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The truth is that podcasting isn’t profitable enough to support more than one or two major service companies. As far as we are concerned, Libsyn is the only game in town. They offer unlimited bandwidth and cost-effective hosting for audio and video based on the amount you upload and store every month – and they make a profit out of it. Through their parent company, Wizzard Media, they arrange sponsorship deals for podcasts. Wizzard is listed on the Nasdaq, and Libsyn seems to be a rare instance of a company that hasn’t lost its user-friendly start-up ethos after selling up to a bigger company.

Unfortunately, not many other podcasting service companies are going to survive the downturn.

There were to many good things to recount them all (and I’ve written the teachers who were there elsewhere). However, I think that two unconference sessions that worked very well were conducted by Alex Bellinger of Smallbizpod and Chris Vallance of Radio 5’s pods and blogs. They said relatively little and got the rest of the room to contribute as much as possible.

Alex’s session on ways to make money out of podcasting produced a variety of ideas – selling additional materials for an educational podcast, licensing content to third parties to be re-branded and re-used elsewhere, merchandise, and of course sponsorship. It seems to me that right now the UK podcasts with sponsors all cover business one way or another, even if their audiences aren’t necessary that vast.

Podcasters here are selling sponsorship and the basis of how targeted and influential their niche audience is – rather than on numbers of downloads. This is surely valid, but I think it’s going to take a while before a wider group of advertisers is convinced enough to stump up cash.

Chris’s session was really an audio workshop – he very modestly said that he’s learned a lot from podcaster and tries to implement what he’s picked up in Radio 5 broadcasts – a kind of natural, authentic, but maybe a bit rough round the edges feel. But above all, he was stressing a sensitivity to natural sounds.

It’s true, as Chris said, that a professional radio person can feel the weight of the corporation bearing down saying “conform”. But I also think it’s true that there are innovative radio producers and innovative podcasters. It takes all sorts.

When I was a producer the World Service, my presenter Roger White and I used to do a weekly business program with the stodgy name “Global Business”.  The name gives an idea of how the managers who set it up envisaged it turning out – long boring interviews with CEOs of Multinationals, Economists, and  Management Consultants.    We just ignored the hint.

We did all sorts of stuff which I think podcasters do now – including a panel of listeners from all over the world who took part by phone, packages mixed pretty much on location, me fluffing my words in my slots, and Roger taking the piss out of me.  We had a sig tune which at the time was considered very out of fashion. The tone was very informal. I also used all the freelance reporters that other programmes considered to be amateurish, but who I thought were creative, individual, and had real talent.

The powers-that-be didn’t quite know what to do with it – it broke all the rules but they couldn’t deny that it was entertaining. So they just cut and cut its budget, until eventually the department surrendered it to rival part of the BBC – and it became the sister programme of Radio 4’s In Business, which is of course very, very slick – and I would say formulaic. In Business has a much greater reputation than Global Business did – but I honestly believe that our programme was a lot more authentic.

Well I’ve digressed from podcamp, but sometimes you just have to let your thoughts wonder. That’s what a blog is for.

Just time to say that I really enjoyed talking to Neville Hobson, who is a true gentleman of the internet, and a great podcaster. I take my hat off to all the innovative things that he does with Shel on For Immediate Release. I did confirm that Neville’s a smoker, and I’m convinced that the dreaded weed does help cultivate a great broadcasting voice. Mind you, after all the free beers at the bar (thanks to the sponsors), my voice on Sunday morning had a certain gravel that it usually lacks.

Please don’t take offence if you are my best friend and your blog is not here. It’s just a demo of what OPML can do when it comes to organising stuff. Hope you are as impressed as I am.

The Tory leader will taking on Chancellor at the next general election. Currently, it looks like David Cameron is getting more buzz on searches than Brown, while Brown is getting more mentions in the news put out by the media. I think this trend tool is going to be useful.

See Nev’s comments section for British businesses (well a British branch of German business in one case), BMW, Thompson Holidays, Jamie Oliver/Sainsburys, who have got into the medium. Elswhere, GM, Mercedez, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Whirlpool are at it. It’s not too bad a list for an emerging medium. And let’s not forget Nev’s own excellent, Anglo/American For Immediate Release.

My prediction for the rest of 2006 – there are going to be quite a few more British Business Podcasts.

This could be bigger than the boy sold his pixels for $1m on his homepage.

Now we read that Penguin will podcast the unabridged audiobook of “A Christmas Carol”, read by Geoffrey Palmer, in five installments.

This is really David and Golliath. Our little Frog, Bertie (Storynory’s mascot) versus the mighty Penguin.

Penguin say of their podcast: “The first podcast to be launched by a major UK publisher. Launched 1 November 2005, featuring exclusive interviews, music and book extracts – visited by nearly 10,000 people from 60 countries.”

Well guess what, I don’t mean to boast, but on Tuesday Storynory received 1,400 unique visitors – and that’s just on one day. Not bad for a three week old frog. Maybe, just maybe, Bertie the frog will turn into a Prince quite soon.

Cheapflights is an internet phenomenon, which has 4 million unique visitors a month, and last year sold deals worth £525 million through its website. It’s greatly helped by the fact that “cheap flights” is one of the most searched for phrases on the internet, coming not too far behind “sex” and “Harry Potter.” It collects together numerous travel deals for users to compare, and then to click through and buy from travel agents. It gets paid pennies per click, but there are a lot of clicks.

Although it was founded right at the start of the dot.com era, back in 1996, it was done in a fashion that is true to the spirit of blogging these days. Travel journalist John Hatt set it up from his attic, and shunned the temptations of venture capital, Champaign, and caviar, sticking doggedly to his “cheap” but useful formula.

Its current owners have wisely hired British Blogger Craig McGinty, who has featured here on our France Vietnam podcast. Craig is a professional blogger who moved to a French village and set up his“This French Life” blog. He started another blog about low cost airlines, and caught the attention of Cheapflights.

I asked Craig to put some background together in an email. I’m being a bit lazy (and truly, I’m pressed for time today) and I am just quoting him in full. In any case, Craig can say it better than I can:

“I was asked by Cheapflights if I would be interested in helping them set-up their own version covering both the UK/Europe and the US.

“So over the past few months we have been developing the site so that it fits into the ethos of Cheapflights which is to provide up-to-date information about flights so people can make informed decisions.

“Naturally the blog-style site is perfect for this as we keep an eye on new routes and services being launched, interesting news stories and offer travel tips so that people can get the best deals.

“And that is one of the beauties of running the site with blogging software: we are using Typepad, and you can write about deals an airline may only have available for a few days yet it can be on the site within minutes.

“I am hoping that people will also become comfortable with using the comment facility, for example it would be great for readers to tell others about restaurants to visit in Berlin if CheapFlights features a story about new flights to the city.

“I am writing and editing posts as we have people from within Cheapflights and from outside writing the range of stories that are appearing on the site.

“Over time I am keen to feature more travel articles, in-depth news pieces and interviews of people within the industry, maybe offering their own travel tips!”

“So we want the new site to act like an ‘honest broker’ and provide our readers with the latest news, the best deals and a chance for them to help fellow travelers.”

I’m really pleased to see a British company getting into the full swing of blogging, and Craig is an excellent choice to help them do it .

Why are we so interested in Bertie and his podcast? Not least because Matthew and I are the the publishers of this little venture.

We’ve hired a tallented young actress, Natasha Lee-Lewis (who just happens to be Matthew’s niece) and we’ve spent the last couple of weekends recording stories including Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, and the Snow Queen. We aim to publish one a week from now on.

Natasha tells you about Storynory in this audio promo.

Not to be outdone by Matthew’s relations, I asked my cousin, Stephen Fowler, to draw Bertie the Frog with an iPod. If you listen to the stories, you will soon get the idea that Bertie used to be a handsome prince. In fact, each podcast begins with a little gossip about Bertie’s pond life. Our aim is to build up a brand.

If you have been following our blog here, it’s pretty clear that we are fascinated by podcasts, and we think they have huge potential. We are pleased to see the likes of Bloomberg and The Telegraph getting into podcasting, and making it more mainstream. BBC Radio 4 has already proved that there is a large and sophisticated iPod ready audience.

Our idea is to not try and emulate the immediacy of live radio, but to build up an archive and a library. Our stories will be just as valuable in a year’s time as they are now.

Nearly all our stories so far are out of copyright (except one written by Angharad Lynn, Matthew’s wife (this really is a family affair). We’ve launched with fairy tales by Andrew Lang, who collected hundreds of stories in the Victorian era. We’ve taken out a few long words here and there, but they seem work very well today. Perhaps they have a slightly old world charm about them. Other authors we have in mind include Oscar Wilde and Charles Dickens.

I’ve very much enjoyed the recordings, and I suspect that some adults will be secretly downloading storynories too. Natasha really does read them beautifully.

I have to admit, that the money side is more of a gut feeling than what you might call a business plan. We have advertising and affiliate links on the site, and we hope that parents will be tempted to click through to Amazon to buy children’s books or even iPods. Eventually, we will need commercial sponsorship for our stories.

Do drop by and say hello to HRH Prince Bertie the Frog at www. storynory.com