Exclusive Interview With Downloadable Media Chairman Chris MacDonald
December 3rd, 2007
Nascent new media industry group, the Association for Downloadable Media, has announced the new officers, committee chairmen, and Advisory Board members. Podcasting News Publisher Elisabeth McLaury Lewin talked with some of the newly-elected board members this weekend.
Here’s what Chris MacDonald, (Executive VP, Business Development and Operations, Libsyn PRO), Chairman (looking chairmanly in this updated photo, right) had to say about his plans and goals for the ADM, and what moved him to become involved in the new organization:
“[Over the last several years], I wanted to start up a conversation with other podcasters and new media creators, stemming from talks with folks at different PodCamps and industry gatherings. I saw a real unmet need for having replicable standards and metrics – not in terms of this one particular company or this one existing sort of metric being incorrect – more like, how do we craft the language and the matrix and the variety of different ways that value can be applied from a monetization strategy? We came to the conclusion that a lot of it was gonna happen on an ad-supported basis, and that would be a conversation worth having as a group.
“I heard from Susan Bratton [ADM Vice-Chairwoman] around that same time, and she was interested in getting a little more formal, like a trade association, and wondered would I like to be involved. I jumped at the opportunity to do this – because it seemed to be the sort of environment that would kick-start this metrics and monetization conversation, and translate it into something concrete. It takes money, coordination, research, many people, a structure, to get these conversations going, and this seemed like a great way to mobilize all these things.
“[The ADM] We have members and officers from all corners of the industry — large broadcasters, independent publishers, large publishers, small and medium-sized companies, nonprofit and for profit ventures, individuals and corporations… a variety of different stakeholders who are attracted to the concept of getting together and sharing information, and bridging the gap that we all know exists between getting advertisers more excited, and growing the industry for all the stakeholders.
“The industry is growing up and we’re at this place right now where it’s making an undulation. There’s definitely money to be made, but how? We’re becoming legitimate in the eyes of older media and advertising. And there have been some interesting strategic directions for communication that help to create a lot of value for advertisers. But, for those of us who are the “experts,” the people who’ve been doing downloadable media for several years now, what do we do with all this sweat equity knowledge we have? And how do we start to communicate as a community?
What’s Next For The ADM
“I think the thing we have to do first [now that the ADM elections are decided], is some of the organizational stuff, to help us get up and rolling. Subject-matter work at the committee level… We now have committee heads, so the work of the committees can get started in earnest.
“What I’d like to see happen in the coming year at ADM: We have a good base of corporate and non-profit and individual members. And I expect that we will spend a lot of time, getting that membership base even broader and stronger, so our potential resources will increase. Frankly, when you’re concerned with what we’re going to be doing, things like primary research, being the focal point for press inquiries about issues of donloadable media, pulling together our diverse collective interests and supporting those, we’ll have to figure out financing and prioritizing our collective goals.
“We also have to talk with advertisers and figure out what they really want and need, before we begin to build a structure for collecting information and doing research about the reach of providers of downloadable media.
“The ADM is a unique organization, in the sense that we’re not “vertical”, not a trade association per se, but rather we’re a group for solving complex problems. The needs of independent publishers might be different from an advertising-repping company or a measurement company. One of our first things will be to come up with some ways we can work collectively.
“You can expect some very hard work from from the ADM board in the months to come, and people are gonna be hearing from us soon. If someone’s been sitting on the fence, wondering whether to get involved in the ADM, I really encourage them to come to downloadable media.org. Look around the site, and see what we’re about. I invite you to become members, and get involved, and join the conversation. Pick out and work on a committee with the subject matter that appeals to you.”
Rate This Post: 
(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
December 3rd, 2007 at 3:19 pm
[…] They are good people, a good few of them I know from Newmediaexpo. The chairman Chris MacDonald is well-respected, and he and his company Libsyn is known to keep its finger on the pulse. […]