May 17, 2017 - Rubin Report - Dave Rubin
05:03
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unidentified
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(upbeat music) | |
| All right, I wanted to do something a little different this week | ||
| and catch you guys up on some insider stuff going on over here at the Rubin Report. | ||
| First off, I just want to say how pleased we are, not only with the growth of the show in terms of numbers, but also in terms of the content we're putting out every week. | ||
| We're on track to crack 500,000 subscribers in just a couple weeks, and our watch time is about 15 minutes per video, which is pretty much unheard of on YouTube. | ||
| Our audience engagement is also equally great, and even the comments section right here on YouTube hasn't totally devolved into the abyss of hate like so many other channels have. | ||
| More importantly though, I'm incredibly proud of the conversations we're continuing to foster around here. | ||
| From last week's interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, to the week before with Jordan Peterson, and before that with Yasmin Mohamed and Brandon Turner, I think we've managed to have wide ranging important conversations which leave you with something to think about instead of feeling empty and enraged like so much content out there is designed to make you feel. | ||
| Many of you have asked me about the YouTube demonization issue, which I've addressed a bit on Twitter and Facebook, but I wanted to discuss here as well. | ||
| For those of you just catching up, about 6 weeks ago YouTube lost about $750 million in ad sales after a bunch of stories ran across mainstream media about how ads were being played on offensive content on the YouTube platform. | ||
| Putting aside what's actually offensive, or that you rarely associate the ad playing before | ||
| the video with the content itself, YouTube found itself in a tough spot. | ||
| $750 million isn't chump change, even to a company like Google, and suddenly there were | ||
| less ads to go around the entire platform. | ||
| I should pause here and say that as a private company, of course, YouTube absolutely has | ||
| the right to do whatever they want with their business. | ||
| And in this case, if there aren't ads to go around on all the content, well, nobody's forcing me or anyone else to create videos here. | ||
| At the same time this demonetization was happening, there was also another problem unfolding for channels such as this one. | ||
| Some of our videos, which deal with certain controversial topics, aren't getting served ads at all. | ||
| So for example, videos we've done with people from Lauren Southern to Bishop Barron to Yasmin Mohamed, there's some real diversity in that group, aren't being served ads due to the nature of their content. | ||
| Again, that is within YouTube's right to do and it isn't censorship | ||
| because they aren't stopping us from putting up those interviews, but eventually every | ||
| creator has to make a dime. | ||
| Creators will eventually self-censor if they know that certain topics won't make them any | ||
| money. | ||
| Since I try to be as transparent as possible with you, I want to tell you a little bit | ||
| more about how our economics work around here. | ||
| Our interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, which was done on location in another city due to security issues, cost us over $5,000 between studio rental, flying my crew to another city, hotel rooms, and some other ancillary costs. | ||
| The four videos that we put up with Ayaan have made us less than $1,000 back on YouTube. | ||
| I'm no economist, but even I know that's not a sustainable business model. | ||
| In this case, not doing the interview with Ayaan would have been the prudent business decision, but of course I'm thrilled and honored that Ayaan took the time, and in my view, was worth the financial hit we took to make it happen. | ||
| The truth that Ayaan speaks about female genital mutilation, the left's alliance with Islam, and the power of the individual as a lynchpin in a free and western society are all messages that I think must be heard and amplified. | ||
| I'll continue to have those important conversations, regardless of the financial implications, as long as we can possibly do so. | ||
| I mentioned all of this insider stuff to you, not for your pity or even for your money, but just to give you a little insight into how complex content creation is these days, and how there are often behind the scenes issues that have little to do with the content, but a lot to do with how we're able to make it. | ||
| So I'll end this with another thank you to all of you who've continued to support us via monthly pledges on Patreon or through one-time pledges on PayPal. | ||
| You guys are the ones who make it possible to do this show and allow us to make decisions based on the conversations that we want to have without solely looking at the bottom line. | ||
| We're going to continue to find new partners to work with and other out-of-the-box ways to monetize our content, but without you we simply couldn't do what we do around here. | ||
| Alright, so enough business, let's get back to the conversation. | ||
| Joining me today is Brigitte Gabriel. | ||
| Brigitte is the founder of Act for America, the country's largest grassroots national security organization. | ||
| She has an incredibly fascinating personal story of growing up as a Christian in Lebanon during their civil war, and is now a strident defender of women, minorities, and western values. | ||
| Will our videos be monetized on YouTube? |
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