Critical Role Hires Former Hallmark Channel Executive Alyssa Zeisler to Run Beacon Platform

Critical Role has announced that they've hired former Hallmark Channel Vice President of Product Alyssa Zeisler as their General Manager for Beacon. The hire is meant to, in Critical Role's words, "level up and evolve" Beacon for its next era. According to the press release, Zeisler will oversee Beacon’s product roadmap, business performance, content and platform strategy, as well as the continued evolution of Beacon as a community hub, creator-led ecosystem, and a central destination for all things Critical Role and TTRPGs.

Zeisler comes from outside of the TTRPG sphere, having most recently been Vice President of Product at Hallmark Media, where she helped relaunch the Hallmark+ streaming and commerce platform. She also worked at Dow Jones, where she was Vice President of Subscription and Strategic Products and Research & Development Chief at The Wall Street Journal, and Barron, where she was Audience Managing Editor.

“Beacon is central to how we think about the future of Critical Role, and it’s time for it to level up and evolve,” said Travis Willingham, CEO and Co-founder of Critical Role, in the press release. “Alyssa brings exactly the kind of leadership this next phase requires. She understands how to build lasting, audience-first platforms at scale, and her experience leading subscription and direct-to-consumer businesses makes her a perfect fit to help Beacon grow while staying true to the unique authenticity that makes Critical Role what it is.”

 

[kenmarable]

It launched two years ago? And yes, it's a streaming platform with some additional things as well — the social aspect is currently outsourced to a discord.

For me, hiring someone from Hallmark makes a lot of sense. Sure, they could have hired a friend who likes ttrpgs but what do they know about managing a streaming service? Instead they got someone who seem to have gotten the assignment of these things: expand while maintaining the audience you have.

(CR stopped being "just some friends who play dungeons & dragons" when they did D&Diesel and spent 10 minutes of merch hype. So all the way back in campaign one.)

Yep, it's already been around for quite a while and is already pretty much the central destination of all things Critical Role. So far they have promised a wide range of gaming-related streaming series, and they have followed through offering a wide range of gaming-related streaming series. I mean the site is literally Beacon.TV, so they are pretty clear in what they've said they would deliver so far and have been delivering it. This hire looks like it can expand on what they offer since they sure to be doing pretty well with what they've done so far. Pretty much the complete and utter opposite of Gleemax which never delivered much of anything.

It is just weird to jump right out of the gate comparing it to such a high-profile public failure and throw accusations around when they don't even know what it is.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It launched two years ago? And yes, it's a streaming platform with some additional things as well — the social aspect is currently outsourced to a discord.

For me, hiring someone from Hallmark makes a lot of sense. Sure, they could have hired a friend who likes ttrpgs but what do they know about managing a streaming service? Instead they got someone who seem to have gotten the assignment of these things: expand while maintaining the audience you have.

(CR stopped being "just some friends who play dungeons & dragons" when they did D&Diesel and spent 10 minutes of merch hype. So all the way back in campaign one.)

Hiring someone who understands streaming platforms to help level up your streaming platform is ... what I think you're supposed to do.

It would be irresponsible to hire some friend of theirs they play RPGs with instead of a subject matter expert.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Beacon is just a streaming platform for their shows. No different from Dropout.

Dropout is killing it as well, suggesting there's a real market for niche content, delivered well at a price that fans can afford while taking care of your content creators.

I can also imagine another timeline where Beacon and Dropout were a single platform. The Venn diagram between the two audiences isn't quite a circle, but it's closer to being one than not.

 

[nyvinter]

Hiring someone who understands streaming platforms to help level up your streaming platform is ... what I think you're supposed to do.

True but Hallmark did the one thing that makes transferable to even more niche services: expanding while retaining and catering to their current audience as well. While the Netflix model would have been disastrous since it's only about new numbers and not a care in the world about the current subscribers.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

But is she a critter?

 

[Afroconan]

But is she a critter?

We are all critters of God, my brother in Christ.

 

[definiteFreakyFishGuy]

"community hub, creator-led ecosystem, and a central destination for all things Critical Role and TTRPGs."

Seems a lot to me more like some sort of one-stop-shop TTRPG social network, which is what Gleemax was supposed to be, rather than a streaming service.

As of now, I feel like there are too many things that are not on Beacon to call it a "central destination" for Critical Role.

• The only full main campaign they have on Beacon is Campaign 3. Earlier episodes of Campaign 2 is missing. Campaign 1 isn't even there.
• None of the animated series are on Beacon.
• There are missing one-shots. A bunch of content involving a certain Brian are gone. Though unlike the other items listed, I don't think they are available anywhere.

I guess one could argue that other than the animated series, the stuff I listed as missing are their old stuff, kind of like College Humor to Dropout.

 

[nyvinter]

As of now, I feel like there are too many things that are not on Beacon to call it a "central destination" for Critical Role.

• The only full main campaign they have on Beacon is Campaign 3. Earlier episodes of Campaign 2 is missing. Campaign 1 isn't even there.
• None of the animated series are on Beacon.
• There are missing one-shots. A bunch of content involving a certain Brian are gone. Though unlike the other items listed, I don't think they are available anywhere.

I guess one could argue that other than the animated series, the stuff I listed as missing are their old stuff, kind of like College Humor to Dropout.

The things with Brian are missing because they don't want to feature things with Brian — which is understandable all things considered. And the rest are missing because of contract/rights issues, the old campaigns will probably be available on Beacon only if Geek & Sundry closes for good.

 

[Artamo]

As of now, I feel like there are too many things that are not on Beacon to call it a "central destination" for Critical Role.

• The only full main campaign they have on Beacon is Campaign 3. Earlier episodes of Campaign 2 is missing. Campaign 1 isn't even there.
• None of the animated series are on Beacon.
• There are missing one-shots. A bunch of content involving a certain Brian are gone. Though unlike the other items listed, I don't think they are available anywhere.

I guess one could argue that other than the animated series, the stuff I listed as missing are their old stuff, kind of like College Humor to Dropout.

That’s likely due to them not owning the full rights to the early shows.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

I have no joke here, I just like saying 'Gleemax'.