Podcasting-Once a Hobbyist’s Medium-Now Turning Professional and Poised to Cash In

This week, the Nieman Lab begins a five-part series on podcasting by Ken Doctor: An Island No More: Inside the Business of the Podcasting Boom.

Podcasting is a form of online communication in which digital broadcasters upload files of audio content (many modeled on radio programs) for download by listeners. The form makes it possible for podcasters to go online with relatively low investment in equipment and to bypass expensive modes of delivery like radio broadcast time, instead posting files to self-run or third-party websites for download by listeners.

Though other subscription platforms are available, Doctor points out that Apple iTunes accounts for approximately 60 percent of all podcast downloads.

Part one in the series focuses on the big picture of podcasting, a form that has been around for more than a decade, but just recently is seeing increased interest from venture capitalists and would-be advertisers.

A related story at Nieman Lab by Joshua Benton suggests that podcasting is poised for a shift from a hobbyist medium to a more professional medium, similar to the shift that occurred with weblogging in the early 2000s. (Podcasting in 2015 Feels a Lot Like Blogging Circa 2004: Exciting, Evolving, and Trouble for Incumbents.)

Nieman Lab is a project of the Harvard University-based Nieman Foundation; the Lab focuses on the future of journalism in the 21st Century. You can subscribe to updates at their website: http://www.niemanlab.org/

Image: Pathfinder International, http://www.pathfinder.org/blog/womens-history-month-five-podcasts.html