• New York Times: July 22: "The Podcast as a New Podium"
• Wall Street Journal’s Walt Mossberg, July 6, "Podcasting Is Still Not Quite Ready For the Masses" (subscription required)
• Washington Post July 23: "Apple Plants a Seed to Help Raise Podcasting"
• Newsweek Aug.1: “Podcasting: Talking Dirty on your iPod”

Podcasting is a method of publishing via the Internet, allowing users to subscribe to a feed of new files (usually MP3s). It became popular in late 2004, largely to automate downloading of audio onto portable players or personal computers.

The word "podcasting" is a portmanteau that combines the words "broadcasting" and "iPod." The term can be misleading since neither podcasting nor listening to podcasts requires an iPod or any portable music player.

A podcast is more than an MP3 file; it also has an XML file wrapped around it. (See TUAW blog for a silly argument on the topic.)

Corporations are experimenting with podcasts, as they can be very cheaply produced. GM was one of the first, followed by ABC News, Disney, Unilever, and with broadcast programs such as NPR’s All Things Considered and Bravo’s Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, which are pretty obvious fits. Wired magazine gets snarky about corporate podcasts in its most recent print issue ("Podcasting for The Man: It was only a matter of time before big business co-opted the podcast, but someone must have missed a crucial memo. Their attempts to turn the gurrilla format into just another channel for corporate speak are hobbily ill-conceived."), but surely the corporate experimenters deserve major props for trying a new medium.

So, whether you think podcasting is a soil enhancer, an answer to the wasteland of commercial radio, or this year’s blogging phenomenon, you’ll certainly be hearing more about it in 2005.