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February 27, 2006
The perils and opportunities of podcasting
Just sat in on a session in which Cameron Reilly, Alex Zaharov-Reutt and Anthony Caruana tried to convince half a room full of PR people that they should be paying more attention to podcasting. The fact that they first had to explain to most of them what podcasting is, indicates the dimensions of their task.
What occurred to Bleeding Edge, as Cameron in particular outlined his theory that broadcasting represents nothing more than a momentary blip in mankind's instinctive need to grab a cow horn and have a conversation with anyone willing to listen, and that podcasts will provide us all with a conversational cow horn - sorry, we added that bit about the cow horn - is that some people might be barking up the wrong tree.
According to Cameron, a podcast on llama breeding could well capture an international audience of llama-breeding enthusiasts, which made us wonder whether the boy's mind has been damaged by too much of G'day World. We may be misquoting him [and if so his "Cameron Reilly" search daemon will seek us out and correct us - but it seemed to us that he was suggesting that podcasting must succeed because it strips away the barriers to entry that have previously frustrated those who would like to have a conversation with the world, if only they had either a radio licence, or a bigger cow horn.
As we attempted to explain to Cameron, there is far more effective barrier to entry, and it's neither financial nor technological. The real barrier to entry is that the human mind is a gatekeeper, and it tends to block out those things which it does not find either informative or entertaining. Including podcasts on l'ama breeding.
On the other hand, we're sure that companies which display the same vision as BMW did in paying great directors to produce a series of short movies on their cars, and distribute them on the Internet, could do themselves, and the podcasting audience, a great favour, by paying people to produce short, but imaginative podcasts.
There are, and will continue to be, some great amateur podcasts, but we're sure that their audience is being decimated by public radio podcasts. We love podcasts - although we still can't hack G'Day World - but we wonder if its destiny might ultimately prove to be little more than an asynchronous channel for broadcast radio. Especially if, like Cameron, they insist on inserting commercials. We anticipate Cameron's response will arrive within minutes.
Posted by cw at February 27, 2006 04:45 PM
Comments
well perhaps not minutes, but 24 hours....
As I have said again and again, podcasting is just people talking. And I know you find it hard to believe, but journalists are not the only the people on the planet who have something interesting to say. Now, what gets said on TPN's podcasts might not be interesting to a bloke like you, but there are a couple of hundred thousand people who seem to find them interesting enough to keep coming back each month. Add in the other 30,000-odd indy podcasts out there, and I'd guess there's perhaps a couple of million people tuning in at the moment. And, as you said, most people still don't know podcasting even exists.
You know, reading you pooh-pooh podcasting reminds me a little of Saddam's minister "Comical Ali" denying that Bush's troops were storming Baghdad...
Posted by: Cameron Reilly at February 28, 2006 11:24 PM
Cameron: "Reading you pooh-pooh podcasting reminds me of 'Comical Ali'."
[SIGH] It's a poor advocate who tries to twist his opponent's words to suit his purposes, rather than countering the argument. Likewise, the constant application of the label of "journalist" [equating to idiotic/short-sighted/biased or whatever pejorative you wish to apply, lacks intellectual force.
I write, "I love podcasting", you say I pooh-pooh it.
You say podcasting is just people talking. I say if it is just people talking, then a mere handful of people will be prepared to listen to the conversation. Even fewer if it's intro-ed and outro-ed or interrupted with a commercial plug.
My view is that the world of radio, and particularly public radio (the variety that doesn't have commercials), has already taken the lion's share of podcasting's audience, and your business model, and your sloppy standards, will only accelerate that trend.
[Although I do say there are commercial opportunities, if they display the brilliance of BMW's online short films.]
You roll out figures to support your suggestion that your audience equates to that of commercial radio networks, but in my view, the arithmetic is dodgy. Spread them across the total number of podcasts you're offering, and the audience is minute.
I'm trying to have a debate with you, Cameron. I'd be delighted if you were to convince me that I'm mistaken. I do you the courtesy of advancing an argument. A sneer or two, and the odd swear word doesn't, in my opinion, constitute a valid response.
Posted by: cw at March 1, 2006 08:25 AM