Last week, after over two years of giving the world of politics their own irreverent take, Will Coghlan and Rob Millis uploaded the last episode of Political Lunch, which had petered out following the 2008 election results. The daily independent (both in terms of production and politics) series set a new standard for news commentary in the online video world, while also making Millis (the one with the glasses) and Coghlan (the one with the beard) into new media Jon Stewarts. We spoke with Millis via phone about their decision to move on, whether they might return for the 2012 election, and what they’ll be up to in the meantime (hint: something totally apolitical). An edited transcript follows.
NewTeeVee: First off — why are you ending the show?
Millis: It was a great run, and we would love to do it again — it’s really a matter of whether or not it makes sense. We were lucky enough to get paid from time to time by advertisers, but it was never enough to really sustain the show, and so now it’s just time to move onto some other projects. We’ll certainly miss doing it, but we may be back again before too long.
NewTeeVee: What would you say your peak viewership was?
Millis: Nothing really over the top. We had over 100,000 views [per episode week] at one point, but it would spike around major events, then drop and spike again. Our core audience came from subscribers, so we’d sometimes have a few thousand for one show and then have 50,000 for another show that had a particularly funny edit or was about a particular speech.
NewTeeVee: What’s the next thing for you guys?
Millis: We’re developing Dynamo, a player for independent programs and independent film. It’s a tool for independent creators, to let them host their own content. We’re going to start inviting beta testers next month, and it’ll be available for public review within the next few months.
NewTeeVee: So this will let indies host their own content, as opposed to going with YouTube or blip or etc.?
Millis: Yeah. When it comes to independent film and longer-form content, advertising really has to be a perfect fit or else it doesn’t really work. And when it comes to independent film, Hollywood and the old studio system has never really worked for independents. So I think that if you take half the applicants to Sundance this year and said look, you can deliver it yourself without a distributor taking a big cut and without a studio backing you, a lot of them would jump at that.
NewTeeVee: What’s the business model for this player? Are you going to partner with creators, are you licensing it to them…
Millis: I don’t want to get into specifics, but I would say both of those.
NewTeeVee: Do you see yourselves going in front of the camera again?
Millis: Sure. I think it would be hard for Will and I to stay off the campaign trail for 2012 and 2016.
NewTeeVee: How do you see the role of online video changing for those campaigns?
Millis: I think the convergence of online media and mainstream media is at a point where ABC News will have an online person who’s on the floor and that will mix back and forth with their television coverage. By the next election cycle, we really won’t be thinking of it as online video vs. television, mainstream vs. bloggers. It’ll all be mixed together.
NewTeeVee: In the meantime, is there anything in particular you’re going to miss about doing the show?
Millis: I’m going to miss being totally on top of the news — I would not have been nearly as well-informed about the election if I hadn’t been covering it every day. I already feel out of touch with politics more than I have in a couple of years.
But on the other hand, it does free me up to pay attention to some other sources. I probably didn’t watch The Daily Show for about 18 months, just because Will and I had already been immersed in those stories and the jokes were already in our heads by the time we’d seen them. It’ll be nice to enjoy that and other shows again.
NewTeeVee: If you had to pick a crowning achievement for the series, what would it be?
Millis: Being the only online video people independent, nonpartisan online video producers with full access at the conventions was a big triumph for us. I think we were really the only team that was out there reporting for online media that wasn’t playing favorites with anybody, and it was nice to earn the respect of the campaigns based on that.
One thing I was most proud of was the day that both The Huffington Post and Town Hall refused to put Political Lunch on their site. We were too conservative for The Huffington Post and too liberal for Town Hall — both thought we were playing favorites. That was a very proud day for us. I mean, we were sorry not to get their audience, but it also meant that we were doing something right.
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