As part of NYTimes.com’s TimesSelect premium-content service, podcasts now are available for New York Times op-ed columnists (Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, et al).
That’s a great idea. It’s easy to envision scores of op-ed readers now
listening to the columns on the commute to or from work on their iPods
or MP3 players. Personally, since I work in a home office and don’t
commute, I’ve been listening on my PC — letting the audio play while
doing other tasks that don’t require great concentration. (My brain
isn’t that great at multitasking.)
The one thing I don’t like about the NYTimes.com podcasts is that the
voices are not those of the columnists. The website is working with Audible.com, which uses its staff talent to record the columnists’ podcasts. While the NYT
op-ed columnists are big media stars with busy schedules, I suspect
that even they could spend five minutes per column reading their words
into a headset on their computers. I find the foreign voice to be a
disconnect and a distraction.
I’d like to see podcasts like this from more news organizations. Any
newspaper with popular columnists could create a simple podcast for all
of its writers, insisting that each of them record an audio version of
their columns after final editing. It’s a five-minute task; that’s a reasonable request.
While the Times
funds its op-ed podcasts by making them part of the paid TimesSelect
service, most news organizations will want to sell sponsorships;
sponsors will get a short audio message as a lead-in and/or lead-out to
the audio column.
