At Rhythm Changes, I recently published three longform interviews as text: most notably Norma Winstone, then Canadians Alvaro Rojas and Steve Holt in the very next two spots on my editorial calendar. I have another one to publish next week and then another one for publication in June.
My feelings on this format are mixed. Imagining myself as the reader, I dig it, because it lets me consume the interview faster. As the editor, there's something about how it cements the conversation into the record more readily. But imagining the real readers I have, there's little doubt that many would rather consume the interviews in video or, as a second choice, audio. (In fact, I have small-talk sessions with subscribers who don't really understand the existence of these text interviews, in the way that LLMs hallucinate; at least one person out there seems to have listened to a podcast of me and Norma that doesn't exist.) That said, I don't believe in forcing video upon every subject who has a bad camera or bad audio.
Separately, I've had frustrations about what to do in terms of interviewing with my voice and/or face. How do I not step on the toes of Chris Fraser, whose hosting of the Rhythm Changes Podcast I'm 100% supporting, while also bringing back something that a material number of people want?
The answer might be to publish interviews in video form on my YouTube channel, the same that now hosts Upsample (but not the RCP, which has its own RSS-generated channel). I'll need to vet guests for their audio and video recording capabilities and track them into the appropriate interview medium, text or video. I have the opportunity to pilot this "RCTV" idea in June.