Bernaisesource

• In April, Feedburner announced that it distributed more podcasts than there are radio stations.

• Just this week National Semiconductor announced it is giving each of its 8,500 employees a 30GB fifth-generation iPod, allowing employees to download National podcasts and other communications. (You do the math!)

At EarthLink, we in corporate communications are about to begin podcasting to supplement traditional outreach efforts.  It is not the company’s first foray.  

Our marketing group earlier this year placed traditional ads on the PodShow Network.  Based on the feedback, we are now encouraging listeners to submit their own ideas and are challenging consumers to create a better ad campaign. 

For us, it is part of our strategy to embrace new media.  We are all excited about the possibilities, but a colleague astutely cautioned me to not let the technology get ahead of the message.  Not everything is suited for a podcast, no matter how long the long tail of content may be. 

Moving past the elements of production, distribution and placement on the website, I asked the folks at News Generation for some perspective on podcasting.  We use News Generation to produce audio news releases and audio media tours for broadcast on radio stations.  Our efforts have been very successful, but unabashedly mainstream media.

Lynn Medcalf and Krissy Rowan at News Generation clearly see a future for podcasting – the question is a matter of degree.

Lynn, more my demographic, sees podcasting in a more evolutionary light, recognizing the new need to stay abreast of new technologies to supplement traditional radio broadcasting.  Krissy, an enthusiastic Generation Y'er, does not hesitate to call podcasting revolutionary.  Where Lynn looks to podcasts for a source of compelling information, Krissy highlights their entertainment value.  

Where they both agree is that podcasting technology is not new.  MP3 technology has been around for years; what is different is the distribution mechanism and the role that RSS feeds are playing in getting audio files into the hands of listeners who can listen to podcasts at their leisure.

Clearly, podcasting does present a challenge for PR folks.  For one, with radio, it is a heck of a lot easier to track usage.  Radio stations and Arbitron ratings can slice and dice your audio news releases into when they were broadcast, how they were used, who listened and how many heard them.

With podcasting, you can track downloads, but you can never be certain who actually heard them or whether they were actually listened to at all.  

Podcasting has the potential to fragment audiences still further, as individuals will have infinitely more news sources to select from.  The day when the public shares the same body of news at the same time is becoming more and more elusive.

On the other hand, podcasting presents an opportunity.  Despite the massive consolidation within the industry and the standardization of radio formats, podcasts have the potential to force stations to introduce new ways of delivering the news.  Stations will need to be innovative to keep up with the expanding number of  inexpensively produced podcasts.  If nothing else, YouTube is definitely demonstrating the popularity of non traditional entertainment and formats.  

As our experience with the Podshow taught us, listeners want their podcasts to have a unique sound and feel.  That same expectation may spill over into radio broadcasting and require program directors to change their tune so to speak.

Podcasting is certainly not going to replace traditional radio.  As Lynn points out, radio has been tremendously resilient in adapting new technologies and modifying formats to meet changing audience tastes.

Ironically, in an age of new or social media, it is still radio stations that are sources of immediate interaction.  Call in shows, listener interviews, and polling allow listeners of a similar demographic to share a common live experience together.   That still remains very appealing to a younger generation tethered to iPods listening to recorded broadcasts by themselves. 

Let me get back to you.