Extra! Hear all about it on new audio service By Jeffrey Goldfarb Reuters
Wednesday, July 12, 2006; 1:59 PM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/12/AR2006071201167_pf.html LONDON (Reuters) - The International Herald Tribune has launched a new twist on the podcasting craze sweeping media companies with a service that instantly generates an audio version of any article in the newspaper. The IHT, which is owned by New York Times Co. (NYT.N), said it was the first English-language Web site to deliver the service, which it rolled out on Wednesday with Swedish technology company ReadSpeaker. German newspaper Waz has unveiled a similar service. A female voice with a British accent and only a slight robotic stammer reads the articles with nearly accurate intonation and word emphasis, though the beta version is not glitch-free as some words were difficult to understand in a recent test. The IHT is providing the audio service free at http://audionews.iht.com/home/ and without advertising temporarily as it makes changes and improvements, but is seeking advertisers to help generate revenue. "It allows us to sell advertising on a scalable basis," said Meredith Artley, editor and publisher of IHT.com. "No advertisers are on board yet, but we've got a couple of folks who are interested," she said. "We would probably put on five to 10 seconds of an audio ad, and we're considering doing it on every third or fifth article." Users can either listen to articles on the spot or download them onto an MP3 player or mobile phone, creating a personalized audio version of the Paris-based newspaper, which was founded in 1887 and is sold in 180 countries. The IHT Web site draws 2.7 million unique readers a month. About 6.6 percent of the U.S. adult online population, or 9.2 million Web users, are downloading audio podcasts, according to figures released on Wednesday by research firm Nielsen/NetRatings. "The portability of podcasts makes them especially appealing to young, on-the-go audiences," Nielsen/NetRatings analyst Michael Lanz said. "We can expect to see podcasting become increasingly popular as portable content media players proliferate." ================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
