Podcasting is serious

I myself became interested in podcasting about a year and a half ago. And at once both as a listener and as a presenter. It is much simpler and more pleasant for me to perceive information by ear than from the screen, especially since the screen is far from everywhere, and my iPod Shuffle fits into the pocket for a lighter and connects to the car radio at the expense of “one”. Why am I doing this? And besides, podcasting is fast-paced in our lives :)

By the bicentenary of the project Vasily Strelnikov RussianPodcasting.ru , which initiated the Russian-language podcasting, a major shift occurred in runet. It lies in the fact that the mass of various projects launches podcasts . Basically they are of very good quality both in terms of sound and in terms of content. As a person who is often approached with questions about launching podcasts, I can assure you that the boom in podcasting is still to come.

Ahead and serious people with serious money. And if FT.com and WSJ.com have long appreciated all the delights of presenting their information in audio format, then on domestic soil one can count the editions that give convenient access to their media content on the ground. These include the NTV channel , Echo of Moscow radio station and City-FM . With radio and television, everything is simple: just cut a piece of air and put it on the Internet - the podcast is ready. In this form, it does not expand the audience, but makes access to information more convenient. Printing is another story altogether. Here we are talking about converting text into sound, and due to this - expanding the audience. Of the serious publications here, Vedomosti was the first . As the leading daily podcast of the newspaper (a subscription to iTunes , RSS ), I asked two of the most exciting questions for me to vedomosti.ru editor Viktor Saxon .
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What made Vedomosti organize such a not so popular distribution channel? Is it a tribute to fashion or far-reaching plans?

Technologically, Vedomosti on the Internet is trying to be ahead of other paper media, and we almost always succeed. It is nice to see how what was invented yesterday by us today is becoming the de facto standard in the industry. Of course, we do not do anything from a pure experiment. Now a part of our audience has a demand for this service. If in August 2006, those who would potentially be interested in the Vedomosti podcast were 16%, then after launch, 49% of the surveyed site users rated this service as “good” and “excellent”. Of course, we expect that further the proportion of users who will constantly listen to our podcasts will only grow.

What does the publication expect from the podcast? Should he attract new readers or is this a nod to the convenience of a loyal audience? Or is it a potential new advertising platform?

We do not create new projects if we do not see them as a business. If this business is working on the image of the publication in the eyes of readers, this is doubly good. From the podcast we get a lot of dividends at once. Firstly, this is a new channel for the dissemination of our information, and, therefore, more loyal readers and a fresh audience that cannot be covered in other ways. Secondly, this is a business project. Soon we will develop paid alternative ways to deliver a podcast, and with a sufficient audience, it’s possible that advertising will appear in it.

You do not need to be a rocket scientist to guess: Vedomosti’s successful undertaking will in the foreseeable future try to launch even those who now assure themselves and others that podcasts are not necessary. A podcast for any content-generating publication can be another profit item. But about how to make the podcast an additional profitable service, I will tell you next time.

Shl. Is it possible to consider all of the above as a self-PR? If desired, yes. But here I ask for indulgence to my little weakness, which is podcasting: just like rossomachin, some of us are obsessed with, say, microformats , and rosnovsky others - on podcasts;)