Today PodZinger announced its first partnership with a nationwide network radio broadcasting company. Entercom Communications Corp. is now using PodZinger to power search capabilities on two of its Boston radio stations, WRKO-AM and WEEI-AM, allowing its listeners to search for specific content in previously aired broadcasts.
Although the venture establishes Entercom Boston as an industry leader, being it is the first broadcast radio network to utilize PodZinger’s innovative technology, similar cross-media partnerships are becoming an up-and-coming trend among traditional medium outlets. But with the Internet playing such a powerful role in most people’s daily lives, conventional media will eventually have to come up with original ideas to maintain a loyal customer base.
Just last Thursday, The Economist ran an article titled, “Who Killed the Newspaper?” discussing the steady decline of it and citing it as the type of “old” media that has the “most to lose from the Internet.” It cites Philip Meyer’s book “The Vanishing Newspaper,” which calculates that the newspaper will officially die in 2043. In response to that decline, the article says classified ads are shifting online and more stories are being targeted to a younger audience. At the end of July, research group Nielsen Analytics, produced a study reporting that more than 9 million Internet users in the U.S. downloaded podcasts in the last month, and 38 percent of the 1,700 participants said that because of podcasts, they now listen to the radio less. Entercom integrating podcasts into its business is one way that radio broadcast networks are reacting to the change.
It’s exciting to see how new-age technology is being incorporated into mainstream media. I must admit though, one of my favorite Sunday rituals is making a cup of piping hot coffee, listening to relaxing music and reading the paper, so I’m glad the “official” death of the newspaper is not anytime soon!
