Are Podcasts Dead?

April 7, 2008 by Jonathan 

In case you didn’t know, I’ll be in Las Vegas Sunday-Wednesday for the NAB conference (National Association of Broadcasters). The Reynolds Institute at the School of is sponsoring my trip so that I can present Contributr to the masses. (Let’s hope Contributr is ready, more on that tomorrow!)

As I was looking through the available sessions trying to schedule myself into some I noticed a recurring theme, . Now I hate to rain on anybody’s parade but aren’t podcasts dead? Haven’t they been deemed not conversational enough?

I mean sure, we all are subscribed to a few in iTunes, but how often do you actually listen to one? Let alone actively look for more? I know I don’t. I’ve moved on, I’ve moved on to try to create and examine the semantic web. And podcasts just don’t fit into that very well. They may not be static in location but they are certainly static in . One you publish an episode to a it just sits there… and people listen to it… but what else? What’s the extra step? … Well I just can’t seem to find it.

So you might imagine my disappointment when I am going through the NAB sessions schedule and see multiple sessions on each day, and only 2 or 3 sessions on ‘’ total for the entire conference.

Is this where is? Is this what the folks think is hot? Haven’t they found Twitter, haven’t they found Facebook, haven’t they found that conversations are the latest and greatest things to hit the web?

Apparently not, and in my with Jen Reeves it seems that the ‘industry’ is doomed to be 5-years behind as she puts it. Here I am creating wikis, daily, coming up with user generated solutions, enhancing new- workflows, and creating around my own life and here is the Industry just now trying to figure out .

There’s disconnect somewhere. That disconnect is what is holding back and the in general, they’re not in touch with what consumers are using for.

As all of my recent posts do, I’ll link this one to my current -search. There are quite a few web editor and producer jobs out there. Frankly, they’re almost a dime a dozen, realize they need to staff “the web” so staff “the web” they do. But where is the innovation? Where is the commitment?

Part of the struggle I have faced in my search is that there’s plenty of work to be had out there, but very few newsrooms and very few people “get it”. It takes more than just repurposing from your printed or broadcast TV show onto the web anymore, that’s just not enough. People want to have , they want to change, edit, manipulate, share, and copy your precious . Are you willing to see what your public can do for you?

That’s the of . Don’t just talk to the public, let the public talk to you. If you “get it” , call, IM, or @jdcoffman me. I’m listening, are you?

Possibly Related posts:

  1. When A Podcast Isn’t Just A Podcast
  2. A New Media Mindset
  3. Unified Reporting?
  4. Why Life Has Been Crazy: My Huge Job Announcement
  5. Convergence of the Future

Filed under: Blog, Convergence Journalism, New Media, Personal Topics, Social Media, Traditional Journalism
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