by Lee (Podango CEO)

Sometimes the stars align such that they become bright enough that I actually see them! So it is with these articles on new media and podcast advertising that caught my constant, wondering gaze at new media news. Or perhaps they are just amplified by one of my favorite echo chambers (ugly thought, but probably true)! Never the less, here are some recent articles that point up some relatively new numbers around new media advertising.
Podvertising To Grow Fivefold, But Remain Niche (by Gavin O’Malley, Monday, Feb 26, 2007 6:00 AM ET)

The Next Big Ad Medium: Podcasts - Advertisers will spend more than $400 million on podcasting by 2011, but they’re still not sure who will be listening to them (by Catherine Holahan)

The things that stand out for me are the relatively few internet users who are using podcasts regularly and the number of dollars projected and aligning those numbers with the numbers I know are being garnered by certain podcasters, which if included in the numbers sited here point up a power distribution of ad revenues among podcasters that is much fatter at the head than the distribution of listeners (if that makes sense). And what that tells me is that there is an opportunity to spread some of those dollars down the tail. What will it require? Here is my list:

1. “Podvertisers” will have to be given a reason to trust the long tail of podcasters.
2. Podcasters need help reaching up the tail for some of those dollars.
3. A long-tail advertising mechanism that spreads podcast advertising dollars down the tail can work (am I cheering Google on here?) if it can tie the content and ads close enough together.
4. Everyone will need to apply healthy measures of patience and hard work. This is a very young market, and will continue to behave like one for the next several years.

by Lee Gibbons, CEO

Podango is amazingly fortunate to have garnered the trust of Scott Bourne. With the announcement of Leo Laporte’s signing of a major TV deal, the TWiT.tv properties that Leo is not personally appearing on are finding other homes. (For more information (listen to episode 24 and 25 of the iLifeZone to hear Scott’s description of the TWiT situation.) Scott has chosen Podango as the new home for iLifeZone!

So, we welcome Scott, along with his co-hosts and guests, including amazingly smart folks like Chris Breen (Editor in Chief of Macword Magazine), Derrick Story (the Digital Story), Alex Lindsay (PixelCorps) (”permanent special guest”), Coleen Wheeler (O’Reilly) and others. Most importantly, we welcome the people who love the iLifeZone show. Good to have you all with us at Podango.

If you are unfamiliar with the iLifeZone and you are a PC user, don’t feel badly. But, if you are unfamiliar with the iLifeZone and you are a Mac user, you are seriously missing out. Give it a listen. I expect you are going to love the show. The quality of the coverage of all things Mac/Apple/iPod is terrific, and the personalities and chemestry will hook you.

Stay tuned for more announcements like this one! Podango is beginning to roll. For instance, check out the post by Chris Knudsen in this blog regarding how David Lawrence is leveraging the Podango platform to create a new blogging/podcasting service called The Latest At, covering the daily happenings at the web’s most popular websites. Check these out: TheLatest.AT/MySpace, TheLatest.AT/YouTube, TheLatest.AT/Facebook, TheLatest.AT/Perez Hilton, etc.

We’re excited to announce that David lawrence has just launched a new station at Podango. TheLatest.AT reports on the latest breaking news and top stories from the most popular websites including Amazon, eBay and YouTube with one minute daily podcasts. The one minute summary podcasts are condensed from daily blog postings which track the most up-to-date events on each site.

“The days of giving sixty or ninety minutes of your time to someone to get the news on your favorite websites is over. People crave more info in less time - they want efficient, fast paced, exuberant reporting from a fan perspective. Whether you’re into YouTube, MySpace, PerezHilton or the goings on at Hollywood and Vine, we’re going to give you The Latest At those sites, every weekday,” explained Lawrence.

TheLatest.AT currently tracks the most popular Search, Social Networking, Video, News, Games and Entertainment sites. Listeners can choose from any and all of these sites for daily coverage, delivered to them automatically:

• Yahoo
• MySpace
• YouTube
• Amazon
• PerezHilton
• Hollywood and Vine
• Ebay
• FaceBook
• Second Life

Welcome aboard, David!