The Economist Audio Edition 2 September 2017
Sanson Logan
About The Economist
With a growing global circulation (now more than 1.5 million including both print* and digital) and a reputation for insightful analysis and perspective on every aspect of world events, The Economist is one of the most widely recognised and well-read current affairs publications. The paper covers politics, business, science and technology, and books and arts, concluding each week with the obituary. In addition to the web-only content such as blogs, debates and audio/video programmes available on the website, The Economist is now available to download for reading on Android, Blackberry PlayBook, iPhone or iPad devices.
More about The Economist
Audio articles are on the brink of ubiquity. There was "rapid development" in the format last year, according to Reuters Institute, and 80% of media leaders are planning to invest more in digital audio throughout 2022.
"In our conversations around trends and predictions, it is clear that many publishers believe that audio offers better opportunities for both engagement and monetisation than they can get through similar investments in text or video," wrote Nic Newman.
With 7.6 million subscribers as of September 2021, The New York Times is the world leader in digital news subscriptions. It's also a major force in audio journalism, reaching around 20 million listeners a month.
Using a BeyondWords integration with Arc XP, The Irish Times began offering automated audio articles in 2019. They now use an Irish-accented voice from our library to deliver engaging narration on their website and app, as well as distributing their human-read audio through our platform.
"We now have AI audio on almost all of our articles and we have decided to make this a subscriber benefit. When a user clicks the icon to listen they are prompted to log in or subscribe," said digital editor Paddy Logue. "We see it as a major part of a more holistic audio offering."
With 2.8 million subscribers as of September 2021, The Wall Street Journal is the third biggest news subscription service globally. The publication has been pretty quiet regarding its audio strategy and results, but it delivers audio versions of most articles using AI voices.
The first major publication to invest in an audio edition, The Economist has long flown the flag for listenable journalism. It all began when the publication identified a problem it called 'unread guilt factor': subscribers were canceling because they didn't have enough time to read.
Tortoise Media has focussed on slow news and made audio central to the package. With dedicated Read, Listen, and Watch sections on-site, they effectively direct audiences to their preferred formats and prompt them to become members.
"Since we are an English-language publication in Japan, we have a good number of non-native readers who find the audio component to be helpful for language study. But even for native speakers who simply want to listen to content instead of read it, I think it is definitely an attractive feature," said Mark Thompson, deputy managing editor.
The BBC is the biggest English-language news site in the world. It delivers more than 100 hours of original audio every day through the likes of podcasts and radio, and has more recently explored article narration using voice AI.
Jim Bodor, the managing director of digital product strategy for HBR, believes that audio has "quietly emerged [as] the preferred way for people to consume content". It's little wonder, then, that the magazine also produces and distributes a library of podcasts.
The New Yorker has partnered with a third-party app to make selected stories available in audio. The magazine also offers ad-supported podcasts, which are available through its own website and apps as well as platforms like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Audible.
"Audio is particularly interesting for our audience because of that multitasking utility, that is a real news use case. The delivery of journalism is changing to meet this moment, audio for a multitasking audience a huge tool in our toolkit," said Beizer.
Listening habits aren't going anywhere, and it won't be long until audiences expect audio on every article. Launching read-aloud functionality now not only means capitalizing on the benefits sooner, but building a listenership and sonic brand that pays dividends in the future.
With BeyondWords, you can fully automate the audio publishing process. Engaging narration is available within minutes of publishing and stays in sync as your stories evolve. Plus, analytics and monetization opportunities are built in, and it's all for a fraction of the cost of human voice over.
"With our podcast audience doubling in the past three years to 5m monthly unique listeners, audio has become our fastest-growing platform and has proven to be an important way to bring our journalism to new and diverse audiences," said Bob Cohn, president, The Economist. "We think the new shows and features that are part of Economist Podcasts+ are a great addition to our strong portfolio."
"The decision to create a subscription tier for podcasts is the logical result of our approach to our business across digital and print: we produce premium journalism for subscribers around the world and make it available at a fair price," said Cohn. "We think podcasting ought to follow that model, and we believe this initiative will enable further investment in our audio offerings."
The Prince was a finalist for the 2023 National Magazine Award in Podcasting and the winner of the Human Rights Press Award for multimedia and Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award for best audio reporting. The British Podcasting Awards has recognised The Economist for Best Podcast Network; The Intelligence for Best Current Affairs Podcast and Best Daily Podcast, and Money Talks for Best Business Podcast. Babbage was named the Best Science Podcast by the Association of British Science Writers in 2022.
About The Economist (economist.com)With rigorous reporting, in-depth analysis and global perspective, The Economist explains today's most important events and seeks to discern the trends that will shape tomorrow. In addition to the weekly print edition, The Economist publishes its journalism daily through its website, app, podcasts, 15 newsletters, short- and long-form video and Espresso, an app for concise global news. The Economist has 1.2 million subscribers. More than 60m people follow The Economist across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok and Threads.
Commonly known as the Beige Book, this report is published eight times per year. Each Federal Reserve Bank gathers anecdotal information on current economic conditions in its District through reports from Bank and Branch directors and interviews with key business contacts, economists, market experts, and other sources. The Beige Book summarizes this information by District and sector. An overall summary of the twelve district reports is prepared by a designated Federal Reserve Bank on a rotating basis.
Nell joins the newsroom audio audience team as a news assistant based out of the New York office. Prior to joining The Times, Nell spent time at Crooked Media, consulting at Bain & Company and, most recently, writing for the climate tech newsletter Climate Tech VC while working as chief of staff at Lowercarbon Capital. Born and raised in New York City, Nell currently lives in Brooklyn. In her free time, you can find her training for the New York Marathon or moonlighting as a grilled cheese connoisseur.
This paper reviews the empirical literature assessing the effects of subsidies for professional sports franchises and facilities. The evidence reveals a great deal of consistency among economists doing research in this area. That evidence is that sports subsidies cannot be justified on the grounds of local economic development, income growth or job creation, those arguments most frequently used by subsidy advocates. The paper also relates survey evidence showing that economists in general oppose sports subsidies. In addition to reviewing the empirical literature, we describe the economic intuition that probably underlies the strong consensus among economists against sports subsidies.
Duke University economics professor Bruce Caldwell talked about the life and philosophy of Austrian-British economist Friedrich Hayek, a leading proponent of free market capitalism. This event was hosted by the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
Well, economist Allison Schrager does not think bringing back old-school pensions is a good idea. Schrager is an economist and a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and we've got her on the line to ask why.
Dr. Bobby Golden, Extension rice and soil fertility agronomist, and Dr. Jason Bond, weed scientist with the MSU Delta Research and Extension Center visit with ag economist Dr. Larry Falconer about current market trends, basis for different crops, and other economic challenges.
[NOTE: Episode was recorded during week of September 24, but was not published due to internet service interruption.]
GURA: Yeah. I don't want to diminish the difficulty of that both to people and businesses. Keep in mind, though, that when there is a shutdown, everyone does get paid eventually. But, yeah, hundreds of thousands of government workers wouldn't get paid. The government wouldn't be able to pay for what it's bought. That has a direct effect on the economy, all kinds of knock-on effects. The severity of a shutdown will depend on how long it lasts, if there is one. And if it were to go on for a couple of days, couple of weeks - well, the fallout from that would not be huge. But if it were to last longer, then the U.S. economy would take a bigger hit. The financial services firm EY says a shutdown would take one-tenth a percentage point off of GDP every week. Greg Daco is the chief economist at EY who tells me a concern of his is when this could happen.
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