Georgia Podcast Network

Via an email from Spacey Gracey, I was asked to answer a question posed by Dan Greenfield, corporate communications director for Earthlink. On his blog Bernaise Source, he asks, "What was (were) the most notable PR/marketing social media trend(s) or event(s) in 2006 and why?"

As the 800-lb. broadcasts are wrestled to the ground and pricked to death by millions of pint-sized narrowcasts, the trend I see arising on an epidemic scale is the waning ability to fund media ventures with advertising revenue. Advertising with traditional media companies has become as fashionable as any movie starring The Coreys, and no one has really figured out how to make money with newer forms of media.

Hear the sucking noise from newspapers...

Sites like eBay, Monster.com and Craigslist are killing the newspaper classified ad business. Even if they weren't, newspaper circulation saw its sharpest circulation drop in 15 years during the past six months, which means that newspapers would do just fine killing advertising revenue on their own without help from those sites.

Hear the sucking noise from television...

Tivo and other DVRs are projected to suck $600 million from TV ad revenues in 2007. That doesn't sound like a big piece of the $46 billion TV ads pie, but it should be noted that $600 million would be a 100 percent increase over the year before. That number will hit the multiple billions in a few years, and the explosion of Internet video isn't going to help either.

And wait for the sucking noise from terrestrial radio...

Terrestrial radio ad revenue was flat last year, while the number of podcasts exploded, and are projected to grow from 840,000 in 2005 to 56 million in 2010. Terrestrial radio is a dinosaur standing in the way of an oncoming comet.

So, old media's revenue stream is dying. Now what?

Every time I've asked a media company how they're going to make money on these emerging technologies, I'm answered with a shrug and/or an "I-dunno."

If I knew the answer, I'd be rich right now. Amber and I have a few ideas we plan to test out in the next year or two, and we would of course love to hear yours.

See also: Responses from Griftdrift and Grayson. I'll add more to this list if you email them to me or leave links in the comments.

For any suits out there wondering why you should care about podcasting, here's a clue:

Podcasting and blogging are two of the most effective tools for generating sales leads in the technology industry, according to a survey of technology marketing executives.

When asked, "Which offers are 'very effective' for generating high-quality leads?" marketers in all three areas studied - technology services firms, and business software and hardware - put Blog and the Podcast in the top five.

About a quarter of those surveyed considered podcasts "very effective" tools for generating leads.

The information comes from Marketing Sherpa's annual survey of business technology marketing executives. About 1,900 responded to the survey.

Via Podcasting News

Just an update post for those who have been asking - we do plan to offer podcast services to businesses, non-profits, whomever in the not-too-distant future. However, before jumping feet first into this aspect of the Georgia Podcast Network, we want to have a solid business plan in place. This will take some in-depth planning on our part - neither of us is one to serve up half-baked ideas - and also some trial and error. We hope that by the end of the summer, we'll be ready to start accepting clients. (And hey, if it happens sooner, then everyone can just be impressed at our lightning-fast time to market!)

In the meantime, if you have questions or are interested in incorporating podcasting into your organization in any way, don't hesitate to contact us. That's what the info@gapodcastnetwork.com email address is for!