OK, It's Time to Get Serious About Audio

By: Steve Outing What's the Internet really about: Text, audio, video, some combination?



Today, it remains largely text-oriented due to the obvious bandwidth constraints that most Internet users live under. But we're clearly headed into a period where this will change - where audio and video will be as common to the user experience of news and information consumption as text. You'll be as likely to listen to or watch news content as to read it on a Web page.



(Smart news publishers of the future will offer the consumer a choice of reading/listening/viewing formats.)



And that means it's time for online news publishers to start the transition - from an emphasis on text to a nearly equal focus on audio (but not video, just yet).



The time is now?



Why now? Is there a sense of urgency yet about taking audio beyond the experimental stage, where most news publishers currently relegate it?



Actually, yes, because the growth of the wireless Internet looks to create a lucrative opportunity within the next couple years for news publishers to profit from it. Internet-enabled mobile phones and wireless PDAs (Palm Pilots, et al) should soon be buzzing with audio content. (And let's not forget portable digital audio devices like MP3 players, and e-book reading devices).



Fast-forward a couple years. Here's the likely scenario:



With your Internet-enabled phone, you are able to receive news reports from major news organizations in streaming audio format. (You listen via an earphone connected to the phone, or plug the phone jack into your car radio for playback.)



Your wireless Palm Pilot or other PDA can download audio news content and play it back on demand (again, via a headphone jack).



E-book reading devices, as they become more popular, increasingly are used for news consumption. Content (including audio) is downloaded via a base unit with a high-speed Internet connection, or via wireless connection. Sound is heard through headphones or a speaker housed in the unit.



To a lesser extent, digital audio (MP3) players will be used for audio news consumption - with audio content downloaded via PC Internet connection and transferred to the player for portable consumption. While these devices will primarily be about listening to music, there's no reason they can't also carry audio news content.



Further out, Internet radio in automobiles creates an interesting market for audio news. Traditional radio stations won't be the only ones offering news in cars. (In fact, if current trends hold, radio stations will cede Internet-to-the-auto news to other media entities like newspapers, which will move faster in the Internet radio space.)


It's here today



For a glimpse of where Internet audio is going, look at what Audible.com is doing today. The 3-year-old, publicly traded New Jersey company started out focusing on selling digital versions of books - the modern-day replacement for audio books on cassette tape.



While spoken books continue to account for more than 50% of the company's sales, audio subscription services are growing quickly and could at some point not too far off equal the digital audio book trade, says Foy Sperring, vice president and general manager of Audible.



Audible currently works with some major newspapers and magazines, recording condensed audio versions of their content, which is delivered to paying customers. For example, you can subscribe to a spoken version of TheWall Street Journal, which takes the newspaper's top stories and condenses them for audio presentation. There are two audio reports daily: a morning report summarizing the top stories in that day's Journal (voice-recorded in the middle of the night), and an afternoon report featuring breaking news from the early part of the day.



Prices for newspaper audio editions vary depending on length of subscription. For The New York Times audio edition, a single day is 95 cents; one month is $6.95; 6 months is $35.95; and one year is $49.95. Most of Audible's newspaper partners price their audio editions at the same rate.



Audio magazine content tends to be priced lower, because frequency of publication is of course less.



(Audible also offers "all you can eat" subscription plans, starting at $9.95 a month and going up. These allow a subscriber to download a set number of digital audio books each month, and/or listen to an unlimited number of audio subscriptions, including news.)



Free content, for a price



While audio news content subscriptions are growing nicely, says Sperring, the audio content that's really surprised him is radio programming that is now available for free - but lots of people are willing to pay for it when it's packaged for easy and convenient time-shifting.



For example, Fresh Air, the daily interview program with Terry Gross, which is very popular in the U.S., is sold by subscription via Audible. ($1.95 for a single show; $6.95 for a month; $35.95 for 6 months; and $49.95 for a year - similar pricing to that of the audio New York Times.)



The remarkable thing is that Gross fans can not only listen to Fresh Air on public radio for free, they also can download past programs for free listening on their computers from National Public Radio's Web site. Sperring says his company has found that such free radio content is among its biggest sellers, because people are willing to pay for the convenience of having the programs delivered to them for listening when they want - as long as the price is low enough.



Gross' show airs at 7 p.m. U.S. Eastern time, but many commuters are in their cars between 5 and 6. Her fans are willing to pay for the ability to time-shift the program to meet their needs. Sperring wouldn't release sales figures for the Gross show, but says, "I can't tell you how popular it is."



"It's about convenience," he says. "That's an important message to publishers." You can take free content, put it in audio format, and successfully charge for it. What you give away free on the Web you may be able to charge money for in audio, condensed format. (But the content must be made appropriate to spoken presentation, of course.)



For now, for the big brand names



Are there opportunities for smaller newspapers and news organizations with for-fee audio content? Working with the likes of Audible, national news entities with strong brand names will do best. When the concept of audio online content has expanded more to the mass market, then smaller newspapers and publications serving narrow niches may work.



For now, Sperring says he's willing to talk to major regional papers about creating paid audio editions. Papers in major metro areas like Seattle, Chicago or Denver, for instance, might succeed even today. For smaller news organizations, paid audio content services will have to be created on their own or with other partners.



Can you charge for audio news?



If you look at other audio news experiments by the news industry in doing local programming, many of them offer free content. For instance, Internet radio programming and services vendor Everstream, which provides Internet radio channels for newspaper Web sites, also supports its clients in developing local programming.



The Jerusalem Post, an Everstream client, is taking its local Internet radio content seriously, pumping out Middle East news to a global online audience. For now, the service is free to listeners. (The Post's Internet division is making money by syndicating its online radio newscasts to other Web sites.)



In Arizona, the Arizona Republic is the first U.S. Everstream client to produce a local news Internet radio channel. It's hired a former radio reporter and anchor, Gayle Bass, to deliver thrice-daily news reports (and more often when there's big breaking news) on AZLiveWire.



As wireless devices proliferate and become broadband-capable in the future, it's possible that news publishers will be able to follow Audible's lead and charge money for their Internet audio content instead of just giving it away. Just because you don't charge for audio news content on the Web doesn't mean you can't charge when delivering to mobile phones and other wireless devices. A standard business model has yet to be determined.



Anyone who gets into that game must realize, however, that Internet radio (especially paid digital audio) must be original content in order to succeed. What won't work is merely reading what's been published on the Web and putting it up as audio content. What will work is fresh content, or existing content that's been refashioned (typically, condensed) appropriately for digital audio listening.



Other recent columns



In case you missed recent Stop The Presses!, here are links to the last few columns: Is Now the Time to Start Charging for Your Content?, Wednesday, October 25 The Hows and Whys of E-mail Publication Advertising, Wednesday, October 18 Are Days of Innovation Waning For Online News?, Wednesday, October 11 Archive of columns



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Steve





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This column is written by Steve

Outing for Editor & Publisher Online. Tips, letters and feedback

can be sent to Steve at steve@planetarynews.com





Copyright 2000, Editor & Publisher.