Week 5 reading

Since I love "The New Rules of Marketing and PR," I'm going to have to write my post about the reading for this week. I really enjoyed reading the steps on how to step up a podcast. It sounds so easy to do, yet I'm sure the cost of the equipment to make a podcast is fairly expensive; so not everyone could do it. I do agree with Scott's thought on show preparation and how this is one of the most important parts in setting up a podcast. I used to subscribe to the IndyCar podcast and although this was about a year ago, it seemed to be fairly sloppy and not organized. Yet, companies would benefit greatly from starting their own podcast and doing it right. Scott gives the example of the Student Loan Network and their podcast on financial aid for college students. No wonder this podcast and company gained such success because it's our generation that is powering social media!

Moving on to a more interesting topic posed by David Scott, which is the idea of podcasting surpassing radio. Although Scott says that broadcast radio is very different than podcasting, he also mentions the unique qualities that podcasting offers in comparsion to radio. Podcasting can essentially reach millions of people and doesn't have to stay within a limited geographic range, like radio. Radio also need a great deal of advertising to stay afloat, whereas podcasting does not. So the question is, will podcasting really replace radio? In an article by James Lewin, a UK study shows that those radio stations that embrace podcasting may actually increase their audience. Research firm Ipsos Mori found that "15% of people surveyed said they listened to more live radio since they began downloading podcasts, and 39% said they were listening to radio programs they did not listen to previously." This article and more statistics can be found by clicking on a UK study. Even though this study was conducted in the UK, I think that here in the United States our radio stations would benefit in a similar manner. I don't think radio stations will completely be replaced. I know that radio streaming on the Internet has increased as well as satellite radio, but I believe traditional radio will stick around, maybe not as strong as in the past, but just like newspapers radio will always be around in some shape or form.