PATTI GENKO
Voice of Travel Podcasts

Click on the red Travel Podcast button at left to access podcast page

KeyMilwaukee.com extends reach with first Milwaukee area Travel Podcast

KEY Milwaukee is extending its visitor information services to the new medium of podcasting.

“KEY Milwaukee has been the leader in services to Milwaukee visitors for 40 years and we are delighted to be the first to move into this new and exciting area,” said Beth Stafford, editor and publisher of KEY Milwaukee and KeyMilwaukee.com.

“Our Travel Podcasts give visitors and Milwaukee area residents an audio summary of upcoming events and tourism-related information, ” she added. “We’ll pack a lot into three to four minutes, directing listeners to KeyMilwaukee.com and our monthly issues of KEY Milwaukee for details of all that is going on in Southeastern Wisconsin.

KEY Milwaukee’s Travel Podcasts currently can be accessed through KeyMilwaukee.com. Users click on Travel Podcast, which takes them to a page containing the podcasts, available in three formats. The Travel Podcast page also contains an explanation of the new technology.

Roger Stafford, associate publisher and managing editor, noted that the podcasts also will contain news of events and services that are undercovered by media that do not target visitors “In our first travel podcast,” he said, “we touch on a new trolley service from the Lake Express High-Speed ferry terminal to downtown Milwaukee and on the new Segway tours originating in the Historic Third Ward. Both of these developments have not been covered extensively, but we feel visitors should know about them as they prepare to visit Southeastern Wisconsin.”

Currently distributing an average of more than 35,000 copies each month, KEY Milwaukee is the area’s only monthly visitor guide and originated in the fall of 1965 when independent publishers formed the Key Magazine group. In 1999, KEY Milwaukee entered the digital era with KeyMilwaukee.com, a Web site that has seen a steady increase in usage by visitors and by Milwaukee residents.

The Travel Podcast voice of KEY Milwaukee is Patti Genko, a broadcast professional in Milwaukee for 25 years who founded her own communications business in 1991. Ms. Genko teamed with Greg Eggold, director of Web Technologies for Comstar LLC in Waukesha to create what may become a prototype for KEY travel podcasts throughout the country.

Roger Stafford also serves as president of Key Magazines, Inc. The growing organization of independently owned visitor guides discussed podcasting at a national conference last year. Tom Ruberto and Susan Malthener, owners of Arizona Key, are developing travel podcasts for the Arizona market and assisted KEY Milwaukee in developing its program.

Stafford said several other affiliates of the national group are considering the program, which could lead to print, web and podcast services in many cities. Currently, Key magazines and Key affiliates produce more than 2 million magazines per month and most units have an active Web presence for their cities. Key Magazines brings together the members of the group in its national site, Keymagazine.com.

In addition to Milwaukee and Arizona, Key Magazines includes digest-sized Key magazines in Atlanta, Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, Memphis, Oklahoma City, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Denver/Colorado, and Carmel-Monterey and Palm Springs, California. Key affiliates include City Guide in New York, Panorama in Boston, See guides in Florida and the Berkshire mountains, Pittsburgh Point, Las Vegas Today and San Diego This Week.