Over the past few years whenever someone asked me for examples of people doing web video correctly and successfully, Cali Lewis was a name always on my list. Cali was the host of GeekBrief.TV, a daily web show covering the latest technology and gadget news. I even interviewed Cali about the success of the show here. But as of last Friday, GeekBrief.TV is no more.
It’s not because they “went under”, it’s because they couldn’t come to an agreement with their partner, Mevio.com. So poof, just like that the site (along with hundreds of episodes) are gone. Well actually, you can still watch the archived episodes on Mevio.com. The good news is that Cali Lewis is not gone. She is actually continuing her work on the new site GeekBeat.TV. And it’s still the perfect example of web video done right…quality, engaging content, quality production value, videos that move well, keeping viewer’s interested and keep viewer’s coming back.
And it’s these “done right” principles that many web video producers tend to stumble over. Get these principles wrong and if the rug gets pulled out from under you, you’re back to square one or worse. Get these principles right and if the rug gets pulled out from under you…you just continue on without really missing a beat (like Cali). That’s because by doing things right you will have built a loyal audience, one that will follow you anywhere…regardless of what your business name is, what your domain name is and who your partners are.
Case in point, Cali Lewis. In one day, her old site, GeekBrief.TV disappeared…along with all of her videos. But her audience immediately migrated to her new site. In fact, her new site immediately became the #1 subscribed to podcast in all of iTunes. And that can only happen when you do web video the right way.
Here are links to Cali’s new sites:
Wow, thank you. That means a lot to me…
Cali
Dave, without revealing any secrets you may not know, do you know what the basic situation was?
Did Mevio.com own the URL? I notice the old URL redirects to the Mevio.com site. Somehow I thought they were just the hosting service, like YouTube.
Did they have some sort of deal for producing of the videos? Is Cali able to publish the old videos with edits? Or do they own all the old videos?
I’m wondering if there’s anything to be learned about backing things up (if it’s just hosting issue) or owning the rights to your own URL (if it’s also that) or putting in escape clauses if there’s an overall deal for a distribution site like Revision3 or FunnyOrDie.
Cali does great work as a host and geek. I’m glad to see the new show is excellent as well. It does seem a little different in the editing and also the inclusion of commercials in the more typical Revision3 manner, which is why I wonder why there might be more than hosting going on for locking down the rights to the videos.
Very little of what you wrote on this post is accurate. It’s the pretty picture Luria wants people to believe. The truth is much messier and much meaner.