Main channel
The Diary Of A CEO
15M+ subscribers
The Diary of a CEO: Using Clips to Grow an Experimental Channel to 2M Subscribers
A global podcast brand built on deep, thought-provoking conversations
The Diary of a CEO, hosted by entrepreneur Steven Bartlett, is one of the world’s leading podcast brands known for deep, thought provoking conversations with founders, experts, and cultural icons.
The show has built a global audience of 15M+ subscribers across its main channel. Recognizing the growing impact of short-form content, the team launched a dedicated secondary channel, The Diary of a CEO Clips, designed to showcase high-impact moments from full length episodes. That channel has since surpassed 2M subscribers, becoming a key driver of growth and discovery.
- Clips channel
The Diary Of A CEO Clips
2M+ subscribers
Why a Separate Clips Channel Works
Protecting the Main Channel Experience
The team understood that content format shapes audience expectations. The main channel is optimized for long-form viewing (10-40+ minutes), where audiences expect depth, storytelling, and immersion.
Introducing shorter clips into this environment risks:
- Breaking viewer expectations
- Reducing session time
- Weakening overall performance signals
By separating formats, the brand preserves the integrity of the main channel while optimizing each experience for its intended audience.
Clips on the main channel
Mixed formats- Breaking viewer expectations
- Reducing session time
- Weakening overall performance signals
Dedicated clips channel
Separated formats- Integrity of main channel preserved
- Each format optimized for its audience
- Long-form experience remains intact
Turning Clips into a Testing Engine
The clips channel serves as a low-risk experimentation layer. It enables the team to:
- Test hooks, topics, and formats at scale
- Quickly identify high-performing moments
- Iterate rapidly without impacting the core brand.
With tools like OpusClip, teams can automate this process by instantly identifying the most engaging moments from long-form content and turning them into ready to publish clips. This dramatically increases testing velocity while reducing manual effort.
Top performing clips can then inform and strengthen the main channel’s content strategy.
Testing hooks, topics, formats at scale
Top performing clips inform and strengthen the main channel's content strategy
Expanding Reach Through a New Audience Funnel
Short-form clips create a powerful discovery channel for new audiences.
- Bite-sized content lowers the barrier to entry
- High-impact moments drive stronger click-through from cold viewers
- New viewers are funneled into the broader ecosystem
As the clips channel attracts new audiences, it naturally drives increased growth and subscriber conversion on the main channel.
- Discovery
- Short clips reach audiences who don't know the show
- Engagement
- Bite-sized format keeps viewers watching to the end
- Conversion
- Engaged viewers visit and subscribe to the main channel
Results
By launching a dedicated clips channel, The Diary of a CEO transformed its content strategy into a multi-channel growth engine. Combined with scalable clipping workflows powered by tools like OpusClip, they are able to scale in new audience viewership, accelerate content testing, and turn every episode into a repeatable growth engine across formats.
Learn more about the OpusClip Business Plan
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