Salon.com turns 10 years old Thursday (and is throwing a party in SF). The Merc has a business story on the online magazine's bumpy but brilliant ride. Congrats David (in abstentia), Gary, Joan, Scott and the whole crew over there.

The power of participatory journalism hits home in India.

Podcaster John Furrier of PodTech -- who reminds me of some of my more tenacious journalist brethren (that's a compliment, John) -- just posted an exclusive podcast with Yahoo! exec Scott Gatz upon the news that they're adding RSS (Really Simple Syndication) into Yahoo! Mail. There's a transcript to accompany the podcast.

New from Mark Glaser in the Online Journalism Review: Will NPR's podcasts give birth to a new business model for public radio?

Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has the skinny on 23, a new photo-sharing site in Europe that resembles Flickr in many ways.

Interesting article in today's San Jose Mercury News with the unfortunate headline, Podcasting riches. Some amateur net radio shows have hit the advertising jackpot.

Unfortunate, because successful podcasts will not come from those with dollar signs popping up in front of their eyes.

Excerpts:

Since they started recording their eccentric, irreverent podcast from their Midwest farmhouse, Dawn Miceli and Drew Domkus would joke about ``world domination.''

They haven't quite achieved that goal yet. But their downloadable ``Dawn and Drew'' show is now so popular that it's courted by big-name advertisers -- despite its sometimes raunchy and profane language -- and has allowed Domkus to quit his day job so he can concentrate full-time on podcasting.

``It's kind of unique when your hobby becomes your job,'' said Miceli.

Miceli and Domkus are on the vanguard of podcasters who are finding that their living-room-produced, amateur Internet radio shows can lead to both fame and fortune.

Now that some podcasters are pulling in hundreds of thousands of listeners a month, advertisers are setting their sights on the downloadable audio programs as a viable marketing channel.

That's spawning an ecosystem of companies hoping to capitalize on the emerging medium. And it's letting some podcasters begin to seriously think about quitting their day jobs.

``I think things will take a dramatic turn,'' said Ron Bloom, chief executive of San Francisco start-up PodShow, looking ahead to 2006. ``There's a $32 billion war chest invested in radio advertising. Advertisers are already leaning forward and looking at alternatives.'' ...

Virginia moms Paige Heniger and Gretchen Vogelzang began ``Mommycast''-- a show about the joys and travails of motherhood -- in March. The pair have quickly become podcasting stars, drawing hundreds of thousands of listeners a month and appearing on national news shows.

Earlier this month, the duo announced what is perhaps the most lucrative podcasting marketing deal to date -- a 12-month sponsorship agreement with Dixie paper products, worth more than $100,000. ...

Meanwhile, Palo Alto podcaster John Furrier is demonstrating that advertising isn't the only path to financial independence for podcasters.

Furrier, who hosts the technology focused infoTalk podcast, is building a business around helping corporations integrate podcasting into their marketing plans. So far, Furrier has worked with Juniper Networks, IBM and Barracuda.

``I'm making a full-time job out of it now,'' Furrier said. ``I've raised some capital and I really think it's a business opportunity. I'm trying to help people do what I did for myself.''

NY Times: Great for Craigslist but Not for Newspapers. "In 2005, almost nine million [people using online classifieds] went to Craigslist.org, a 165 percent increase from 3.4 million last year."

I had missed this in San Antonio Current from two weeks back: Haven’t picked up podcasting? Skip it. The vlogosphere has arrived.

Michael Verdi [pictured above] is famous.

So are Amanda Congdon, Ryanne Hodson, and Jay Dedman. Never heard of them? That’s okay; they’re famous anyway.

And they want to add you to the list.

These four, and an innumerable swell of others, are part of a surging movement on the internet known as video blogging, or “vlogging,” a video expansion of traditional blogging that, in roughly one year of existence, already boasts a tightly knit global community, legions of devoted fans, and its own hit shows and celebrities. To wit: People like you are creating, uploading, subscribing to, and sharing a vast and varied catalogue of video content online, and getting well-known for it, all with unprecedented ease. Vlog Nation, it seems, has arrived....

Renee Blodgett
Originally uploaded by jdlasica.

Happy birthday, Renee!