The podcasting phenomenon has now reached The News Tribune. Some say that when newspapers finally get involved in a trend, the trend must be long over. Well, we're trying to change that perception and get into things a little closer to the leading edge.

So here goes, our first try: http://www.thenewstribune.com/podcasts/inside

It's very easy to produce a podcast - even I can figure it out. I plugged a microphone into my laptop and recorded Rob and Dean with a free program called Audacity, which is also how I did the editing. I found a decent music loop in GarageBand and added that to make it sound professional (my wife thinks it sounds cheesy). And the whole thing only took a couple of hours despite my complete lack of audio editing experience.

But isn't that the reason these things become popular? From digital photos to blogs and now podcasting, everyday folks with little or no technical experience can publish content online. It's a game-changing reality for newspapers, of course, since we used to be the only ones who owned a printing press. Thanks to the Internet, everyone does.