PR blogger Steve Rubel gives a round-up about the PR impact of Audible's Wordcast system, introduced at the Portable Media Expo (Audible's Black Friday: A Case Study in PR vs. BR), comparing the reaction of normal media against new media.

The blogosphere was not very pleased with Audible's announcement. Especially the proprietary file format and the fees have caused negative reactions. It will be interesting to see if Audible makes changes to adapt to this criticism, when they finally launch the service (The service is still in closed beta.) While it is doubtful that there will be any changes in the file format, Audible might change something in the cost model.

Audible is the first big player to take a step into helping podcasters to monetize their productions. It is different than their usual business, which deals with publishing houses etc, but the podcasting business is probably too good to miss out on. And many podcasters want to earn money.

Marketers on the other hand have a different interest and love what Audible promises to give: A complete control over how long and how often a "podcast" has been listened to. (Which leaves me with the question, if these numbers are also reported today on their usual products?) .

Forcing everyday podcasters into Audible's format might heavily damage the popularity of a podcast, and for most podcasters this service is very expensive just to get some numbers. It will be more intelligent to go for new ways of financing their costs.

But for podcasters with high valued (and payed for) content, this could be just another position in their calculation and may reduce at the same time the cost and complexity of collecting money from their customers..

One has to ask the question though, if this is still podcasting? Pay per delivery of content in proprietary file format is a business Audible has been following for years - but it is not what most people enjoy about podcasting.

So far, Audbile benefits in many different ways. They have some clever moves in connecting their brand with podcasters and get a big share of media attention on the way. If they get content producers into their system, they also expand their attractivness of the rest of their products. And not only will they earn money through pdocasters, they could try to use the podcasters as unpaid betatesters for their ad insertion service - one day this service might be offered to old media as well.

A lot of advantages for Audible, but we will have to see, if podcasters benefit too.