New Tools

It was tough to miss the iPhone software update, but the podcast-listening updates were a bit under the radar: e-mail a podcast, scrubbing, and listening speeds that range from 50 percent to 200 percent of normal.

I wish there were some finer gradations for the listening speeds and I still would like to see bookmarking. But overall, it was a win for podcast listeners.

Q+A: Brian Preston, Money Guy

When it comes to money, it's hard to know who to trust these days—just spend a couple of uncomfortable minutes watching Jon Stewart take down Jim Cramer if you need a reminder.

I've often turned to sources like the Wall Street Journal, Kiplinger's, and the New York Times to figure out how to spend, save, and invest my money. But for deep, detailed stories on important but often complex financial issues that almost all of us have to deal with (insurance, buying a house, saving for college), there's no better podcast source than Brian Preston's Money Guy Show.

I've raved before about his dead-on, incredibly nuanced advice before (you can read my review here), and he's been gracious enough to answer a few question for Atomic Podcasts.

Read on to find out what he's got to say about the "Wild West" of podcasting days, the silver linings of this financial crisis, and the important financial topics the media still aren't covering, despite their unending discussions about money and the economy.

When and why did you start podcasting?
I started podcasting in January 2006. I owned an iPod and had the same feeling about it as I did when I purchased my first DVR/Tivo unit. I knew this technology would revolutionize the way we listen to music and talk radio on-the-go. No longer would we be tied to listening to our favorite radio personality from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. daily. We could now listen when we had an open spot in our schedule. During the same period, my firm was growing and I noticed many of the people that called asking about my firm's services were not a good fit. However, I knew that good, honest, and objective advice was really needed and the podcast medium seemed like a natural fit. At the time it was much like the Wild West with only mom and pop broadcasters like me creating content. It has only been in the last 18 months that corporate America has taken over the podcast arena.

By most podcasting standards, you've been hugely successful—particularly considering that you're not affiliated with a big media corporation. What do you attribute that to, and what advice do you have for aspiring podcasters who just getting started?
Content, content, and more content. As you noted in your review of The Money Guy Show, our graphics are not exactly cutting edge (the apple in the cover shot), and we do not have the marketing arm of a corporation. However, the love, research, and content we put into each show somehow connects with our listeners. There are quite a few podcasts that look better than ours, but they do not have the staying power because the passion for the content is not there. I truly love discussing personal finance, and I am just happy that I found a career that allows me to get paid to discuss how to save money and make good financial decisions. For any aspiring podcasters, I would tell them to make sure they have a passion for their content, and that they are willing to have the patience for a loyal audience to grow. Grassroots podcasting is not for those looking for immediate attention and feedback. It is a long slow process that can be very fulfilling.

The economy and personal finance issues are hot topics in the media these days, but is there anything you feel that is not being covered sufficiently?
Most of the business networks only discuss trading patterns of individual stocks and recent market trends. It would be nice if more emphasis was put on good personal finance decision making. For example, how do you shop for insurance, cars, and making good cash flow decisions? You also do not see too many positive stories about who is doing the right thing in these difficult times. Currently, it is hard to be a financial professional in these volatile times.

You're working in one of the gloomiest economic times in decades. Are there any silver linings you see right now for investors or consumers?
It is nice to see that basic financial concepts are becoming the norm again. For example, to buy a house you now have to make a down payment, and having savings in the bank is once again a necessity. With so many companies struggling to find buyers, there are some incredible consumer deals for those looking for about anything (homes, cars, stocks, and retail items).

What podcasts do you listen to when you're not working or creating your own?
PIMCO Investment Outlook with Bill Gross. Bill Gross is the Warren Buffett of the bond marketplace. The content can be very dry, but it is outstanding. Great Speeches in History. I know that I am a dork, but many things can be learned from history. ESPN: The Masters. last year ESPN did a video podcast series before the 2008 Masters Golf Tournament. Hopefully, they will continue that series in 2009.

Anything else you think readers should know?
We are completely redesigning the website as we speak. We finally found a consultant that understood the unique needs of a podcast website. The new site will continue to include unbiased, free, quality content on complex financial matters in a very easy to understand format. We are also introducing a Premium Content section that will allow members to develop asset allocation models based upon their personal risk profiles, access to current and past issues of the Wealth Report Newsletter, financial research with graphs, special podcasts with handouts, and educational videos. I know that it sounds ambitious, but I really do want our website and podcast to be a tremendous resource for anyone that is interested in personal finance.

Thanks, Brian.

Fortune's The Best Advice I Ever Got Review: Audio Successories

I know that Successories has plenty of haters, but I must confess: I can't get enough of them. The photos of bald eagles soaring through blue skies, rowers slicing through still waters at dawn, the aphorisms beneath powerful nouns like "leadership" and "teamwork"—love them all.

It probably helps that I don't work in an office environment, so the wide gulf between what the posters encourage what actually happens doesn't seem so exasperating. Certainly, that would help explain the popularity of Despair.com—one of my favorite posters of theirs is "You can't spell failure without a U R A.

But I digress. The reason I bring it up is that there was never really a podcast that epitomized the Successories mindset—until now. Fortune magazine's The Best Advice I Ever Got podcast very nearly fits the bill.

The bite-sized podcasts—usually about a minute or so—feature execs sharing pithy sayings about how they got to where they are today, usually along the lines of working harder, believing in others, or focusing on their strengths. It's fairly slickly produced, and has improved in recent episodes, with a few career highlights displayed before the speaker enters the scene.

To be sure, the insights shared here are not so detailed and profound that you'll be able to draw a straight line between your crummy cubicle and the corner office. But they're easy to watch, there's a catchy intro, and it's a fun concept. Other business publications might want to take their cue from Fortune and include some lighter fare on their podcast menus.

If you're looking for the tiny burst of motivation to finish up that last TPS report, The Best Advice I Ever Got may be the jump start you need.

Starter Podcasts: At the Airport Gate

Picking the right podcast in a given situation is as delicate a task as choosing the right music for a party. And while waiting for your flight at the airport is the ideal time to burn through a few episodes, don't bother lining up your iTunes U philosophy class podcast or that hour-long show on refinancing your house.

Nope, at the airport gate you need something that will entertain you, that will distract you from all the annoying people you're sitting next to, and that won't engross you so much that you miss your boarding call. It's got to be something short so you can finish watching it before you get on the plane and have to turn off your electronic devices. And it's best if the podcasts are timeless. That way, you can download a good 20 or 30 episodes and watch them now—or a couple weeks later—without feeling like it's just old news.

Here are five that always make my list when I'm headed on a trip.

1. The Onion Radio News (audio) [My review here.]
   
2. The New Yorker Animated Cartoons (video) [My review here]. 
3. Best of YouTube (video) [My review here.]
4. 60-Second Psych (audio) [My review here.]
   
5. Dilbert Animated Cartoons (video) [Tragically unreviewed. It's rad, though. Trust me.]
   

Are there any podcasts you download specifically for traveling?

OMG, No WWII?

Well, this shouldn't provoke any outrage at all.

According to a recent story in the Guardian, if a new proposed curriculum gets passed, primary school students wouldn't have to learn about the Victorians or World War II.

What replaces those topics?

Children [should] leave primary school familiar with blogging, podcasts, Wikipedia and Twitter as sources of information and forms of communication. They must gain "fluency" in handwriting and keyboard skills, and learn how to use a spellchecker alongside how to spell.

The Guardian, 3.25.09

I'm all about encouraging the use of podcasting and other technologies, though replacing history lessons to do so seems unwise at best, at least from a political standpoint. Maybe I'm being too harsh, though: thanks to Twitter, they'll only have 140 characters to communicate their ignorance anyway.

Q+A: David Plotz, Slate Political Gabfest (+ Book Giveaway!)

A couple weeks ago, Slate editor David Plotz was in Minneapolis to promote Good Book, his new book about reading the bible from cover to cover. (Read to the end of the interview to find out how you can win a signed copy.) As a loyal listener to Slate’s Political Gabfest podcast—you can read my review here—I was eager to get him to talk about his role on the podcast.

Between 40,000 and 60,000 tune into the show every week, and it’s the most popular podcast for the online publication. According to Plotz, about a million Slate podcasts are downloaded each month.

We met in downtown Minneapolis on a snowy late-winter afternoon to talk about why he believes Gabfest listeners are worth 100 typical Slate readers, the challenges of a turning a profit on popular podcasts, and how journalists are going to have to adapt to a new-media environment. He also talked about an intriguing future giveaway on the show.

An excerpt of our conversation is below.

When and why did you start the podcast?
About three years ago. It was just something to try—it wasn’t intended to be me and John [Dickerson] and Emily [Bazelon] doing it. It was going to be a bunch of different lineups. Gradually, because we were all in the Washington office and were very good friends, it all gelled, but it took a while. There was a period of time, six months or something, when it was just a lot of different people doing it.

Can you talk about developing the tone of the show?
None of us, except John, were real aficionados of the talk shows or the cable chat shows. Insofar as we knew them, they seemed removed from the actual conversations that journalists really had.

We thought that the podcast would be a way to present some of that inner life of Slate to an audience. We are produced by Andy Bowers, who is a creator of podcasts. He was an NPR guy for 20 years. He understood, in a way we didn’t, the way people connect to voices. They make emotional connections. We thought it was like writing an article. We didn’t recognize that we were forming a bond with listeners. Gradually, over the last couple of years, we’ve realized that we are in a relationship with the people who listen to us. It’s been incredibly rewarding for all of us. We love to do it. I think it’s because it was a sense that we are actually communicating with people who love Slate and love what we do, and reaching them in a way that they really like.

The audience for podcast is much smaller for the audience for Slate—than an article we would write. On the other hand, it’s people who really love [Slate] and really want to be with it. Those are the best people to be talking to.

When did you realize that the podcast was getting really popular?
It’s been a gradual dawning realization. Over the course of the political campaign it really hit us. We did a [contest] where we decided that we needed a slogan. We asked for listeners to submit a slogan, and we got hundreds of entries. We realized this is a really great crowd. It was like oh, for every person who writes in, there are 10 or 100 who aren’t.

In the course of our lives, John, Emily, and I all have had occasions to do public appearances. We noticed that when we did public appearances that invariably the most fervent people at those public appearances, the people who’d come up and talk to us afterwards, were [Gabfest listeners]. We’d see them in Washington, but beyond that, in Chicago or Seattle or whatever, the same thing would happen. Even if that number, compared to to the size of the audience, is not huge, these are people who matter and want to be wih us. They are a great audience so we want to meet them .

Can you talk about some of your more memorable episodes?
I think that by far the most beloved parts of the podcast have been the parts where we’ve gone off script. It's pretty formatted. But sometimes things wander off. There was one memorable occasion where we’d finished the show, and Bill Smee, who was producing it, turned to Emily right as we finished and said "I can’t believe you said that about John Edwards [with regard to his affair]."

I think all of us realized about five minutes into the shouting that this was good. We’re glad that the tape is running. It was completely spontaneous. Emily was dismayed because she was cursing insanely. She didn’t really want everyone knowing how much she curses. I think people loved that connection. They loved seeing the sausage getting made.

It’s real. People feel like they know you.
I deeply, deeply, deeply value the emotional connection that we make with this audience. They are so smart. They are so engaged. I think for us, as a business, which we are first and foremost, being in touch with that audience [is important]. One pocast listener is worth 100 random other people, just because they will stick with us. They care what we say.

We're sponsored by Audible.com, so one thing we're probably going to do is record [Good Book] in house. We'll make it available [through Audible]—we'll give it to anyone who's a podcast listener—just as a little freebie. We haven't realized it, but this is our basic notion.

It must be nice to have a company like Audible on board.
One of the frustrations we had for a long time is that we sold really crummy ads against [the podcast]. It was all done through some service. We just thought: this is bogus. This is ridiculous. These are educated people, there are a good number [of them], and these are people who buy stuff. They have money and they like us and it’s insane that we don’t monetize that. [During one podcast] we said, look, we need an advertiser. Are you an advertiser? Come contact us. That got a great response. What happened was that galvanized our ad salespeople to get Audible on board.

Right. And as a part of every podcast, you guys talk about books you’re listening to through Audible.
As you know, the always-porous barrier between editorial and advertising is more and more porous. One thing we're working with, which I’m loving, is finding ways for us to sell what we are doing. I’m sure there are lines which I would find uncomfortable, but right now I feel like we are endorsing a product. It’s a product that we all use and we all like, and we’re glad to talk about it. Not only is there no shame in it, but given the environment, it's something that people have to do. I think all journalists are getting accustomed to the idea that there is no Olympian detachment in the business they work anymore. We have to do this. Our work is a business. I’m acutely conscious of this since I’m the editor, moreso, perhaps, than Emily and John are. We have to be willing to sell. If we don’t sell, we don’t have jobs. In the world we’re working, that’s one reason why I’m actively enjoying that our sponsorship is for that.

There are a lot of models out there right now for making money on podcasts: subscriptions, advertising, donations. Will you be making an Ira-Glass-style appeal for donors?
My publisher said we can’t do that, because we’re for-profit. It's different when you are not-for-profit. When you are not-for-profit, I think people think you can [ask for donations]. I’m not sure if they would resent having a tip jar. But I would like that tip jar.

I’d definitely chip in. Thanks, David.

*** Want to win a SIGNED COPY of David Plotz's new book, Good Book? Leave a comment by 3/31/09. I'll pick my favorite and mail the winner a copy. ***

Radio Active

National Public Radio hasn't had a history of being cutting edge, but a story in April's issue of Fast Company magazine suggests that these days, it's making all the right moves. Its bold move into digital media has been an unqualified success: some 14 million podcasts are downloaded each month.

Here's an excerpt from the feature, written by Anya Kamenetz:

[NPR] was the first mainstream-media organization to enter podcasting and often has several programs in the iTunes top 10. An open platform introduced last year allows listeners to mix their own podcasts and play around with NPR content—one fan built an NPR iPhone app.

Podcasts are just one of several digital methods they're using to connect with listeners, but it appears that it's the most popular.

And the results speak for themselves: newspapers, which have mostly resisted new media, have shed 11.4 percent of its audience in the past decade. NPR's audience has bounced up an impressive 95.6 percent. Its podcast audience is just the sort of youthful demographic they're hoping to appeal to: while the average radio listener is 49, the median age of a podcast listeneris 33.

The story certainly speaks to my experience: I'll be 33 in a few months, and I listen to NPR stories constantly—but almost never on the radio. Being able to mix my public radio podcasts the way DJs mix music is delightful—I can listen to whatever I want whenever I want, and it's what keeps me coming back. If only other media companies would take NPR's cue.