Frank Barnako


  • Untitled Document I've been at the birth of three dot-coms: Quincy Jones' Q Radio, USATODAY.com and CBS MarketWatch. I started writing the "Internet Daily" column for MarketWatch in 1998.

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Morning News 'Pack-o-Podcasts'

Frontpage75 Listening to music or an iPod while you run is nothing new.  Millions of people do it.  Even my minister. I know because I gave him an iPod for Christmas last year. And I virtually gave up radio while commuting, in favor of hearing podcasts using a cassette-adapter in the car. 

Now I’ve gone a step further. Well, several thousand steps further. On my morning run, I catch up with the overnight news via podcasts.  I stack up a few favorites that total about 25 minutes. I created a “Morning News” Smart Playlist on my iPod so that when the shows download they go into that folder. It's easy then to  sync them to my Shuffle.   

My morning “pack ‘o podcasts” is:

    So far, I haven’t been able to find a good Sports update.  Anyone have a suggestion.

These short-form podcasts, from reliable and specialized information providers really give new meaning to the phrase “News on Demand.”

Scoble hopes to do 'a Charlie Rose'

Robert Sounds like Robert Scoble's getting ready to spend some of PodTech.net's VC money on plane tickets.  In a conversation at the AlwaysOn summit, Scoble told Beet.TV he will begin producing a long-form Internet TV interview program.  He hinted his goal is have the show viewed on TV sets, rather than small iPod-size devices.  Small screens are fine for YouTube.com-type content, he said, like "Kids skateboarding off a building and videotaping themselves.  I'm not going to compete with that."

With the cost of video equipment and distribution dropping, Scoble said producers have to ask themselves, "How are you going to stick out?  That's going to require a little more thinking about the device you're going to distribute your content to, and then what kinds of content you shoot."

Scoble is taking a cue from his blog's readers.  "They told me to do something outside the Valley.  What's important in China? or in Europe?  After all, Skype was developed in Estonia and if you're not watching, you're going to miss it."

Scoble told Beet.TV he likes doing interviews similar to those he produced for Microsoft's Channel 9 . "I want to go into offices and homes and have a Charlie Rose' conversation." He hopes to launch the shows next month.

Nerd This sounds a lot like what Robert X. Cringely's NerdTV, a series of lengthy one-on-ones with tech gurus, icons, and entrepreneurs.   Cringely's site says another series of shows was to debut in "early summer" with a "super secret" guest.

Scoble's' wrong if he thinks it's the people he interviews who will differentiate his video show from thousands of other tech podcasts out there.  "Guests" will show up anywhere when the red light is on; the more ambitious they are, the quicker they'll smile for the camera.  What WILL make a difference is Scoble's personality. If he is interesting, people will watch.

Who would you like to see host a tech TV show? Post your suggestion.

Apple extends deal with Audible

Adbl Audible Inc. (ADBL) will continue to be the exclusive source for audio books and book-related spoken word material through the Apple iTunes Music Store (AAPL) under terms of a four-year agreement announced Monday morning. Audible first began distributing digital audio content on iTunes in October of 2003.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Audible said it will "seek ... confidential treatment of certain portions of the Agreement."

Audible's content includes 16,000 audio books and book-related content.  Also included in the deal are paid podcasts, lectures, speeches, radio programs, language instruction, children’s stories, and religious programs.

In an e-mail about the deal CEO Don Katz said "This has been one of those partnerships that works – on a technology development, hardware sales, and digital audio download plan."
 

Obviously, this is a good deal for Audible.  The prospect of not having this kind of distribution could have been fatal.  The agreement is likely to put to quench speculation Apple would acquire Audible.  That kind of talk helped drive Audible stock to $18.60 last fall.  Shares began trading Monday morning from $7.60.

This announcement also looks like bad news for Citigroup's down-grading Audible analyst.

What other audio or video content would you like to see iTunes offer? Post an answer.

 

Why Anthony Bourdain cooked up podcasts

Almost 3,000 miles from the book capital of the world, a small Canadian company is using the Internet to compete with the industry's giants.

Raincoast Books publishes as many as 50 books a year for the Canadian market.  One of its current offerings is Anthony Bourdain's latest, "Nasty Bits." Monique Trottier, Raincoast's Internet marketing manager, has overseen the small company's use of the Internet to promote the book.  That included production of a series of podcasts with Bourdain, taped during a promotional tour in Canada.  The last of three episodes has just been posted.

Other publishers are using podcasts, too, Random House and Simon & Shuster's SimonSays among them.  Even book stores are producing files of in-store book signing sessions

Podcasts have enabled Vancouver, B.C.’s Raincoast to generate awareness for its authors in non-traditional channels, just like larger companies.  "We can insert books into other conversations, which is kind of what happens at cocktail parties anyway," Trottier said. "Someone will ask, 'Oh, what are you reading?, ' Well, I'm reading this.' 'Oh, have you heard about Anthony Bourdain's podcast?"

Using traditional media, "is not very exciting or measurable,” she said. “You know how many people subscribe to the newspaper, but you don't know how many saw your ad.  With a blog or a Web site, or a podcast, you know how many people were exposed to your message.”  Trottier said promotional dollars for online are coming from print budgets.

“I don't see the Raincoast podcasts as a replacement to mainstream media,” she continued. “I see them as an augmentation to the existing book coverage on radio, TV, and print. More people are gravitating online after hearing a book recommendation from a friend, or listening to a radio interview with the author, or seeing a TV spot.  I want to make sure they can find what they're looking for, including the extras like a podcast, a chapter excerpt, an interview with the author.”

Of course, it all comes down to, did we sell more books, Trottier agreed. When she looks at the combination of promotional tactics for Bourdain, which also included a blog, "It was more successful than I expected."

The New York chef's podcasts are the fourth such project Raincoast has undertaken.  The shows are produced for Raincoast by At Large Media of Vancouver.

Business podcasting: Plesser's plan

Beet
Andy Plesser is hoping to stand on the shoulders of Amanda Congdon, Robert Scoble, and the producers of "Ask a Ninja."  They've shown video blogs can attract an audience.  He hopes his new vlog business can, too.

Plesser is a veteran public relations man in New York City, who's worked with clients including Wired, Salon, and CNET Networks.  So he knows the impact and power of television.  And as a guy who's worked with new media, he knows its power too, specifically the impact of blogs.

A few months ago, Plesser decided to try it himself. He launched Beet.TV, a five-day-a-week video blog featuring interviews with VCs, new- and old-media journalists, podcasters, and tech industry analysts.  It started almost as a hobby, Plesser said in an interview.  Now he thinks it's his firm's next big business opportunity. Using consumer video equipment, and grabbing interviews at conferences (which Plesser may also produce), and mining relationships developed over several decades, Plesser's blog has become part of a morning site scan for media types.

His attending Vloggercon in June gave Beet.TV a big traffic boost.  Plesser learned about Robert Scoble's ankling Microsoft and blogged it.  That spiked traffic which, this chart shows, put the vlog on a lot of RSS readers.

It is, however, more than a hobby now, Plesser says. It's a "proof of concept."  He considers Beet.TV a template for the next big thing in public relations. "It's the first vlog to cover a vertical business or industry."

The second such vlog is already up, produced by him for one his firm's existing clients, the Fordham Law School.  LawClinic.TV uses the same template as Beet.TV, same format to profile how students learn about the law, ... video clips and a few words.  Another vlog for MIT's Technology Review is going to launch next month to cover tech in academia and business. "Producing something like this on their own would have been difficult," Plesser said.

Creating these next-generation vlogs has not been as simple as picking up the camcorder and showing up at a mixer.  Plesser says the level of quality has to be kicked up when you're doing it for clients.  Viewers expect it and, certainly, the folks paying the bills do, too.  So he hopes to raise investment money to bolster facilities and staff.

It seems likely there will also be big competition.  Firms like SmartBrief Inc., a Washington, DC based publisher of industry newsletters, is a likely candidate to leverage into this channel.  Other b-to-b e-mail publishers and even bloggers are candidates, too.  And other p.r. firms will surely get into it.

Plesser sounds confident. "As a public relations executive with 25 years of experience, I understand crafting original, creative communications programs. My firm understands the imperative of customization," he said. "Cookie cutters don’t work."

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Listen to Plesser talk about business and "vertical" video blogs.