AudioDizer and VideoDizer Blog

Recently Folio Magazine profiled six key tools that improve user experience, engagement, and secure new revenue. The magazines that were profiled included:

• Backpacker.com - for their GearFinder service
• Inc.com. - for their Business Valuations Calculator
• MIT Technology Review - for Text to speech podcasts (powered by AudioDizer aka us!)
• Parenting.com - for their Birthday Cake Planner
• Kiplinger.com - for their Tax Withholding Calculator
• Hearst - for their Virtual Beauty Makeover

Kathleen Kennedy, Chief Strategy Officer of MIT Technology Review had some great quotes about our service (from Folio Magazine):

Why read a story when you can listen to it instead? That’s the question Technology Review, a magazine published by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, answered when it began utilizing technology that converts the magazine’s text articles into audio podcasts that can be downloaded to an iPod or MP3 player.

“Technology Review has a menu at the top of every article with a button that allows the user to either listen to the article on a flash player or download it to their MP3 player,” says chief strategy officer Kathleen Kennedy. “Readers love the flexibility of being able to download articles to their MP3 players to listen to articles on-the-go.”

The text-to-audio tool launched on TechnologyReview.com in 2007 and was developed in partnership with AudioDizer, an MIT-founded start-up. It monitors the site’s RSS feed to determine when new articles are published and converts the text to audio. “AudioDizer’s voice engine breaks down a word into a set of sounds that when pieced together sounds like the real word,” Kennedy explains. “We offer a variety of customizable features including male and female voices, languages and music that is mashed up with a sponsorship message to create each file.”

The magazine says it has seen podcast downloads grow exponentially from around 18,000 to more than 350,000 per month. Kennedy says that while users access the podcasts free of charge, the magazine’s revenue source comes from selling sponsorships. Technology Review has a combination licensing/revenue sharing agreement with AudioDizer and revenues “exceed costs,” says Kennedy.

AudioDizer, Podcasting, Technology Review, revenue, text-to-speech

Newspapers Lose
More Print Ads,
But Gain Online
ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 4, 2007; Page B2

NEW YORK — Advertising revenue at U.S. newspapers fell 8.6% in the second quarter, as an accelerating decline in print ads more than outweighed gains in online advertising, an industry group reported.

Print-only advertising at newspapers slumped 10.2% to $10.5 billion in the second quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of decline, according to figures compiled by the Newspaper Association of America.

Online advertising at newspapers continued to grow, rising 19.3% to $795.7 million, although that was a slower rate than the 22.3% gain recorded in the first quarter, and the 35% gain in the fourth quarter of last year.

Newspapers still make up the largest category of overall advertising expenditures in the U.S., but advertisers are steadily shifting money out of print advertising to the Internet as people increasingly go online for information and entertainment.

Read the full article at The Wall Street Journal.

Wall Street Journal, advertising, revenue

Ad Notes
Traditional Media Expected
To See Decline in Ad Revenue
June 13, 2007; Page B3

Radio and newspapers are expected to see declines in ad revenue this year, while network, cable TV and most magazines will see growth.

With marketers expected to continue shifting ad dollars out of traditional media and into digital alternatives, certain categories of old media will be badly hit this year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending in different media. Ad spending on newspapers is expected to fall 2.9%, on top of a 2.4% decline in 2006, while radio and business-to-business magazines are also expected to fall.

Television is a mixed picture. Spending on spot TV — ads bought on local TV stations as opposed to national networks — is expected to fall 5.5%. But network TV spending is projected to be up 1.3%, while spending on cable is seen as rising 5.9%.

Still, the fastest growth continues to be in digital. Spending on Internet display advertising is expected to account for the biggest gain in the market, growing 16% this year.

TNS doesn’t track spending on several other major forms of digital advertising, including search and “rich media” such as video, which are getting increased attention from advertisers.

AudioDizer, Wall Street Journal, advertising, newspaper, revenue