Fresh Air, Podcasting and Standing for Something

I want to note that the Public Radio program "Fresh Air" has rolled out a podcast of their program in the last few weeks, one of the first "tentpole" media properties to throw their bread and butter into this medium. While other traditional media brands are wading cautiously into the web, this NPR program looked at where their value was and decided that podcasts weren't going to undermine their offering. It's another sign of the blurring of traditional media and the Internet.

Fresh Air is an interview show. For a heck of a long time it has been produced in Philadelphia, syndicated by National Public Radio and picked up by hundreds of NPR affiliates around the country. But the means of delivery (syndicated, over-the-air radio) isn't what it's about. It's about a being a great forum for interviews conducted in a non-commercial environment. That can be delivered by a radio station, a web site or a podcast.

True, some NPR affiilate stations may be a little nervous about audiences bypassing them, but that's not for consumers to be concerned with. We just want our Fresh Air, and so long as there is an audience it will be a show that keeps getting produced.

The question for media brands (CBS, NBC, MTV, NPR, The New York Times, Yahoo, etc) needs to be: what do you stand for? What audience are you trying to reach? Take a step back and understand this--- maybe they way you've done it for 20 years needs radical change.

So go ahead, subscribe to this podcast. It's a great program, one that has the capacity to surprise you, and a wonderful introduction to this new medium for the uninitiated. While I rode the bus around San Francisco today I learned about Ken's Burns new project "The War," and Doris Kearns Goodwin's fairly recent book "Team of Rivals." All great stuff.

More to come on this concept of "tentpole" media properties.