Perhaps not surprisingly, the most begrudgingly positive thing that Wall Street has to say about podcasting is that it might at least hurt the market for online audio purveyor Audible.com. Podcasts, the bloggish audio downloads put into syndication feeds that have proved wildly more popular among journalists than among listeners. Still more positive on podcasts are the traditional broadcast firms who now hold out hope that podcasts may increase their large but waning influence.

On a positive note, some agency creatives are looking at podcasting as a means to get more creative with a richer form of media than is possible with a small collection of display pixels. Publicis' chief creative officer held out the hope that the new trend would succeed in "really waking up creative from the dreck that is most radio advertising."

The theory is that since a popular way of podcasting allows for the skipping of commercial segments, creatives will now be forced to make their productions entertaining for the listener, who is no longer a captive audience.