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Podcasting can be a great business if you’re good at it, but I’m not sure anyone has ever been this adept at milking shareholder value out of a pair of mics. TBPN (it stands for Technology Business Programming Network) is a two-man video talk show that only launched in 2024. The show is punchy but generally upbeat about technology and the people who make it. Last week, the two guys who host it, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, sold it to OpenAI for a sum that the Financial Times reported was in the “low hundreds of millions.” The podcasters announced that they had won a “commitment to editorial independence,” lest anyone think OpenAI CEO Sam Altman might be angling to turn their show into propaganda. TBPN says it “retains full editorial control” over its programming and guest lineup. The hosts get generational wealth and perhaps retain enough editorial freedom to look in the mirror and tell themselves they aren’t sellouts.
OpenAI gets a podcast whose hosts have a good understanding of the tech media landscape. The company may also be getting loyal mouthpieces. The show’s editorial protections could prove to be hollow, and OpenAI could take a show that is popular with the Silicon Valley elite and make it into Pravda for tech. (In the highly likely event that the two podcasters are now OpenAI shareholders, they’ll have incentive to boost their new company.) TBPN will report to OpenAI’s top political operative, Chris Lehane, who recently worked for crypto interests after a long career in Democratic politics. We must all judge for ourselves whether OpenAI really just wants to “accelerate the global conversation” about A.I as they claimed in a post announcing the acquisition.
