While the review follows the best practice framework framework, it is heavily weighted to the observable factors relating to the overall user experience.  I think that how well a company executes on these components of downloadable media is an important indication of how seriously they are approaching the business.

Overall Impression
USA Today is not yet treating downloadable media as a business opportunity.  Downloadable content is not presented well and seems to be left to some enterprising reporters who are experimenting with using downloadable media.  The individual efforts seem to range from quite enterprising to poor quality efforts.  The podcasts were so variable that I had to review them individually.  I produced individual reviews for Celeb Watch, Talking Tech and PopCandy.

USA Today has a wealth of content and sub-brands that would make excellent platforms for building downloadable media brands.

I see lots of upside for USA Today if they make the investments required, but right now USA Today’s downloadable media offering is mess that probably doing more damage than good.

If USA Today wants to compete on the new web, they will need to develop a more effective strategy for producing web shows from their content and substantially improve their operating practices.

Presentation of the Downloadable Media Category
At first glance, the site looks good and presents me with an option for videos.  Clicking through to the video page takes the user away from the usatoday.com URL to a usatoday.feedroom.com URL.  This new page has a different layout and presentation from the homepage.  Once there, you find a wealth of video content from Associated Press.

This wasn’t what I wanted to review so I went back a page and searched for podcasts.

I found three results that looked like they might be podcasts.  Upon review, two out the three are indeed links to podcasts.  The first is to a blog called PopCandy that focuses on popular culture and the second to a video show called Talking Tech.

After poking around the site some more, I stumbled upon one more downloadable media show called Celeb Watch.

The only place I can find a complete list of these three together is a page listing all the RSS feeds on the site.  The three podcasts are listed in their own category with links to subscribe in iTunes and links to the RSS pages for the podcasts.  There are no links there that point to the podcast home pages or to any podcast archives.

Each of the three shows has a very different look, feel and quality.

Content available
USA Today is currently offering a very narrow range of downloadable media content with only three podcasts available.  USA Today is not leveraging its wealth of content and sub-brands that would make excellent platforms for building downloadable media brands.

Use of Micro-sites
Each of the podcast shows had micro-sites that were very different and had significant variations in the quality of presentation.   One of the micro-sites was effective at presenting a video podcast. These micro-sites could be improved significantly.

Use of RSS and Metadata
USA Today is not deploying best practices when in comes to RSS and media meta-data.  There are duplicate feed links and feeds that don’t validate properly.

Distribution
USA Today is too reliant upon iTunes as its distribution channel.  Potential listeners who do not have iTunes or prefer alternatives such as Zunes, mp3 players, cell phones, etc are not able to easily download and subscribe to content.

Content and feeds for devices other than the iPod/iPhone are not available.

Monetization
USA Today’s downloadable media is substantially under monetized and relies too much upon pre-roll advertising.  Investments in more advanced flash players that support overlays will be required to monetize the downloadable media collection.

Production Quality
Video production quality is good.  The single audio podcast has improved a lot after 100 episodes.

USA Today Downloadable Media – Top Recommendations

1. Develop a downloadable media strategy to focus investment on building successful shows
2. Develop downloadable media/podcast directory to show case available content
3. Create compelling destination micro sites for each podcast and work to improve audience interaction.
4. Fix and rationalize RSS feeds
5. Provide content formats and feeds for phone(3gp), HD and wmv
6. Clearly label subscribe links as subscribe in iTunes and add options for subscribing via Google, My Yahoo,  Zune and provide link to RSS.
7. Develop and implement more advanced video player with capability for overlay  advertising
8. Set up channels at YouTube and other video sites and syndicate content
9. Decide on a publishing schedule for the podcasts and stick to it
10. Fix id3 tags to add name, use comment field and add album art
11. Change Album Art to 600×600
12. Increase distribution by submitting podcast feed to directories other than iTunes

Links Individual Podcast Reviews

• Celeb Watch
• Talking Tech
• PopCandy

Podcast Homepage
Upon visiting Celeb Watch’s page you are presented with a clean looking video player in the center of the page with an attractive photo of the celebrity being interviewed.

The page has links to download the media, download a widget and sharing via email.  The download link is actually a link to iTunes, not the video file.  I’m not sure what would happen if you tried the link without iTunes installed.

The page also has a nice short brief on what the next show will be about and links to the show’s archive.

The video is complemented by a good article providing background on the celebrity and a summary of the interview.

RSS Links
There is a link to an RSS feed but it’s not the feed for the Celeb Watch.  You have to find the link in a separate page dedicated to RSS feeds for all of USAToday.com.  There are no RSS feeds for alternative file types for devices other than iPod/IPhone.

Audience Interaction
The page has lots of links to social media sites for sharing.  Comments have been enable on the page, but seem to lack participation.

Publishing Schedule
Celeb Watch is billed as being a weekly show, but the schedule seems quite variable.

Playability
The online flash player started immediately.  The iTunes version of the show also played well in iTunes.  The file was formatted using H.264 with dimensions of 640×480 which works well with iPods.  Unfortunately, the video will not play on most cell phones which need dimensions of 320×240.

ID3 tags
ID3 tags were present and used.  However, the show description was put in the show name field, the comment field went unused and no album art was included with the tags.

Feed quality
The feed would not validate for me at Feedvalidator.org.  The feed was missing a channel description tag.  The item tags were also missing image links and media RSS tags.  The enclosure length tag was also missing.

File Naming
File naming protocols were mostly consistent using a format of date-cw-celebrity-name.m4v.  Replacing cw with celeb_watch would improve search engines ability to index the file.

Google Search Engine Optimization
Search for Celeb Watch lists show in first result.

iTunes Search Optimization
Search for Celeb Watch lists show in second result.

Availability in other Podcast Directories
I checked five leading podcast directories and could not find the show listed.

Monetization
The show I saw had a 4 second pre-roll commercial for TV Guide Broadband.  The web page has inline ads and some popup advertising.

Media Player
Plain video player – not use of borders for advertising or advertising bugs on the video.

Sharable Player
The show offers a player that can be embedded in blogs or social networking sites.  No advertising on the player itself.

Production Quality
Celeb Watch’s video was good quality video.

Album Art
The RSS has links to a 300×300 image for the show.  The 300×300 size image was originally recommended by Apple.  Apple is now recommending square .jpg images that are at least 600 x 600 pixels. No album art was included with the downloaded file tags.

Celeb Watch – Top Recommendations

1. Open up the micro-site to viewer comments and improve audience interaction
2. Fix and rationalize RSS feeds
3. Provide content formats and feeds for phone(3gp), HD and wmv
4. Clearly label subscribe link as subscribe in iTunes and add options for subscribing via Google, My Yahoo,  Zune and provide link to RSS.
5. Develop and implement more advanced video player with capability for overlay  advertising
6. Set up channels at YouTube and other video sites and syndicate content
7. Decide on a publishing schedule for the podcasts and stick to it
8. Fix id3 tags to add name, use comment field and add album art
9. Change Album Art to 600×600
10. Increase distribution by submitting podcast feed to directories other than iTunes

Podcast Homepage
The presentation of Talking Tech is disappointing when compared to Celeb Watch. The page has a picture of the show’s hosts, a short blurb about the show and short bios for the hosts.

There is a picture of two laptops and a play button.  The description of the episode is in a faint font and easy to overlook.  Lower in the page are links to the last ten episodes presented in streaming video.

RSS Links
There is a link to an RSS feed but it’s not the feed for the Talking Tech.  You have to find the link in a separate page dedicated to RSS feeds for all of USAToday.com.  There are no RSS feeds for alternative file types for devices other than iPod/IPhone.

Audience Interaction
The page has lots of links to social media sites for sharing.  Comments are enabled for the show, but seem to lack participation.

Publishing Schedule
The Talking Tech podcast schedule seems quite variable.

Playability
The iTunes version of the show also played well in iTunes.  The file was formatted using H.264 with dimensions of 640×480 which works well with iPods.  Unfortunately, the video will not play on most cell phones, first generation Zunes.  PSP players and Tivo?

ID3 tags
ID3 tags were present and used.  However, the show description was put in the show name field, the comment field went unused and no album art was included with the tags.

Feed quality
The feed would not validate for me at Feedvalidator.org.  The feed was missing a channel description tag.  The item tags were also missing image links and media RSS tags.  The enclosure length tag was also missing.

File Naming
File naming protocols were mostly consistent using a format of date-tt.m4v.  Replacing tt with talking_tech would improve search engines ability to index the file.

Google Search Engine Optimization
Search for Talking Tech lists show in second result.

iTunes Search Optimization
Search for Talking Tech lists show in first result.

Availability in other Podcast Directories
We checked five leading podcast directories and could not find the show listed in four of the directories.  Podcast.com had the show in its directory.

Monetization
The show I saw had a 15 second pre-roll commercial for Microsoft.  The web page has inline ads.

Media Player
The online flash player took 5-10 seconds to start playing.  In Firefox browser, the player then got stuck downloading from something called metrics.feedroom.com.   The video player was plain, with no use of borders for advertising or advertising bugs on the video.

Sharable Player
There were a number of links for sharing in sites like Digg or Mixx.  There was also a link for sharing in Facebook.  No links to a sharable widget for blogs.

Production Quality
Talking Tech’s video was good quality video.

Album Art
The RSS has links to a 300×300 image for the show.  The 300×300 size image was originally recommended by Apple.  Apple is now recommending square .jpg images that are at least 600 x 600 pixels. No album art was included with the downloaded file tags.

Talking Tech – Top Recommendations

1. Create destination micro site for the podcast and improve audience interaction
2. Fix and rationalize RSS feeds
3. Provide content formats and feeds for phone(3gp), HD and wmv
4. Clearly label subscribe link as subscribe in iTunes and add options for subscribing via Google, My Yahoo,  Zune and provide link to RSS.
5. Develop and implement more advanced video player with capability for overlay  advertising
6. Set up channels at YouTube and other video sites and syndicate content
7. Decide on a publishing schedule for the podcasts and stick to it
8. Fix id3 tags to add name, use comment field and add album art
9. Change Album Art to 600×600
10. Increase distribution by submitting podcast feed to directories other than iTunes

Podcast Homepage
Each episode is presented as a blog post describing the contents of the episode and links to “Download the free podcast via iTunes” and “Stream the podcast as a .wma file”.

There is no inline audio player for the wma file.

RSS Links
There is a link to an RSS feed but it’s not the same RSS feed that’s listed under the RSS directory.  The RSS on the blog home page validates, but does not contain any iTunes tags.

To find the podcast RSS, you have to find the link in a separate page dedicated to RSS feeds for all of USAToday.com.

Audience Interaction
The permalink page has links to Yahoo Buzz for sharing.  Comments are enabled for the show.

Publishing Schedule
The Pop Candy podcast schedule seems quite variable.

Playability
The file is in an mp3 format and should be playable on all mp3 enabled devices including iPods, Zunes, Mobile phones, and PSPs.

ID3 tags
ID3 tags were present and used.  However, the show description was put in the show name field, the comment field went unused and no album art was included with the tags.

Feed quality
The feed from the blog page validates at Feedvalidator.org, but does not include iTunes tags.  The podcast feed from the RSS directory page would not validate for me at Feedvalidator.org.  The feed was missing a channel description tag.  The item tags were also missing image links and media RSS tags.  The enclosure length tag was also missing.

File Naming
File naming protocols were mostly consistent using a format of date-popcandy.mp3.

Google Search Engine Optimization
Search for Pop Candy lists show in first result.

iTunes Search Optimization
Search for Pop Candy lists show in first result when the podcast filter is used on the search.

Availability in other Podcast Directories
I checked five leading podcast directories.  Pop Candy was not listed in any of them.

Monetization
The show I heard did not have embedded ads.  The web page has inline ads.

Media Player
No online media player.  The podcast is available for streaming via Windows Media player using a wma file.

Sharable Player
There is an embeddable widget available that lists blog posts and has a podcast player built into it.  I could not get the player to play any podcasts.  The player also has a link to the show on iTunes.  No evidence that the player is being used to carry advertisements.

Production Quality
Pop Candy’s audio quality could be improved significantly.  The podcast needs to be normalized and leveled.

Album Art
The RSS has links to a 300×300 image for the show.  The 300×300 size image was originally recommended by Apple.  Apple is now recommending square .jpg images that are at least 600 x 600 pixels. No album art was included with the downloaded file tags.

PopCandy – Top  Recommendations

1. Add a flash based player to the blog page
2. Fix and rationalize RSS feeds
3. Decide on a publishing schedule for the podcasts and stick to it
4. Fix id3 tags to add name, use comment field and add album art
5. Change Album Art to 600×600
6. Increase distribution by submitting podcast feed to directories other than iTunes