WebProNews

Jim Louderback walked away from PC Magazine to helm Revision3 for Kevin Rose. He provided a keynote address at the Podcast and New Media Expo where he mentioned the importance of a host for a show. WebProNews has been covering the Podcast and New Media Expo taking place in Ontario, California. You can catch our conference interviews at the WebProNews Video Blog right now.

Revision3 delivers podcasts like Diggnation and The GigaOM Show, both popular within the techie niches that follow the entertaining, informative hosts of those shows. Their popularity puts emphasis on the point Louderback made during his keynote, in response to a questions.

When asked if shows without hosts can be successful, Louderback cited the importance of the host in the podcast:

If you are doing the long format, you want to give them someone that can be their friend; they need to connect. The relationship through the videoscreen with the host really drives the viewers.

Louderback touted Revision3 as a television network for the Internet. That old media reference may look odd, but the site's operation mirrors his view. "No new media makes the old media obsolete," he said. "What it does is (new) changes (old)."

Whatever the new media does, let's hope it does so without pre-roll advertising, which Louderback does not like. He'd like to see more ad formats, with content that people find interesting.

He expressed a take on ad networks and their suitability for podcasts. There are great ones that can help a smaller operation. When it grows, the podcast can bring on its own network instead.

WebProNews anchor Kara Ratliff contributed to this report.