The LA Times and Seattle Times today both have good stories on Podcasting. According to a Google News search, the personal broadcasting craze has fully evolved beyond just buzz on blogs and in the tech trades into something that now the newspapers are fully taking notice of. The rapid growth of Podcasting makes me believe that audio, not text-based news, will perhaps play the biggest role in bringing RSS to the masses.
The LA Times notes that just a month ago the only podcast was ''Trade Secrets,'' a daily news-and-technology talk show co-hosted by podcasting's pioneers: former MTV VJ Adam Curry and software developer Dave Winer. In the four weeks since then, the number of podcasts has jumped to at least six dozen, while "Trade Secrets" has attracted 6,000 subscribers.
The story also has a good quote from Podcast evangelist, Doc Searls:
''One of the reasons that blogging succeeded was it didn't just lower the threshold of publication to zero, it made it as easy as e-mail. Earlier, you could construct a Web site, but construction was complicated. You had to hire a designer. Blogging software eliminated that need.''
Meanwhile, Seattle Times columnist Paul Andrews looks at the bigger changes that are reverberating through the radio industry right now. He also notes that geeks are going nuts over Podcasting, holding "podcasting parties" and exchanging all sorts of content.
Finally, Dan Gillmor (of course) was one of the first out with a podcasting column, which ran over the weekend.
My PR Predictions: Podcasting will land in the New York Times Circuits section by Election Day, CNN will feature it by mid-November, and others will race to cover it faster than you can say Steven Levy.
