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

Very interesting article written by Hal Varian, Google’s Chief Economist regarding the economics of newspapers. He mentions that online advertising represents only 5% of newspaper ad revenue due to people only spending a limited amount of time reading via the browser - 70 seconds per day. Traditional readers, those reading the print format, typically spend about 25 minutes per day drives the bulk of advertising dollars.

Hal Varian says newspapers need to “experiment, experiment, experiment” with the new platforms and online in order to try and stop the decline that has been going on since 1985.

You can read the full article on Google’s Public Policy Blog

advertising, google, newspaper google

PhysOrg.com is introducing three new high-tech ways for readers to wirelessly stay in touch with its sci-tech news. Starting now, readers can read PhysOrg stories on the iPhone with new PhysOrg apps, listen to podcasts through iTunes or any MP3 player, and read stories on the Amazon Kindle.

(PRWEB) March 1, 2010 — As a leading source of science and technology news, PhysOrg.com continually offers its readers cutting-edge ways to stay up to date on the latest research. Now PhysOrg is making it even easier for readers to keep up with science breakthroughs while away from the computer.

A screenshot of the PhysOrg iPhone App (Full version).
A screenshot of the PhysOrg iPhone App (Full version).
PhysOrg is introducing three new high-tech ways for readers to wirelessly stay in touch with the news on its website. Starting now, readers can read PhysOrg stories on the iPhone with new PhysOrg apps, listen to podcasts through iTunes on any MP3 player, and read stories on the Amazon Kindle.

“With 1.75 million readers every month, PhysOrg hopes to offer a mobile reading option for everyone. These wireless services are ideal for people commuting by train, plane or carpooling.”
“With 1.75 million readers every month, PhysOrg hopes to offer a mobile reading option for everyone,” said Alexander Pol, Managing Editor of PhysOrg.com. “These wireless services are ideal for people commuting by train, plane or carpooling.”

PhysOrg iPhone App

Although iPhones, PDAs, and other devices have always been able to access a mobile version (http://www.physorg.com/help/physorg-mobile/) of PhysOrg.com, the new iPhone app is designed to make it even easier for iPhone users to read the text on the small screen, as well as offer other features.

The PhysOrg iPhone app comes in two versions: a “Lite” (free) version itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/physorg-com-news-lite/id356443503?mt=8 and a “Full” (paid) version itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/physorg-com-news/id356448743?mt=8 , both of which are ad-free. The “Lite” version allows readers to browse the top 10 daily news stories on PhysOrg.com. Readers may rate, bookmark and share favorite stories via Twitter or email directly using the app. Readers can also read stories in offline or “airplane” mode.

The “Full” version offers these features as well, but includes all PhysOrg stories in all categories. Readers may customize content by selecting their favorite categories, which include physics, technology, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, space, biology and chemistry.

Readers can download the “Lite” and “Full” PhysOrg apps from the Apple App store. For more information about the apps (including a video demonstration), visit http://www.physorg.com/help/iphone/ .

PhysOrg Text-to-Speech Audio Podcasts

Every day, about 40 of the top PhysOrg stories (called “Spotlight News”) are converted into text-to-speech (T2S) podcasts. You can listen to the podcasts online by clicking the speaker icon next to the story, manually download the podcasts into your MP3 player through an RSS feed, or subscribe to the podcasts via iTunes (http://itunes.apple.com/podcast/audiodizer-physorg-com-spotlight/id348735233). The T2S conversion process is powered by AudioDizer, an MIT-student-founded company. AudioDizer takes the podcast experience to the next level by using multiple voices, different accents, and music to enhance the listening experience. For more information on PhysOrg podcasts, visit http://www.physorg.com/help/audio/ .

PhysOrg on the Kindle

Readers can subscribe to PhysOrg stories through the Amazon Kindle e-reader through two feeds. The “Spotlight News” feed offers the top 40 or so stories of the day (the same stories that are converted to podcasts). Readers who are primarily interested in a specific subject can subscribe to one of five channel feeds, which provide all stories in that subject. The five channel feeds are Space and Earth, Technology and Electronics, Biology and Chemistry, Physics and Nanotechnology, and Medicine and Health. Already, PhysOrg has more than 350 Kindle subscribers, and the number is growing rapidly. For more information and to download PhysOrg feeds on the Kindle, visit http://www.physorg.com/help/physorg-kindle/ .

About PhysOrg.com

PhysOrg.com™ is a leading web-based science, research and technology news service which covers a full range of topics. These include physics, earth science, medicine, nanotechnology, electronics, space, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and other sciences and technologies. Launched in 2004, PhysOrg’s readership has grown steadily to include 1.75 million scientists, researchers, and engineers every month. PhysOrg publishes approximately 100 quality articles every day, offering some of the most comprehensive coverage of sci-tech developments world-wide. Quancast 2009 includes PhysOrg in its list of the Global Top 2,000 Websites. PhysOrg community members enjoy access to many personalized features such as social networking, a personal home page set-up, RSS/XML feeds, article comments and ranking, the ability to save favorite articles, a daily newsletter, and other options.

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