DeVry sponsors Webb Alert, shows big ed has nose for new media after all

One of my favorite pod­casts is Web­bAlert, a tech­nol­ogy news show hosted by Mor­gan Webb, high­light­ing daily tech news and social media memes. It’s daily, no more than about six min­utes per episode, and Webb does a good job of cov­er­ing the geek news I need with a ripe sar­casm I crave.

For the last few weeks, Web­bAlert has had a com­pelling new spon­sor: DeVry Uni­ver­sity. It’s a per­fect match — while I know very lit­tle about the place, I know they have tech­ni­cal and gam­ing pro­grams that fit the mar­ket of the show. But more impor­tant than that, it shows that the adult edu­ca­tion indus­try is dip­ping its toes into some more pro­gres­sive waters.

Don’t get me wrong here: this is not an issue of con­ser­v­a­tive adver­tis­ing val­ues. It’s an issue of igno­rance. The new edu­ca­tion mar­ket­place that so many laud as lead­ing a new era of access is not so dar­ing when it comes to ad space. They count even more than many sec­tors on con­sis­tent and dra­matic lead flow.

With pod­cast pop­u­lar­ity appar­ently grow­ing as fast as it is, likely pre­cip­i­tated by the ongo­ing WGA strike and the dearth of tra­di­tional media that results, more and more peo­ple are turn­ing to the net for their enter­tain­ment and their news. It shows a cool savvy that some lucky DeVry mar­ket­ing man­ager pushed this ini­tia­tive through.

Slightly related, I got an email from a good friend who just started work­ing for DeVry:

Started at Devry this week, feels like for­eign lands. When I asked when my matrix starts I was told “Take your time, learn the cul­ture here…we don’t want to shove you out there before you “get it”.” I thought they were screw­ing with me.

If you’ve ever seen the enroll­ment rooms at Phoenix, you know just how funny that is.