Voxmedia Wire

ABC News and NBC News each plunged into the world of podcasting on Wednesday with plans to offer TV newscasts as on-demand audio programs over the Web. ABC News is now offering podcast versions of “Good Morning America,” “Nightline” and other programs via ABC News.com. The network is also creating several podcast-only shows… For its part, NBC plans to start podcasting hourly news updates from select cable and network programs in June. The podcasts will include highlights from prime time shows, including MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews” and “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”

ABC, NBC News launch news podcasts (ZDNet)

Apple Computer Inc. CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated a new version of iTunes here Sunday that adds a Podcast directory and one-click subscription… Apple plans to make it easy to find and subscribe to Podcasts via iTunes—it will take just a single click to subscribe to a Podcast once it has been located.

Apple’s Jobs Announces iTunes Podcast Support (eWEEK)

The personalized audio recordings, which can be heard on any digital music player, have given an outlet to marginalized experts and frustrated DJs alike. And media critic Jeff Jarvis says that’s the beauty of podcasting: Anyone can do it.

Come One, Come All: The Rise of Podcasting (NPR)

Advances in digital camera technology, 3G phones and the spread of broadband have spawned a wave of websites devoted to video diaries, amateur films and family events posted for the world to view. They are known as video blogs or vlogs, an advance on the craze for blogs: the 6 million web logs devoted to daily text diaries or political viewpoints currently clogging up the net.

Is this the way to Vlogging stardom? (The Times of London)

Call it Blogging 3.0. The Internet’s now-ubiquitous text-based Web logs and its audiocentric “podcasts” are being upstaged by newfangled video blogs consisting primarily of moving imagery. From Duluth and Minneapolis to Mikkelson’s downtown St. Paul digs, a new breed of bloggers is festooning sites with pithy, click-to-view clips. The local vloggers aren’t alone. Video bloggers across the country are proliferating to the point where big names in the tech and media realms have begun to take notice.

Can’t get your film funded? Vlog it! (St. Paul Pioneer Press)

Podcasting does some disruptive things to the established way of doing broadcast radio. First of all it enables anyone to be a “caster”: no licence, no regulator, no formats. All that’s needed is some basic home computing equipment… Secondly, and even more disruptively, podcasting destroys the broadcast model of appointment making with the programmes: a podcast starts when the listener wants it too, not when scheduled by the broadcaster.

In Pod We Trust (BBC World Service)

Something about blogs makes a lot of respectable journalists hyperventilate. News pros seem terribly threatened by online amateurs… In the intense competition for attention, bloggers have found new ways to give readers value. Journalists should be asking not what we can teach them but what they can teach us.

Mass Medium (Forbes.com)

Newspapers and magazines such as the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Philadelphia Daily News, Washington Post and Forbes have started podcasts in recent weeks. Their programming varies widely. Some simply summarize the day’s news, while others aim for more of a radio-show feel with interviews of reporters and newsmakers. A few provide clips from professionally recorded radio programs, but most of the podcasts are low-budget, low-tech affairs hosted by print journalists who often have scant broadcast experience. Some publications want to be ahead of the curve on podcasts because they felt they were behind in embracing Web logs, or blogs — Web sites in which writers discuss topics in a diary form. But, just as with blogs, it is unclear whether podcasts will become a commercial success or help newspapers gain readers.

Papers Turn to ‘Podcasting’ In Bid to Draw More Readers (Wall Street Journal)

BMI has become the latest music industry resource to embrace podcasting. The rights licensing agency is launching a series of podcasts called “See It Hear First,” which will feature new music by represented unsigned acts. Each month, BMI will select acts to include in the virtual showcase. The first podcast will feature music from Jetpack, Astaire, somedaynew and Brendan James. The podcast will be available on the BMI Web site, and pushed to record company executives through BMI’s monthly newsletter and e-mail blasts.

BMI To Introduce Podcasts (Billboard Radio Monitor)

Podcaster Nate Fulmer is looking for work. Apparently, his podcast was too controversial for his former employer in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. While Nate was aware of the conservative views of some of his co-workers, he did not discuss his political or religious views with his co-workers. Di notes, “We had no warning whatsoever that our podcast could jeopardize his job, but he was cautious about not mentioning anything about his work on the show.” Nate lost his job at a laboratory supply company Friday afternoon, May 6th.

Podcaster Fired Over Podcast; Too Naughty for South Carolina (Podcasting News)