The makeover represents a shift from the "podcast era" to an era of premium, episodic Web content, the company said.

My last 2 pay checks where paid thanks to home equity loans taken out by [the] CEO and president. I have also had a hard time getting my final pay check from them. They claim they are unable to pay me ( $400 after advance repayment ) until they receive funding. The last few months I was at the company they kept promising funding would be coming "this friday we should have it..." was said at least 4 times. In the 2 years I worked there, I never once heard the term "profitable" mentioned, only the far off idea's of being snapped up by [some] big company

(Party photos from Natali's own post on Google's holiday party)

• So, the new version of Blogger is finally out of beta! Yippee! But what about the dozens of other products, still stuck either in beta — even mainstays like Gmail — or in Google Labs? Just a few weeks ago, Valleywag readers said Joga Bonito will be the next to go. [BloggerBuzz]
• Michael Arrington is disappointed in the Wall Street Journal's "attack on blogs." Says the WSJ: "The blogs are not as significant as their self-endeared curators would like to think. Journalism requires journalists, who are at least fitfully confronting the digital age. The bloggers, for their part, produce minimal reportage. Instead, they ride along with the MSM like remora fish on the bellies of sharks, picking at the scraps." Ouch! [Crunchnotes]
• The most popular topics on Reddit? Politics and Internet & PC, apparently. [StatisticsFreak]
• Web 2.0 comes to the Catholic Church! Boston's Cardinal Sean O'Malley to start podcasting. [SFGate]
• The American Mac and PC were clearly better casted. [Apple via Zach Klein]

"Can't they just change it to Podtronic?" he said. "Whatever that monty python line is..."

You know the one.

First Bruce: Is your name not Bruce?
Michael: No, it's Michael.
Second Bruce: That's going to cause a little confusion.
Third Bruce: Mind if we call you "Bruce" to keep it clear?

Conference schedule [Under the Radar]

1. Commodity Market Already - Existing content (Radio, TV, Video) can be flipped over without much more than an re-encode. It's a pre-made commodity market, no need to pay Silicon Valley charlatan-hustlers thousands of dollars to "show you how".
2. Lack of Talent and Quality - People want to hear existing Radio/TV shows and Audio Books, not geeks and goofball Rocketbloomish amateurs playing with gadgets and whatnot. And the podcasting hypesters are populated with the eternally wrongheaded "Medium is more Important than the Message" types. As lesser barriers to entry, is only that, it doesn't confer any sort of talent or quality along with it.
3. Not Discoverable - No channel surfing, no radio-scanning check-out concepts; you can skim thousands of news sites and blogs (or other online reading materials) in no time, not so with podcasting.

After the jump, Coulter calls podcasting "overhyped." Gee, who knew?

1. No ROI - It takes a heck of a lot longer to listen to podcasts, over reading the same material online. Most of the market, outside of certain niches, isn't going to invest that time.
2. Passivity - The market wants media without work, pre-packaged in easy forms, not eternal geeky tricks of twiddling and syncing.
3. Start Line on the Faddish Cycle - Like anything "new new" on the net, it runs through the usual cycle: massive experimental euphoria with tons of venture-speculation money thrown around, and then the serious bubble-popping cool-off phase, with a full-circle return to rational value-added markets. World changing? No. Some limited niche value? Yes. Hucksters trying to quick cash in on the boom before the bust? Tons.
4. Land Grabbing - Audio Books, Audio/Video Training Material, loooong been around. If a certain codec now works on a portable device, it's now somehow podcasting?
5. Over-hyped - It's all venture-fueled, a new new techie hot branding — firehose money at it. It's JUST a distribution mechanism; and just because you can do it and download it, still doesn't mean anyone is listening.

This was expanded from Chris's earlier, more petulant one-item list, "1. Scoble's doing it."

Photo: Hypnoradio [bbaltimore on Flickr]

I just heard from a Dutch source that Adam Curry is being sued by the Dutch government for tax evasion. He hasn't been in the country to answer the charges and seems to be avoiding going home. Don't know if this is true, but one could check a Dutch news service to corroborate.

And the Dutch news services haven't said a thing about any tax troubles for the ex-MTV VJ and current podcaster. Treat this as a "wouldn't it be funny" for now.

Especially since would-be podfather Dave Winer is reportedly on the "Defame Adam Curry" warpath — an unconfirmed tip says Winer recently ranted about "taking down" Adam Curry at a party. (Caveat to this caveat: Public ranting seems unlikely even for the excitable Winer.)

Curry was just embarrassed in late March by a podcasted reading of his Podshow contract (which gives Podshow rights to all the material by featured podcasters). Before that, Curry was sent through the blogosphere's gauntlet for editing Wikipedia and crediting himself for podcasting. Yes, this is a man who managed to make bloggers sympathize with the usually unpopular Dave Winer, who really did help invent this medium.

This would make a really boring episode of Behind the Music, wouldn't it? Anyone want to float a drug rumor or something?

Adam Curry "Bastard of the Blogs" card [Those Bastards]

April 4: Matteucci explains the investment to an eager summit crowd.

April 5: A Forrester Research member writes:

Our survey showed that only 1% of online households in North America regularly download and listen to podcasts. And when you include all of the people who are just interested or have used podcasts, they strongly favor listening to existing content like Internet radio or broadcast radio, not necessarily new content.

April 6: An anonymous member of PodTech writes:

I don't know what planet Charlene is on these days but her report on podcast adoption is way off base. I don't know why she would come out with these low numbers...I see a bright future for podcasters and podcasting.

Not that PodTech is, you know, biased.

PodTech Receives $5.5 Million in Series A Funding [PodTech]
US Venture Partners: Why PodTech? [Down the Avenue]
Forrester podcasting report - just 1% use podcasts [Charlene Li's Blog]
Forrester Report on Podcasting - Wrong Big Time [PodTech]