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BeyondWords Blog

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  • Should newsrooms build or buy an AI audio stack?
    As newsrooms expand into AI audio, many face the same strategic choice: Build your own workflow using a general-purpose TTS API, or let BeyondWords handle everything for you.
    In other words, should you build or buy your audio stack?
    In this post, we'll compare these two AI audio approaches. So you can choose the one that makes sense for your newsroom.
    Using a general-purpose TTS API means engineering your own stack and workflow. A service like Polly, Azure, Google, ElevenLabs, Hume, or Cartesia handles audio generation, and you build the surrounding infrastructure. This gives you full control over your stack, but it takes a lot of work.
    On the other hand, BeyondWords provides everything you need out of the box - content generation, distribution, analytics, monetization - giving you a complete workflow with far less engineering effort. The company also provides ongoing support and product development.
    General-purpose TTS APIs don't extract or clean your content - your team has to build a system that identifies which parts of each article should be narrated and which should be excluded.
    Without proper extraction, elements such as navigation labels, captions, inline components, related links, or HTML fragments may end up in the audio. Most newsrooms solve this by building custom logic to parse article templates, strip out unwanted elements, and deliver only clean editorial content to the API.
    This approach works, but it requires maintenance whenever templates or CMS structures change.
    BeyondWords offers Magic Embed, Ghost, and WordPress integrations, which automatically extract clean editorial content for narration. This ensures a great listening experience and keeps audio consistent through CMS changes, removing the ongoing maintenance your team would otherwise have to manage.
    If you use our API or RSS Feed Importer, you will need to set up and maintain extraction logic. But our support team will be on hand to help you with any issues.
    General-purpose TTS APIs like Polly, Azure, Google, ElevenLabs, Hume, and Cartesia offer wide selections of high-quality voices, but these voices are built for various use cases (such as video game characters). So, you may need to sift through dozens to find one suitable for news narration.
    Some providers, including ElevenLabs and Azure, also offer voice cloning. The quality, training requirements, and licensing vary by model, so your results depend heavily on which provider you choose.
    Once you pick a provider, you're largely locked into its capabilities. If another vendor releases better voices or more advanced cloning, moving over isn't trivial - it typically means updating your integration, rebuilding parts of your workflow, and adapting to a new set of tools.
    BeyondWords is built to keep pace with rapid advances in voice technology. We integrate high-performing voices and cloning models from providers like Azure and ElevenLabs, expanding our support for new models as they reach the quality bar our publishers expect.
    This gives you long-term flexibility: your audio quality improves as the market evolves, without requiring you to rework your workflow or switch vendors.
    We also curate the voices available in the platform to ensure they meet newsroom standards, and we can help you select the right voice for any publication. That expertise leads to stronger sonic branding and saves your newsroom from evaluating an ever-growing list of models.
    Most general-purpose TTS APIs perform basic text normalization before generating audio, automatically converting non-standard text like numbers, dates, and abbreviations into their expected spoken forms.
    However, these systems aren't context-aware, so they can misinterpret ambiguous elements - for example, reading "$" as "dollars" when the article means "pesos".
    These APIs generally let you correct mispronunciations by adding custom pronunciation rules through SSML or a lexicon, but these fixes must be created and maintained manually.
    BeyondWords includes ...
    15 min
  • Livingdocs and BeyondWords partner to simplify audio and video publishing
    We're excited to announce that BeyondWords has partnered with Livingdocs, a leading editorial system, to make it easier for newsrooms to expand into audio and video publishing.
    Once connected to Livingdocs, BeyondWords automatically generates audio and video versions of published articles. This allows newsrooms to unlock the potential of multimedia content without adding any steps to their editorial workflow.
    Capitalizing on modern media habits
    As audiences increasingly switch between reading, listening, and watching, publishers need flexible ways to deliver content across formats. BeyondWords and Livingdocs make that possible, helping publishers reach more readers, boost engagement, and create new revenue opportunities.
    Céline Tykve, Head of Business at Livingdocs, says: "Our publishers want to innovate and adapt, but they also need to maintain the speed and simplicity of their workflows. By partnering with BeyondWords, we're helping them expand into audio and video in a way that's efficient, cost-effective, and aligned with how they already publish."
    Tailoring audio and video to each publication
    Livingdocs publishers can use BeyondWords' voice cloning tools to create their own AI voices or choose from an extensive library of lifelike voices. Custom pronunciation rules and text preprocessing ensure every story is narrated naturally and accurately.
    Publishers can also customize the audio player, video captions, and other elements to ensure multimedia formats align seamlessly with their brand identity.
    "At BeyondWords, we understand how much Livingdocs publishers care about their brand voice and editorial standards," says Patrick O'Flaherty, BeyondWords Co-Founder and CEO. "We help them maintain that identity and quality as they expand their storytelling into audio and video."
    To learn more about how Livingdocs and BeyondWords can work together in your newsroom, get in touch with our team.
    2 min
  • ElevenLabs AI voices & voice cloning live in BeyondWords
    Exciting news! ElevenLabs AI voices and voice cloning are now available in BeyondWords.
    That means you can get your articles narrated by some of the best-sounding AI voices on the market - at scale - without complicated setups or workflows.
    Just pick your favorite voices and let our platform do the rest.
    Effortless publishing through BeyondWords
    BeyondWords removes the complexity of bringing ElevenLabs voices into your newsroom workflow, because it's purpose-built for publishers.
    Our platform transforms your articles into audio and video using your chosen voices, then embeds them into your website or app. There's full support for subscription paywalls and ad monetization, and trackable results through built-in analytics and integrations.
    You can connect your CMS to BeyondWords in whichever way works best for your setup - using our API, RSS Feed Importer, Magic Embed, or CMS-specific plugins. And we'll provide all the support you need to integrate and scale.
    Voices handpicked for news content
    Our team handpicked the ElevenLabs voices featured in BeyondWords, selecting only the very best options for news audio and video. So, there's no need to scroll through hundreds of unsuitable character voices - you'll find a variety of news-ready options in seconds.
    These hyper-realistic, emotionally engaging voices span multiple languages and accents and represent a variety of personalities and speaking styles.
    You can hear one of our favorite ElevenLabs voices, Archer, when you listen to this article.
    We're confident there's a great pre-made voice for every publication. But if you want to take sonic branding a step further, there's voice cloning.
    Next-generation voice clones
    We're now using ElevenLabs to power our Professional Voice Clones, so you can create custom voices with the same level of quality, realism, and expressiveness as ElevenLabs' pre-made voices.
    This is the best way to give your journalism a unique, authentic voice at scale.
    Media leaders like News Corp Australia, La Nación, and Schibsted have already used BeyondWords to create journalist voice clones, so they can deliver narrations that sound as real and individual as the reporters behind the stories.
    You can create a Professional Voice Clone with as little as 30 minutes of recorded audio.
    Smarter speech through preprocessing
    BeyondWords uses AI preprocessing to prepare your articles for ElevenLabs voice conversion, ensuring elements like acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols are converted into their correct spoken forms.
    For example, the system can normalize "$" into "dollars" or "pesos" based on the article's context, ensuring the voice narrates correctly.
    This adds a reliable layer of quality assurance for publishers, reducing the risk of misreads and delivering a better listening experience.
    For those rare exceptions, you can create and manage custom pronunciation rules in your BeyondWords dashboard. This means names, brand terms, and other elements always sound the way you want them to.
    Book your demo today
    By using ElevenLabs voices through BeyondWords' AI audio and video platform, you can bring lifelike narration to your journalism quickly, reliably, and at scale.
    To see just how easy it could be, book a demo with our team.
    4 min
  • SPH Media brings authentic AI voices to Malay and Tamil titles
    SPH Media has launched BeyondWords-powered AI audio across two major Singapore titles, unlocking a more intuitive way for local language communities to experience the news.
    Audiences can now listen to articles on the websites and apps of Berita Harian and Tamil Murasu, Singapore's leading Malay- and Tamil-language newspapers.
    Articles are narrated by hyper-realistic AI voice clones of newsroom journalists, giving both publications a familiar, authentic, and trustworthy voice that's true to their identity.

    In Singapore, English is the main language people learn to read and write in, while Malay and Tamil are more often used for speaking. So, many Singaporeans are less confident reading news written in their mother tongue.
    For SPH's Malay and Tamil newsrooms, audio presented a clear opportunity to make their journalism more accessible and unlock new pathways for habit-building, loyalty, and future revenue.
    "Sometimes you read the first paragraph and you're tired because it's not your natural consumption pattern," explains Santhosh Vemisetty, Principal Product Manager at SPH Media. "But if you hear the story, it's simpler. It's your natural way of consuming content."
    SPH Media evaluated multiple AI voice providers and found BeyondWords ticked two boxes that mattered most: lifelike quality and editorial control.
    "BeyondWords was the first solution where the voices actually felt real, and where we could fine-tune pronunciation to protect editorial integrity.
    "But the big differentiator was the CMS. We need human-in-the-loop workflows, not a black-box generator. BeyondWords was the only audio platform that actually aligned with the way we publish news."
    SPH Media used our voice-cloning service to create lifelike AI versions of two trusted newsroom voices, giving listeners a familiar, credible way to experience their journalism.
    Here's an extract of a Berita Harian article, brought to life with Atiyyah Said's voice clone:

    And an extract of a Tamil Murasu article, brought to life by Palanisamy Veerrappan's voice clone:

    "We wanted the audio to feel familiar and trustworthy," Santhosh says. "So we cloned the voices of presenters who already host our shows and podcasts. They were the strongest voices we had, and the clones sound incredibly natural."
    SPH Media connected BeyondWords to its websites and apps using our Magic Embed integration, ensuring audio articles are generated and embedded automatically.
    The audio player provides a continuous playback experience, meaning:
    When one audio article ends, the next one plays automatically
    When listeners scroll to the next article, the audio switches automatically
    Users can also see which part of the article is being read and click anywhere to start listening - a natural fit for the read-and-listen habits many bilingual speakers prefer.

    "People who start listening to one article often move on to a second, third, or fourth. Around 20 to 25% continue to the next article," says Santhosh.
    SPH Media is also seeing average playback rates for BeyondWords audio reach five times higher than its internal and regional benchmarks.
    But, Santhosh and his team aren't stopping there: "We're exploring multiple ways to engage our audience better, whether that's through offering multiple voice options or launching curated playlists.
    "On the commercial side, we're planning to introduce a sign-up prompt for returning listeners. We're also looking to launch ad-supported video articles with BeyondWords, to see if we can further monetize that audio attention."
    Want to know how AI audio and video can drive revenue for your media business? Book a demo with our team.
    5 min
  • ElevenLabs AI voices & voice cloning live in BeyondWords - Archer v2
    Exciting news! ElevenLabs AI voices and voice cloning are now available in BeyondWords.
    That means you can get your articles narrated by some of the best-sounding AI voices on the market - at scale - without complicated setups or workflows.
    Just pick your favorite voices and let our platform do the rest.
    Effortless publishing through BeyondWords
    BeyondWords removes the complexity of bringing ElevenLabs voices into your newsroom workflow, because it's purpose-built for publishers.
    Our platform transforms your articles into audio and video using your chosen voices, then embeds them into your website or app. There's full support for subscription paywalls and ad monetization, and trackable results through built-in analytics and integrations.
    You can connect your CMS to BeyondWords in whichever way works best for your setup - using our API, RSS Feed Importer, Magic Embed, or CMS-specific plugins. And we'll provide all the support you need to integrate and scale.
    Voices handpicked for news content
    Our team handpicked the ElevenLabs voices featured in BeyondWords, selecting only the very best options for news audio and video. So, there's no need to scroll through hundreds of unsuitable character voices - you'll find a variety of news-ready options in seconds.
    These hyper-realistic, emotionally engaging voices span multiple languages and accents and represent a variety of personalities, genders, and speaking styles.
    You can hear one of our favorite ElevenLabs voices, Ellis, when you listen to this article.
    Here are some more ElevenLabs voice demos:
    We're confident there's a great pre-made voice for every publication. But if you want to take sonic branding a step further, there's voice cloning.
    Next-generation voice clones
    We're now using ElevenLabs to power our Professional Voice Clones, so you can create custom voices with the same level of quality, realism, and expressiveness as ElevenLabs' pre-made voices.
    This is the best way to give your journalism a unique, authentic voice at scale.
    Media leaders like News Corp Australia, La Nación, and Schibsted have already used BeyondWords to create journalist voice clones, so they can deliver narrations that sound as real and individual as the reporters behind the stories.
    You can create a Professional Voice Clone with as little as 30 minutes of recorded audio.
    Smarter speech through AI preprocessing
    BeyondWords uses AI preprocessing to prepare your articles for ElevenLabs voice conversion, ensuring elements like acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols are converted into their correct spoken forms.
    For example, the system can normalize "$" into "dollars" or "pesos" based on the article's context, ensuring the voice narrates correctly.
    This adds a reliable layer of quality assurance for publishers, reducing the risk of misreads and delivering a better listening experience.
    For those rare exceptions, you can create and manage custom pronunciation rules in your BeyondWords dashboard. This means names, brand terms, and other elements always sound the way you want them to.
    Book your demo today
    By using ElevenLabs voices through BeyondWords' AI audio and video platform, you can bring lifelike narration to your journalism quickly, reliably, and at scale.
    To see just how easy it could be, book a demo with our team.
    4 min
  • ElevenLabs AI voices & voice cloning live in BeyondWords - Orla
    Exciting news! ElevenLabs AI voices and voice cloning are now available in BeyondWords.
    That means you can get your articles narrated by some of the best-sounding AI voices on the market - at scale - without complicated setups or workflows.
    Just pick your favorite voices and let our platform do the rest.
    Effortless publishing through BeyondWords
    BeyondWords removes the complexity of bringing ElevenLabs voices into your newsroom workflow, because it's purpose-built for publishers.
    Our platform transforms your articles into audio and video using your chosen voices, then embeds them into your website or app. There's full support for subscription paywalls and ad monetization, and trackable results through built-in analytics and integrations.
    You can connect your CMS to BeyondWords in whichever way works best for your setup - using our API, RSS Feed Importer, Magic Embed, or CMS-specific plugins. And we'll provide all the support you need to integrate and scale.
    Voices handpicked for news content
    Our team handpicked the ElevenLabs voices featured in BeyondWords, selecting only the very best options for news audio and video. So, there's no need to scroll through hundreds of unsuitable character voices - you'll find a variety of news-ready options in seconds.
    These hyper-realistic, emotionally engaging voices span multiple languages and accents and represent a variety of personalities, genders, and speaking styles.
    You can hear one of our favorite ElevenLabs voices, Ellis, when you listen to this article.
    Here are some more ElevenLabs voice demos:
    We're confident there's a great pre-made voice for every publication. But if you want to take sonic branding a step further, there's voice cloning.
    Next-generation voice clones
    We're now using ElevenLabs to power our Professional Voice Clones, so you can create custom voices with the same level of quality, realism, and expressiveness as ElevenLabs' pre-made voices.
    This is the best way to give your journalism a unique, authentic voice at scale.
    Media leaders like News Corp Australia, La Nación, and Schibsted have already used BeyondWords to create journalist voice clones, so they can deliver narrations that sound as real and individual as the reporters behind the stories.
    You can create a Professional Voice Clone with as little as 30 minutes of recorded audio.
    Smarter speech through AI preprocessing
    BeyondWords uses AI preprocessing to prepare your articles for ElevenLabs voice conversion, ensuring elements like acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols are converted into their correct spoken forms.
    For example, the system can normalize "$" into "dollars" or "pesos" based on the article's context, ensuring the voice narrates correctly.
    This adds a reliable layer of quality assurance for publishers, reducing the risk of misreads and delivering a better listening experience.
    For those rare exceptions, you can create and manage custom pronunciation rules in your BeyondWords dashboard. This means names, brand terms, and other elements always sound the way you want them to.
    Book your demo today
    By using ElevenLabs voices through BeyondWords' AI audio and video platform, you can bring lifelike narration to your journalism quickly, reliably, and at scale.
    To see just how easy it could be, book a demo with our team.
    4 min
  • ElevenLabs AI voices & voice cloning live in BeyondWords - Archer
    Exciting news! ElevenLabs AI voices and voice cloning are now available in BeyondWords.
    That means you can get your articles narrated by some of the best-sounding AI voices on the market - at scale - without complicated setups or workflows.
    Just pick your favorite voices and let our platform do the rest.
    Effortless publishing through BeyondWords
    BeyondWords removes the complexity of bringing ElevenLabs voices into your newsroom workflow, because it's purpose-built for publishers.
    Our platform transforms your articles into audio and video using your chosen voices, then embeds them into your website or app. There's full support for subscription paywalls and ad monetization, and trackable results through built-in analytics and integrations.
    You can connect your CMS to BeyondWords in whichever way works best for your setup - using our API, RSS Feed Importer, Magic Embed, or CMS-specific plugins. And we'll provide all the support you need to integrate and scale.
    Voices handpicked for news content
    Our team handpicked the ElevenLabs voices featured in BeyondWords, selecting only the very best options for news audio and video. So, there's no need to scroll through hundreds of unsuitable character voices - you'll find a variety of news-ready options in seconds.
    These hyper-realistic, emotionally engaging voices span multiple languages and accents and represent a variety of personalities, genders, and speaking styles.
    You can hear one of our favorite ElevenLabs voices, Archer, when you listen to this article.
    Here are some more ElevenLabs voice demos:
    We're confident there's a great pre-made voice for every publication. But if you want to take sonic branding a step further, there's voice cloning.
    Next-generation voice clones
    We're now using ElevenLabs to power our Professional Voice Clones, so you can create custom voices with the same level of quality, realism, and expressiveness as ElevenLabs' pre-made voices.
    This is the best way to give your journalism a unique, authentic voice at scale.
    Media leaders like News Corp Australia, La Nación, and Schibsted have already used BeyondWords to create journalist voice clones, so they can deliver narrations that sound as real and individual as the reporters behind the stories.
    You can create a Professional Voice Clone with as little as 30 minutes of recorded audio.
    Smarter speech through AI preprocessing
    BeyondWords uses AI preprocessing to prepare your articles for ElevenLabs voice conversion, ensuring elements like acronyms, abbreviations, and symbols are converted into their correct spoken forms.
    For example, the system can normalize "$" into "dollars" or "pesos" based on the article's context, ensuring the voice narrates correctly.
    This adds a reliable layer of quality assurance for publishers, reducing the risk of misreads and delivering a better listening experience.
    For those rare exceptions, you can create and manage custom pronunciation rules in your BeyondWords dashboard. This means names, brand terms, and other elements always sound the way you want them to.
    Book your demo today
    By using ElevenLabs voices through BeyondWords' AI audio and video platform, you can bring lifelike narration to your journalism quickly, reliably, and at scale.
    To see just how easy it could be, book a demo with our team.
    4 min
  • The future of audio AI for media: Highlights from our INMA keynote
    On October 24, 2025, my co-founder Patrick O'Flaherty and I shared our insights into the future of audio AI for media at INMA's Media Tech and AI Week in San Francisco.
    Here are four highlights from our keynote speech, which focused on
    AI article narration:
    1. Brands will sound as distinct as they look
    As audiences spend more time with audio and video content, how your publication sounds will become just as vital to its identity as how it looks.
    Voice plays the central role in sonic branding. Just as a person's voice tells us so much about who they are and how they feel, an article's voice influences how listeners perceive your publication and connect with your story.
    AI voice cloning makes it possible to use unique, on-brand voices at scale.
    For example, we helped News Corp Australia
    clone the voices of dozens of journalists in newsrooms across Australia, including legendary cricket commentator Robert 'Crash' Craddock.
    Sonic logos, background music, and sound effects can also make audio articles more distinctive and immersive. This helps audiences to recognize your content across platforms and form lasting connections with your brand.
    2. Multimodal consumption will drive multimodal journalism
    As multimodal news consumption grows, publishers must craft stories that work fluidly across formats.
    Journalists and editors will increasingly consider how their work sounds as well as how it reads, writing in ways that feel more conversational. They may also favor topics that lend themselves well to spoken formats, such as human-interest stories.
    AI will help to bridge the gap between formats, automatically adapting the base content for optimal listening, viewing, or reading experiences. For example, by generating spoken summaries of visual charts.
    These advancements will give journalists the freedom to focus on their preferred mediums while maximizing their stories' impact and reach.

    3. Audio will become integral to product design
    Audio is too often an afterthought in product design - something bolted onto text-first interfaces rather than built in from the start.
    But that's changing.
    The future lies in audio experiences that are intrinsic to product design, treated as a core part of the user experience rather than an optional add-on layer.
    Some publishers are already experimenting with audio-centric design.
    Earlier this year, Jysk Fynske Medier (JFM)
    increased listen rates tenfold by implementing BeyondWords' playback-by-paragraph feature, which lets readers start listening by clicking anywhere in the text.
    With our new persistent playback feature, available through our player SDKs, listeners can keep listening as they navigate between pages on a website or app.
    4. Hyper-personalized audio will deepen engagement
    In the future, AI audio will adapt to each listener in real time.
    The voice's tone, accent, and pacing will automatically shift to suit personal preferences or inferred listening habits, deepening listener engagement.
    For example, narration might sound brighter and more energetic during morning commutes, then softer and slower during late-night listening sessions.
    One of the clearest opportunities for personalization lies in regional accents, which can be tailored to a listener's preferences or location. This will make audio more engaging and easier to understand.
    Publishers like The Irish Times are
    already using regional accents to strengthen connections with localized audiences.
    Prepare for the future of AI audio
    Audio production and consumption is changing fast, and media companies must adapt to stay ahead.
    With BeyondWords, you can automatically generate, distribute, and monetize audio versions of your articles using advanced AI voices or voice clones. To learn what we could do for your publication,
    book a meeting with our team.
    4 min
  • News Corp Australia launches AI audio across its major news brands
    News Corp Australia today announced a bold step into the future of journalism, rolling out text-to-speech audio across its major news brands.
    With this launch, millions of readers now have the option to listen to the news - not just read it - changing how audiences connect with their news content every day.
    A new way to engage with the news
    The listen function is now live across both web and app on titles including The Australian, news.com.au, The Daily Telegraph, Herald Sun, The Courier-Mail, The Advertiser, The Mercury, NT News, Cairns Post, Gold Coast Bulletin, Toowoomba Chronicle, Townsville Bulletin, Geelong Advertiser, The Weekly Times, and CODE Sports.
    Enabled on thousands of articles each week, the rollout spans key categories from news and sport to business, entertainment, opinion, health, and education.

    The voices of the newsroom
    News Corp Australia worked hand-in-hand with BeyondWords to develop brand-specific voices cloned from their journalists. The hyper-realistic clones represent their newsrooms, allowing each title to have their own unique voice.
    As Rod Savage, Director of Newsroom Innovation at News Corp Australia, explains: "The ability to use AI technology to offer brand-specific voices of journalists - which sound remarkably realistic - and automatically enable audio for thousands of our articles will change how our audience connects with our content."
    Seamless listening, anywhere
    Adopting the BeyondWords player and app SDKs, News Corp Australia offers their readers an experience that is designed to fit naturally into modern news habits.
    Readers can listen while commuting, doing chores, or whilst browsing elsewhere on their devices, giving them new ways to consume content, on their terms. Default controls allow them to adjust playback speed and skip forwards and backwards through paragraphs.
    Powered by BeyondWords
    News Corp Australia worked with BeyondWords to build 15 professional voice models and to deliver audio at scale.
    After an initial trial with The Australian, this full rollout is a huge milestone, and just the beginning of what's possible when publishers combine journalism with AI-powered audio.
    3 min
  • JFM boosts listening 10x with BeyondWords Player update
    Jysk Fynske Medier, better known as JFM, is one of Denmark's largest privately held media groups.
    The group publishes 15 daily newspapers and more than 40 local weekly papers, reaching more than 2.7 million Danes per week (out of the 6 million population).
    With a founding mission to enhance democracy and create unity amongst Danish communities, AI audio has become core to their strategy.
    After in-house attempts fell short of expectations, JFM looked to BeyondWords to help unify AI audio across the titles.
    Reliability and speed to market
    JFM knew that their future success would depend on offering new formats that could reach audiences wherever they were - especially those consuming articles on the go.
    They began experimenting with AI audio in 2020, starting with an in-house attempt to configure and integrate a text-to-speech API.
    After some testing, and a review of the potential partners on the market, they chose to proceed with BeyondWords.
    The platform made it possible to roll out high-quality audio across all their titles, drastically accelerating their time to market, while also enhancing the quality of their text-to-speech product along the way.
    Kristoffer Hamborg, Head of Editorial Technology at JFM told us:
    "BeyondWords had something that would work across all our brands. Something that could drastically shorten the time to market compared to developing it ourselves. If there's a good solution in the market that fits our needs, we'd rather use that, rather than inventing the solution ourselves."
    Once integrated, AI audio quickly became a core part of their reader experience - an essential feature within their websites and apps.
    Kristoffer adds:
    "Today, for a lot of users, it's one of the most important features on our sites. If audio is the only way you can stay updated and consume local news, then it is the most important feature for you."
    Engagement gains with playback-from-paragraphs
    In April 2024, eager to spark listening amongst their subscribers and amplify engagement, JFM introduced the BeyondWords playback-from-paragraphs feature.
    The upgrade allows readers to start playback from anywhere in the article, simply by clicking on the text. This makes the audio experience more dynamic and allows readers to switch to listening mid-article.
    The results were immediate. Listener data from three local dailies - Lemvig Folkeblad, Helsingør Dagblad, and Viborg Stifts Folkeblad - showed dramatic gains.
    If we compare the three months to March 1, 2024 to the three months to September 1, 2024:
    Lemvig Folkeblad listen rates increased from 0.14% to 6.71%
    Helsingør Dagblad listen rates increased from 0.15% to 3.03%
    Viborg Stifts Folkeblad listen rates increased from 0.19% to 2.1%

    Across the three titles, average engagement rates rose from under 0.3% to around 4% - a tenfold increase.
    Kristoffer notes:
    "Naturally, we saw a lot more audio being played. It helped people become aware of the possibility of listening to articles. We expected some pushback but the response has been nothing but positive. It's been a real success."
    Looking ahead
    For JFM, audio is no longer an experiment: it's a proven driver of engagement and an essential part of the digital news experience.
    BeyondWords has enabled them to scale AI audio efficiently across dozens of titles, unlocking new ways for readers to connect with local journalism.
    And this is just the beginning. Looking to the future, Kristoffer told us they're excited about how new formats - such as article-to-video and audio digests - will further drive engagement and maintain their reputation for publishing excellence and innovation.
    If you want to learn more about how your team can leverage BeyondWords, lift the impact of every article, and bring peace of mind to your product team, reach out to [email protected] or book a meeting today.
    5 min

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From the publisher's feed

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