TNP Revamp and Restart Better Than Ever!

Funding The New Progressives Podcast

“A podcast is essentially a talk radio series on demand. This means that listeners don’t need to turn up and tune in live, but can listen any time (and pretty much anywhere) they like.

Podcasts tend to be focused on a theme or topic. Often, the most successful podcasts are the ones that really niche down and get in-depth into a specific subject.”

The New Progressives Podcast started as an audio-only amateur podcast in the summer of 2016 by me and a friend of mine. We spent almost every day talking politics on the phone for years.

Traditional news media wasn’t and still isn’t capturing the attention of the tuned-out and distracted 40% of eligible voters who don’t participate in the electoral process. Political speak and left-right politics only further push those people out of the arena.

Yet these are exactly the types of people who need to be involved in determining our future today.

That’s where TNP comes in. We want to break the mold from the way that people talk about “progressives.” We don’t subscribe to the dichotomous thinking of the 60s, 70s, and 80s that characterizes progressives as the “far left.”

Today’s majority of eligible voters are neither left nor right – we are forward. That is what the word progress in our use of progressive means. We want to move this country, move the issues, move the discussion forward to create real progress in this country.

Using a podcast format, we believe that we can reach that new majority who agree on most major issues in this country and don’t fit neatly into traditional right-left politics. Issues like:

• Climate Change

• Gun Control

• Race

• Voting Rights

• Reproductive Freedom

• Progressive Taxation

• Democracy

• Education

• Freedom

The goal of The New Progressives Podcast is to reframe these political discussions for a new generation that is set to replace the septuagenarians and octogenarians that make up too much of our current elected government.

More specifically, we recognize the threat that the neo-confederate fascist movement led by Donald Trump poses to the nation. Therefore, our goal over this next year leading up to the 2024 presidential election is to see how close we can get to 100% participation from people of color, young people, and the tuned-out and distracted 40%.

Here’s What We Need

Over the last two years, I have funded the TNP website which includes our monthly expenses for Canva software for cover art and merchandise design, Printify for the TNP shop merchandise, Buzzsprout for our audio-only podcast platform hosting, and the website through Hostinger. I can no longer cover those expenses on my own.

To break through and monetize our podcast while gaining more popularity, we’ve identified these areas where we could use some funding to help improve the podcast. Here’s what we need from our sponsors and donors:

Business Registration

Since we sell merchandise on the website (images attached), we believe that our potential customers would feel more comfortable buying from us if we were a registered business. Business registration for an Ohio LLC is $99. Through LegalZoom, we could easily set up our business for a one-time fee of $249.

Website

Through the TNP website, we are able to market and promote the website while selling TNP clothing and accessories with political messaging. Some of our most popular items are attached.

Our domain registration for gonewprogressives.com expired in May and I have not had the resources to renew our registration for $147 every two years. The website has been hosted through Hostinger for the last two years and once we have funding, we will renew our domain registration.

From our website, our visitors were able to access video feeds from our TNP YouTube channel as well as access our audio-only episodes from Buzzsprout. Our free Buzzsprout account allows us to maintain 10 episodes at a time but the archived episodes are no longer available since our premium subscription expired earlier this year.

The Buzzsprout account is important because it allows the podcast to be discoverable through iTunes and Spotify. We look at having a website as a one-stop shop, including blog posts that help amplify our videos and merchandise.

Equipment

Here in Columbus, I have a very good internet connection, however, my podcast co-hosts all live in rural areas with limited and disrupted internet access. One way to improve our live streams for on-location travel to protests and rallies and joint video podcasts is to purchase Starlink for each of them which will cost $1,500 total for three dishes.

Our equipment wish list includes:

• XLR Mics

• Digital Recorders

• Upgraded Smartphones

• Multi-view Cameras

Advertising

We want funding to utilize a variety of ways to advertise our podcast to our target audience. That includes online advertising, print advertising, and radio advertising. We could utilize podcast review sites to amplify our reach as well as send out mailers and offer coupons on TNP merchandise.

Producer

Neither I nor my co-hosts are particularly savvy with the production side of podcasting. If we could hire a producer for the show, that would set us apart and make us look as professional as possible. With a producer, we could do on-location live-streams that are better.

Without hiring a producer, we will need production software to improve the production quality of the podcast including:

• Audio Editing Software

• Video Editing Software

• Auto-Transcription Service

Most of the top podcasts are sponsored by networks like Spotify and NPR and other media outlets. Many of them tout millions of listeners because the hosts are already famous and have a built-in following. However, independent podcasts like ours can succeed when we have a strong following from our target audience.

With the backing of some serious sponsors and donors, we estimate that we could create a world-class podcast for about $10,000 that will in turn attract new sponsors and revenue from our listeners.

My Credentials

I hold a B.A. in Communication with a specialty in Strategic Communication and a double minor in Political Science and Spanish Education from The Ohio State University.

I have been following politics since I was in elementary school. Every weekday morning, Washington Journal on C-Span was blasted throughout the house as we got ready for school. On Sundays, I watched Meet the Press with my dad and on weeknights we watched Crossfire together and debated the news.

In middle school, I was Chairman of Elections for the school-wide mock election in 1988. I also campaigned for Dukakis as mock campaign chair. He won the mock election in my rural, conservative, nearly all-white middle school.

Also in middle school, my Godfather loaned a VHS tape of the 6-hour “Eyes On the Prize” series to my family which we watched together. That began my lifelong study of history, particularly American history, slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement. It is when I read the autobiography of Frederick Douglass which is where my passion for getting people to vote began.

In college, I accidentally minored in political science and over the years I have volunteered my time and efforts in campaigning for presidential candidates. I was one of the first people to sign up for President Obama’s grassroots campaign and did a lot of volunteering and phone banking to get him elected twice.

I worked every election in California as a poll worker from 2006 to 2012. Now I am putting my passion for politics, American history, and getting out the vote together to inform The New Progressives Podcast as a reliable source for current events and political activism to the new American majority.