I’m considering a new, weekly feature that will be an audio podcast of the week’s top stories.
You might have heard me do this live on the KBOO Bike Show last week.
If you have a few minutes, I’d love to know what you think about this (listen below). If there’s a good response, than I will offer it every Thursday morning and folks can subscribe to it via iTunes, etc…
This might be something I only offer to paying members (coming soon), or maybe it will morph into full-blown radio show someday. I don’t know. For now, I’m just keeping it simple and reading a short, scripted wrap-up of the week’s top stories.
I think this might be a convenient way for some readers to access my content.
So let me know:
- Your (hopefully constructive) criticisms and feedback (if you think it’s cheesy, I want to know!).
- What else you’d like to hear in a news update.
- If you would subscribe to it via iTunes.
- If you think this is something I should offer each week.
Here’s the BikePortland News Update for the week of May 3 ~ 10:
[audio:newsUpdate5_10_07.mp3]
Download the MP3 file (3 min 31 sec, 3MB)
[Intro music by Connum from The Freesound Project.]
Thanks for your feedback!
Thanks for reading.
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post it on itunes….
dat
Audio would be nice but only if it wasn’t just a rereading of the articles, e.g. there were interviews, audio from events, etc. One of the best parts about bikeportland is the community dialogue. Of course, there are podcasts that sort of facilitate that as well (e.g. people submit audio and one person edits it together).
I agree with you Paul. Thing is, at this point I don’t have the time and technical capacity to create a full-blown radio show.
My thinking with this new feature is that people, who for some reason don’t keep up with the site and/or would rather hear news via their iPod, would have another way to access the information.
thanks.
I’m not a podcast fan, so it’s not something I would use. But I’m sure there is a market for something like that.
Oh, by the way, Jonathan — nice FRONT PAGE feature on you in today’s Oregonian. Nice one!
Well, I probably wouldn’t use it, because I check out the site so frequently. But I do listen to a lot of podcasts on my ride to work, and having them update in itunes automatically is a must for me.
I really think it is a great idea, and would use it if I didn’t have so much time to waste at work!
Abso-smurfly!
95%+ of the downloads for the KBOO bike show are via iTunes. You should have a non-iTunes feed as well, but definitely make sure it works well through iTunes.
I’d likely listen, but not if it was just old news. Weekly Podcasts seem better suited for in-depth analysis of an issue. Daily Podcasts can ‘almost’ keep up with the news (OPB’s QuickTake Northwest is a good example), but still not as quickly as a blog.
Take the Willamette Week for example; they simply cannot compete with the Web or daily print papers in providing a timely news source to readers, but they ‘can’ provide more in-depth analysis of specific issues that their readers may be interested in.
I support your Podcast idea and believe you could leverage others to assist in your venture. Additionally, a weekly in-depth cast would be much more attractive as a paid option than a basic retelling of daily news.
I live in Columbus, but I think it’s interesting to hear the news from other communities (and other parts of the country) because we can all learn from other folks.
I like the news, but I’d like to hear some feature and discussion as well.
You wanted the truth, so…even though I think it’s a lovely idea, I never get around to listening to my podcasts. I don’t know if I’m in the minority here, but for me it’s a harder medium because I have to devote a chunk of time to it (instead of dipping in and out as I have a moment when I’m already at the computer).
Now, it’s possible that a bikeportland podcast would change my mind, but you said you wanted our real opinions…
If you did a podcast I would probably listen. I currently listen to podcasts on my morning commute, e.g., KBOO bike show, the Spokesmen, as well as other work topic podcasts. If this was a daily service, then you would be “totally insane,” due to the time committment. I think your efforts are better spent covering, and rallying the bike culture. Repackaging print news into a podcast would be a waste of your time. A good use of podcast would be interviews.
thanks everyone for the helpful feedback. it’s clear to me that this type of podcast (a news wrap-up) may not be the best new thing to delve into right now.
I agree that interviews and other audio features would be much better. i need to make a technology investment to get better audio recording and editing capabilities. .. I look forward to experimenting more with rich media content (including video!) in the future.
Sometimes, I’ve thought that it would be cool to hear the articles while I’m working– parts of my job are sort of, well, menial (i.e. shuffle papers without needing to read the content) and I can do that while listening, no problem. 🙂
But, part of what I love about this blog is reading all the comments and discussion. So…. yes and no! 🙂
Sure, I’d listen to a podcast.
I use iPodder, not iTunes, to download
podcasts.
Several of the podcasts I listen to have
individual files for each story.
Examples are CBC’s Quirks and Quarks, and
Northwest Regional News. That might be
a good way to go, so listeners need only
download the stories they want.
It would be nice to have additional
material in podcasts that’s not otherwise
available from the Web site. Those
kinds of features could be offered
on an occasional basis.
Well since there is already a radio bike show, I would suggest something in print form instead. Really, it is quite surprising that that this town doesn’t have some kind of periodical that covers the many flavors of our bike culture. I’m sure others would join you to help produce this.