What are audio articles?
Please note that this post was published before SpeechKit rebranded to BeyondWords.
A new term has appeared in digital publishing over the past 12-months.
Audio Articles are just what their name describes; news articles in audio.
Over the past few years, demand for news content delivered on-the-go has exploded.
The number of people in the US listening to spoken word audio increased 20% in the last 5 years (during a time when music listening shrunk 5%).
Up until recently, podcasts seemed to be the only valid answer to rising consumer demand for audio content.
Yet podcasts deliver a set of unique challenges to newsrooms.
How do you effectively replicate quality news coverage in podcast format?
You may need to hire new talent to host a daily show, build a production studio, negotiate new distribution deals with the major podcasting platforms, find a suitable audio hosting provider and finally build an audience.
All this for an audio format that proves financially lucrative for just a select few, due to the high level of competition in the Podcast market and platform oversaturation in the national and world news podcast segment.
Audio News Articles provide a simple and effective alternative to conventional podcasts
This format, proving to be popular with many publishers, takes existing articles and converts these into playable audio files that are served alongside their written stories.
No need for new strategies, setup costs, or marketing.
The average completion rate for an audio story is 90%. Hakon Mosbech - Zetland (Nieman)
This new format provides readers with the option to listen to any article.
Competition for time has never been higher – and tools to reach news on-the-go are increasingly valuable. Furthermore, readers are finding this useful.
At SpeechKit, we’re seeing increases as high as 1200% in time spent on page when Audio Articles are implemented on news websites. Learn more here.
Audio Articles are proving a useful tool for publishers searching for increased engagement with their stories. With SpeechKit, publishers of any size can implement natural sounding audio within minutes.
To find out more, signup for a free 7-day trial, or get in touch with our team using the form below.
