This week two of our Leaderboard members deal heavily in podcasting.

One, Buzz Out Loud, is primarily a podcast that also combines a blog, forum, wiki and other technology to help cover their beat. The other is a beat reporter who has added a weekly podcast, live chats and other new media tools to help cover his beat better.

Our last nominee is a familiar face. He’s one of the best, each and every week.

Buzz Out Loud

• Molly Wood, Tom Merritt and Jason Howell have created one of the most popular podcasts, and it didn’t happen for no reason. It has great content, it’s very informative and it’s enjoyable to listen to. A big part of that enjoyability are the daily e-mails and voicemails from listeners that make it into the show. Wood, Merritt and Howell respond to those and often provide clarification or commentary.
• This show wouldn’t be possible without its listeners. Every day people send in tips about new tech, experiences they have had, insider information, etc. The show was originally around five minutes long and was aired every other day. Now the show regularly runs 35-45 minutes each day. Producing that much quality content each day isn’t easy, but the shows listeners help out by sending in tips and information.
• The BOL gang regularly interact with users in other formats. The show has its own forums. and Wood, Merritt and Howell are no strangers to it. Even cooler is the live chat that happens when the show is recorded live each day. Listeners regularly help the BOL gang out. For instance, a news article they are discussing may talk about some complicated technology that they don’t fully understand, but a listener in the chat room might be able to shed light on the subject. Other times listeners help provide clarification. It’s like having live fact checkers and life lines. 
• This is an excellent example of journalists and a knowledgeable community working together. Buzz Out Loud has a lot of very intelligent, well read and tech savvy users. Buzz Out Loud wouldn’t be half the show without its fans, but together they have created one of the best podcasts on the Web today.

Eric Page | Quad-City Times

• We’re sad to see Page leaving journalism for a Web career, but we wish him the best of luck. He did a great job of innovating on his Iowa Hawkeyes beat over at the Times’ Hawkmania site.
• His weekly live chats, podcasts and blogging are an inspiration to all beat reporters. Page covered his beat with incredible depth. He was also able to connect with fans through his chats and blogging.
• Sports is a great beat to branch out into new media. People especially love live chats with beat reporters. These live chats attract a lot of people to them (and run up time spent stats), and yet they are poplar in archive form too. Podcasts can make a lot of sense too (especially from an advertising perspective), and blogging obviously makes sense.
• Page is truly a multimedia reporter. 

Eric Berger | The Houston Chronicle

• We’d like to congratulate Berger on his 50,000th comment. What makes this milestone even more impressive is that Berger approves every comment. This partly explains why the comments are so good on his blog. 
• But it doesn’t explain it all. Berger is one of the best at cultivating a community. If you only read his blog posts, you’d be missing out on all the great debate, links and discovery in the comments under each post. 
• People ask me all the time why they should spend some of their time responding to comments, when they could be writing more posts or stories. This is an easy answer. Not only will you get much more insightful and less vitriolic comments, but you’ll also help build a community of loyal users. The kind of loyal users that will send you tips and links. The kind of loyal users that will help make your job easier.
• How many beat reporters do you know who would say this, “This blog wouldn’t be what it is without the excellent and devoted participation of those who participate. So if you’ve commented during the last 40 months, thank you. And if you’re just lurking, what are you waiting for?”
• Well, Berger means it when he says that because he has cultivated a strong community where his users are a big part of what makes his blog special. 
• As a general rule of thumb, if the comments are terrible on your blog and stories, it’s probably your thought. A little attention goes a long way.