Publishers and editors are not the quickest group to jump in and grab the opportunities as soon as they become obvious. It’s happened before with the Internet, then again with mobile.
This time, it is all about audio, audio and audio. Sort of as if the publishers are saying: Alexa, show me the money!
I keep telling my clients that just like Starbucks took an old substance, coffee, and transformed it into something new, trendy and that people would pay a premium for, publishers now have an opportunity to take another old thing, audio (remember radio?) and even make some money from it.
Which is why I am delighted to read this piece that announces that, indeed, publishers are experimenting with smart speakers, all with an eye on how to monetize such experiments. Good thing.
A lot of the attention is on Amazon’s Echo, seen below, one of the leading platforms in the smart speakers space, a device that is already used for publishing daily Alexa flash briefings. Alexa can bring us the news too, along with everything else she already does. Just think of all those movies you have seen where Cary Grant’s butler would bring him his daily newspaper, on a silver tray, along with orange juice and coffee.
I think that there are many opportunities with smart speakers and news, but also with sponsored content and with a variety of content that may not necessarily be related to breaking news. I can imagine those popular daily newsletters coming via smart speakers, some daily, some weekly a combination of lifestyle leisure material, sponsored by advertisers.
I am thinking here of visionary Tyler Brulé and the early days of his quite successful (and fun) Monocle Radio. I remember appearing on some of Tyler’s Monocle Radio shows, and also recall a specific conversation he had with me while going up on the elevator to the studio to tape a show. It was December of 2016 and Tyler was already excited about the prospects of audio and of radio specifically.
Please, publishers and editors, pay attention, get on the train now, and you will be doing your audiences a big favor. Audio is big. Smart speakers are here to stay.
Read this entire piece for its good content on the subject:
Mario’s speaking engagements
Here are places where I will be taking the message of mobile storytelling in the weeks ahead:
June 12, NEC Media City, Bergen, Norway, Storytelling workshop for Editors
June 13, Fortellingens kraft 2019, Bergen, Norway, Long form Mobile Storytelling for Writers
July 11, Florida Media Conference, St. Petersburg, FL, Keynote for editors: The mobile first newspaper strategy.
Mario’s weekend rituals…..
Monocle interviews me about what I do on a typical weekend (is there such a thing? Not for someone like me who is seldom in the same location twice. But I gave it my best shot, for what may come as a normal weekend, when I am home in New York! Enjoy.
https://monocle.com/minute/2019/04/27/
Pre-order The Story
The newspaper remains the most powerful source of storytelling on the planet. But technology threatens its very existence. To survive, the Editor must transform, adapt, and manage the newsroom in a new way. Find out how, pre-orderThe Story by Mario Garcia, chief strategist for the redesign of over 700 newspapers around the world.
Order here:
https://thaneandprose.com/shop-the-bookstore?olsPage=products%2Fthe-story
An interview of interest
http://www.itertranslations.com/blog/2019/3/11/fd60ybflpvlqrgrpdp5ida5rq0c3sp
TheMarioBlog post #3059