Hello and welcome to the history of the Germans, episode 13 years of war.

The theocratic state of the Teutonic Knights had survived the devastating defeat at Tunnenberg

with most of its territory intact. But underneath, the foundations of the edifice are crumbling.

The economy is in tatters.

The theological justification for their existence has disappeared,

and their power as a military force has failed to keep up with the changing times.

The order needs, well, a new business model for the absence of a suitable term.

How well, or how badly it did in this attempt, is what we will be looking at in this episode.

But before we start, the usual plea for support.

As you know, the history of the Germans and all its offshoots have remained resolutely advertising-free, despite some rather flattering offers. Well, I do not

know how much time you spend following news about the podcasting industry, but if you do, you might

have noticed that something rather unpleasant is afoot. It's not only that some major listening

platforms like Stitcher and Google Podcasts have or will soon be shut down, but several production

firms and with it some very well-known shows have closed shop. In part, these firms are overly

optimistic about the economics of the medium, but a big part of it is the overstuffing of the

advertising channel. Shows sold more and more advertising space that compelled listeners to

skip those clips so that the advertisers then in turn reduced the pay-per-views, because, well,

it wasn't very effective. But that in turn forced the podcasters to put even more slots

into their shows, which puts off listeners and the economics deteriorate even more until the show has to shut down.

Now, that is a fad I would very much like to avoid,

and as someone funnily posted on Twitter, there are still some 7,000 episodes to go

before we reach 1991.

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