Going Beyond Text: Podcasting & Videocasting

The podcasting/vidcasting panel featured:

• Eric Schwartzman, iPressroom - MODERATOR
• Zadi Diaz, video correspondent, Rocketboom; group organizer, Current TV
• Nicole Simon, European podcast expert, Bloxpert
• Eric Rice, Co-Founder, Audioblog.com
• Marcus Chan, San Francisco Chronicle

Schwartzman:  the product of media is your attention.   The goal is to aggregate that attention & sell it to advertisers.

Chan:  It's telling when you hear the word innovative and newspapers in the same sentence.  We are the definition of old media.  (Ex.  He is talking about hot wax machines and exacto knives.) In Feb 2005, we produced our first podcast.  We wanted to write a story about how easy it is to podcast.  The writer shared the process with me, and the bells went off.  We have an editorial staff of 400.  What if we leveraged our editorial might in a different medium? Think outside the news rack.

The answer from our online group was "No."  We said we'd do it anyway.  Did it offsite, without approval.  We wanted to reinvent ourselves.  Wanted to freshen up our resumes.  For several months, we just worked off site.  Using Blogger an iBook, Garageband.  It cost nothing -- just the company time, which they didn't know about.

When we got positive feedback from listeners and online, then we told management what were doing.  They said:  "Great, let's do it paper wide.  From all corners of the paper."

Put out 6 to a 12 podcasts a week.

Podcasting has been great entry point for old media guys to enter new media.  It's less foreign; they get radio.  100 of the 400 person staff have been directly involved in podcasting.

Simon:  People are reachable now.  That's what the new media is about.  It's not about mass media.  You might get only 50 downloads.  But those people are eager to hear interviews with people who are smart.

Remember, I'm your customer, too.  Even though I'm in Europe, I will watch your site, listen to your podcast, recognize your brand.  Think about the international applications here.  Everybody has something to tell & sell.  Interviews make it palatable, listenable.  Cost effective way to bring out your message.

Rice:   I make media for one person:  my son.  But I also want as big an audience as possible.  It sounds so weird, how does my accoutning firm get on an ipod? Eveyrone has something to teach.  'How to content' is great.  It's the easiest thing you can do.  It's a myth that we're not into learning about productrs, watching ads.  I collect things on my iPod.  Music videos, etc.  I wetn ballistic when that store opened.  Also citizen media.  Like Zadi's piece on Hurricane Katrina.

Or the 'Here's to the crazy one's' ad.  I've got the message, but I still collect propaganda.  Look culturally for your opportunities.  We are so pounded with corporate messaging, yet we sue people who do DIY tribute ads?  What is up?  People will celebrate your brands, and this is the device of the moment. 

It's all about iPods & Myspace right now.

Diaz:  While watching the hurricane coverage, she thought:   How could I help out as one person?  That's what a lot of vid bloggers tend to do.  They need an outlet to express themselves.  Citizens can have an impact, can produce good, even if they don't have the super special effects.

Her video:  When September Ends

Rocketboom is one of the first vid blogs to work on monetizing and making it sustainable.  Playing around with the idea of having advertising but not alienating viewers.  What's best?  Put ads up on eBay for sale.  40k for one week of ad time.  Earthlink came and matched that.  So, they are showing you can make money with this format.  They are a petri dish right now. 

Comments

[Eric Schwartzman]

Thanks for blogging our panel, but just from the record, the first quote about the media and attention was mine, not Eric Rice's.

[Brian Oberkirch]

Eric: thanks for the comment. Fixed that reference. Great job with the panel. Good stuff.

[Eric Schwartzman]

Thanks Brian. I appreciate it.