The Podfather
BACKGROUNDER: When Rupert Murdoch warned newspaper editors last Wednesday to embrace the internet or perish, the industry sat bolt upright. "The challenge for each of us in this room is to create an Internet presence that is compelling enough that users make it their home page. Just as people traditionally started their day with coffee and a newspaper, in the future I hope that the way they start their day online will be with coffee and our Web site," the Digger told the annual meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors. In his speech, Murdoch even used the "blog" word eight times. He noted that "some digital natives do even more than blog with text — they are blogging with audio, specifically through the rise of podcasting — and to remain fully competitive, some may want to consider providing a place for that as well."
Thing is, it may be too late for the newspaper business to recapture an audience that's heading for the exits. Why bother to wait for the perfect digital Murdochian to emerge when the kind of multimedia news that is becoming the next form of journalism is being assembled before our eyes. And here we come to the point of today's homily. Step forward Father Roderick Vonhögen, Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Utrecht in The Netherlands. Trading as The Catholic Insider, he's "Podcasting from the heart of the Catholic Church", as he puts it. Talk about brilliant use of the new media to deliver niche news! This guy's simply astonishing. Text, images, audio... he does it, with passion and style. "Let me take you back to the night before the pope's funeral, and let's do a soundseeingtour of the streets around St.Peter's square, crowded with ten thousands of young people who travelled to Rome from all over the world." Love that "soundseeingtour", there. And now he's podcasting around the conclave.
Of course, individuals don't have the resources to break news stories that require the kind of support only major media can provide, but the point is that by the time Murdoch & Co. figure out how to make print palatable for a public that's getting accustomed to high-quality, multi-media bespoke "news", a lot of their customers won't want to come back to the mass market product anymore. It's all very well when the man from the Current Bun parachutes into St. Peter's Square to give us the low down on what those queerly-dressed cardinal chappies are up to, but the Father Rodericks are way ahead of the game. And they're only getting going. Pod on, padre!
