WebProNews

Podtrac, a new podcast advertising company, has teamed up with Mediamark Research Inc. (MRI), a provider of magazine audience and multimedia research company, to provide advertisers and podcasters with demographic information about listeners to help them make better advertising choices.

The partnership hopes to bring the same kind of statistical information provided to networks and advertisers in traditional media to the podcast circuit.

MRI and Podtrac will provide ratings data, including an index of the data to MRI's Survey of the American Consumer as a free service to any podcast through Podtrac. The Survey of the American Consumer is a national probability study of U.S. adult's demographics, media and product usage, attitudes and lifestyle.

Podcasters will start by implementing Podtrac's free Podcast Audience Survey. Podtrac will calculate indices to the Survey of the American Consumer for individual podcast survey results and provide the data to advertisers and podcasters free-of-charge.

"The Podtrac Survey together with an index to the Survey of the American Consumer provide a powerful tool for advertisers to determine the fit of a specific podcast audience for the target of their advertising," said Mark McCrery, CEO of Podtrac.

"The demographic indexing service also provides podcasters with an unprecedented way of turning their podcasting listening or viewing audiences into a compelling marketable asset to advertisers through Podtrac."

Jason L. Miller is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.