Podcasting and Not One, but Two Associations

Posted by: Heather Green on July 24

Suddenly, the podcasting world has not one, but two new associations aimed at dealing with the new medium’s issues, including helping create standards for measuring traffic and creating ads. After the Association for Downloadable Media was created last week, another group, called the Association of Podcasters & Online Media Producers (A working title) has popped up.

Ahh…podcasting, when it rains it pours. And it frankly seems like a bad flood to me.

I have been following the comments back forth between the two groups and from others and the backstory seems to be that the new group isn’t happy with how the ADM (which includes the likes of Apple, Wizzard Media, and NPR) was founded or that folks who join the group have to pay dues.

I understand that some in the new group might feel like they’re in competition with the others. But that still confuses me, since other groups, including the Interactive Advertising Bureau, are made up of competiting companies in the same industry. I don’t understand based on what I have read why the two sides coulnd’t come up with some other solution.

Though podcasting has made incredible strides, it still has technical and commercial issues to deal with before it can reach its money making and frankly audience potential. According to a survey by Edison Research this spring, the number of people who have listened to a podcast only rose slightly in the past year to 13% from 11%. And the ad market for podcasts was only $80 million last year. On its face, two groups just seems to muddy the water.

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