcast, StartUp. To say the least, Alex Blumberg knows quite a bit about the business of podcasting, storytelling, and audio’s role in the larger media landscape.
This year at SMW New York, Alex Blumberg will discuss Gimlet Media and his journey of building a media company with foundations in audio storytelling and journalism. “Listen Up: Building a Media Company in the Age of Audio with Alex Blumberg, CEO of Gimlet Media” will take place on Tuesday, February 23 at 11:30am on the FWD Stage of The TimesCenter.
About Alex Blumberg
Prior to This American Life, he worked as a freelance radio reporter, contributing to This American Life, the Savvy Traveller and Chicago Public Radio. In 2008 he collaborated with National Public Radio economics correspondent Adam Davidson to co-host the Planet Money podcast.
In August 2014, Blumberg started Gimlet Media, a podcasting company, along with Matthew Lieber. Blumberg documented the startup process of launching Gimlet Media in the first season of a podcast called StartUp. The second season followed “Dating Ring”, another startup company, and recently StartUp returned for a mini-series featuring Blumberg and other employees.
Along with StartUp, Gimlet Media has three additional shows: Mystery Show, Surprisingly Awesome, and Reply All. The company raised $1.5 million in seed funding from various investors and firms, as well as listeners of its shows to help raise the last $200,000 through crowdfunding platform Alphaworks.
Blumberg also won the George Polk Award in Radio Reporting for his reporting with Adam Davidson for a May 2008 show titled “The Giant Pool of Money”. The piece explained the highly complex chain of events that led to the subprime mortgage crisis by showcasing interviews with participants at each sector of the crisis. The episode was linked widely in the blogosphere and remains one of the show’s most-downloaded podcasts. (via Wikipedia)
View The Initial Program Of Events for SMW New York
Social Media Week New York, now in it’s 8th year, brings together thousands of professionals in marketing, media and technology. We’re excited to announce the initial schedule and speaker lineup for SMW New York, which takes place this February 22-26.
Join us across our two official venues, and hear from organizations such as Ogilvy, Starcom MediaVest, MRY, Forbes, Mashable, MTV, The Economist, GE, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, Spotify and many more!
Register for SMW New York
If you’d like to hear from visionary speakers, and join the thousands of attendees that come to Social Media Week in New York each year, register today by purchasing your pass. You can also save 20% until January 14th!
Image Credit: The Guardian