Talkback: Keeping tuned to technology

The upheaval caused by new technology is nothing new in the media world.

Radio broadcasters undoubtedly sat around in the 1950s scratching their heads wondering how to respond to the threat called "television". And, while video may have killed the radio star, in the end it didn't kill radio.

So how much of a credible threat do new practices such as "podcasting' - downloading audio programmes to an iPod or another digital music player - pose to traditional media such as radio? Should radio executives be getting in on the act early? Or should they wait and see how significant the new medium becomes?

As a former technology journalist and veteran of the tech wreck, I know as well as anyone that it can be as dangerous for companies to overestimate the impact of a new technology (and invest accordingly) as pay it too little attention. But ignoring the new is not an option.

When the internet was emerging in the 1990s, media magnate Rupert Murdoch was famously sceptical of its business prospects. Last month, he warned the American Society of Newspaper Editors that the newspaper industry was in danger of being relegated to an also-ran, citing research that found 44 per cent of 18- to 34-year-olds who responded to a Carnegie survey used websites once a day for news.

It is still unclear whether podcasting represents as much of a threat to radio broadcasters as the internet does in other areas of the media. It may not. The advent of personal CD players, and before that the Walkman, could be said to have posed a similar threat to radio, but neither proved fatal.

Arguably, iPods play the role of a CD player rather than a radio. Radio is immediate, a podcast is delayed - at least for now.

The iPod may never reach the critical mass required to kickstart commercial interest. Technologies such as the MP3 phone unveiled by Nokia last week could topple it from its perch before it gains a major audience. Other technologies such as satellite radio pose at least as much of a threat to local broadcasters.

Whether it is the podcast or another technology that emerges as next significant medium, media executives need to keep abreast of technological threats.

That means staying informed about what's happening to the traditional industry in markets where a threatening technology is more advanced. It means:

* Monitoring what is happening with that technology locally.

* How it is being used at the grassroots level.

* Considering whether there is any way to take advantage of any new medium with content already being produced.

It is balancing threat with opportunity. It does not mean throwing money at the simultaneous launch of 100 new websites with as many flavours of podcast.

Nor does it mean quivering in fear every time another 15-year-old gets an iPod for his or her birthday.

* Talkback explores the issues that matter to the media and the world of advertising, marketing, public relations and communications.