A new podcasting and new media industry group, the Association for Downloadable Media (ADM) generated a great deal of discussion in the podcasting community when it was announced in July.

I caught up with two of the ADM’s founders earlier this week to get an update, and what I found out may surprise you. Susan Bratton, the acting chair of ADM, is the CEO of Personal Life Media and the host of the Dishy Mix. Mark McCreary is CEO of podcasting advertising and metrics firm Podtrac, and is shepherding the nominations and elections process.

I asked for some background about what the group has done so far, and about how the nomination and election process is going……

Elisabeth McLaury Lewin: Tell me about what the ADM is and how it got started.

Mark McCreary: (laughs) “Funny you should ask. It started out as Susan’s brain child. She got it rolling.”

Susan Bratton: “Back around 1996, I was on the initial board of the IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau). Ten years later, I saw a similar need for bringing downloadable content to the Internet in a positive way. I didn’t see anything like that out there for the podcasting space, so I just started calling people, contacting people, kind of randomly. And those people [in turn] recommended other people I should talk to, to talk about developing standards for advertising and looking at audience size and reach.

“So we came together in May for a stressful first meeting. I think I talked for an hour before people started to ‘get’ what I was talking about! [laughs] At the end of the day, there was unanimous agreement to form an industry-wide organization. In June, we met and secured the ADM name, and divided up responsibilities for getting the group going.

“One thing we all agreed on: competitors must band together to scale the industry.”

Elisabeth: Why is there a need for a group like ADM?

Mark: “For any industry to grow, there should be standards they acknowledge, and develop services accordingly. How many people are watching? Listening? What kind of formats should there be for advertising? There should be a standard infrastructure for creating, distributing, measuring.”

Susan: “For all of us, it’s a matter of scale. My company, Personal Life Media, has twenty different shows. Mark deals with, how many? Nine thousand Podtrac shows. A media buyer should be able to buy easily, across the whole industry, and keep track of numbers across the industry… have portable content.”

Elisabeth: Who do you think ought to become involved in the ADM? What do members get as benefits of membership?

Susan: “Anyone who wants to monetize their work, anyone who makes downloadable, episodic content ought to become involved. As far as what members get from ADM, they’d be able to offer a standard advertising format, and real measurement of the ad’s effectiveness. Especially useful for smaller companies, would be templates for media kits, terms and conditions, ad insertion forms — nice to not invent that from scratch.

“And the knowledge base, statistics, and audience metrics from across the organization will be extremely valuable to our members. We’re also looking at creating quarterly revenue reporting information. ”

Elisabeth: There’s a perception that the ADM is only interested in making money. How do you respond to that?

Susan: ADM is only interested in making money; not for the ADM, but for its members. We are solely focused on monetizing content.

Elisabeth: At the ADM meeting at the Podcast and New Media Expo, you introduced some of the candidates for the ADM’s elected seats. Nominations were to close October 8, with elections happening after. Can you give an update on that process?

Mark: “We’ve had an amazing response to the call for nominations. As the October deadline came up, we were swamped with calls and inquiries, so we extended the deadline for nominations to the end of this week [11/2/07]. Anyone who is a member of the ADM can nominate or be nominated for a seat.

“There are 20 spots up for election: four officers [chair, vice chair, secretary, treasurer], five committee chairs [Advertising Standards, Measurement, Outreach & Education, Terminology Standardization, Membership], and eleven board of directors positions.

“So far, forty people have been nominated for the twenty positions, and the nominees are from a wide variety of businesses. We’ve got representation from senior folks within the podcasting space, service providers, and established [old] media and big-business representatives, like Microsoft, NPR, and Discovery, among others.”

Elisabeth: Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know, either about the Association for Downloadable Media, or about the upcoming elections?

Susan: “If anybody’s on the fence about getting involved, this is the perfect time to join. ADM members will be voting on the twenty board members from November 10 – 23. Once you’re a member, there’s also a Yahoo! discussion group, and committees are forming right now.”

Mark: “As I get to know the people who have joined the ADM, I’m seeing a beautiful combination of just this incredible creative talent, and this amazing technical acumen. I encourage people in the industry to join us. Right now is a great opportunity to become involved in one of the committees right from the very start. ”

Members of the Association for Downloadable Media are invited to nominate people (including themselves) through the end of this week. Membership information is available here, and information about the nominees and the voting process will be posted on the ADM website in the coming week, in advance of voting November 10 – 23.