CMO Magazine ran a primer for marketing professionals about Podcasts and how they are a new and useful tool.  However, beyond the article reaction was mixed and there was a fair amount of debate about the usefulnes of podcats, so we responded.  Here is our reply, which is cross-posted with the article's site at http://www.cmomagazine.com/read/020106/whatis.html:

The New Communications Tools
Posted: MAR 15, 2006 08:30:49 AM
Podcasts and blogs are a necessary element for today’s communications campaigns. Mike Drake (GE VP who posted before us) makes the point that people may not know of podcasts yet, or if they are even necessary in today’s wired world. I would argue that in today’s wireless on-the-go world these new tools are increasingly important to reach audiences, which are becoming more and more fragmented. Look at the facts; in 2005 the first year of the podcasting technology being widely available, over 5 million podcasts were downloaded. Furthermore, that number was achieved without being integrated into major portals like iTunes for the majority of the year. With that in mind, podcasting will only experience massive growth over the next few years and increasingly become an important tool for communications professionals and their campaigns.