Overview of this campaign

Top News is an AI-driven audio solution that we began piloting at Upsala Nya Tidning in early autumn after three months effective time from idea to launch. The goal has been to attract younger audiences who are not yet customers, as well as deepen engagement among existing subscribers. The initiative combines cutting-edge AI technology with traditional, trustworthy editorial work.

 

How it Works: In Top News, we have developed a technical solution that scans the newsroom's article database every ten minutes to identify the five most-read articles at the moment. If a news story performs well throughout the day, it is included in the broadcast, replacing the least-read story. Using an AI engine, these articles are automatically summarized into shorter "telegram-style" formats in text. These summaries are then reviewed by an editor to ensure their accuracy. After approval or necessary corrections, they are converted into audio broadcasts using voice technology from ElevenLabs and a cloned voice named Amanda, developed by NTM-owned company Online Voices.

 

The result is fully automated process (Besides the editors quality check) where the top five news stories of the day are packaged into an audio broadcast with an intro and outro. The broadcast is accessible on both desktop and mobile and is updated between 7:00 AM and 11:00 PM. Toppnyheter is available outside of UNT's paywall to reach a broader audience.

Results for this campaign

Our statistics for Top News show that:

• 40% of our logged-in subscribers have used the service at least once.
• 50% of total listeners are non-subscribers.
• 40% of users listen to the entire broadcast, with peak listening times at 8:00 AM and 7:00 PM.
• Comparing our listening metrics to similar experiments in our industry, we achieve the same percentage of listening when comparing the number of plays to the official numbers of reach for our websites in society. 

The work on Top News has taught us several things:

• The newsroom needs control over editing. A fully automated process isn’t feasible. However, simply approving or correcting the text script is enough to ensure quality.
• Ensuring correct pronunciation of locations and numerical data remains challenging.
• Fine-tuning is required to ensure the automated selection process delivers a good user experience. For example, deciding which news stories should be included to feel current and not outdated, while also being sufficiently significant.
• The project provided us with a completely new audio player, which we can now reuse for podcasts and other audio projects. It has also taught us a lot about how to integrate AI into our workflows to deliver journalism in innovative formats.
• Even as a relatively small media company, we can lead the industry in innovation. The development work took just three effective months with relatively limited resources. Since the launch, we have been approached by several large media houses, including JP Politiken, which is one of the industry leaders in AI development in the media world today, to share insights about our solution.

 

Without the power of AI technology, we wouldn’t have been able to deliver audio in this way. Our newsroom resources wouldn’t suffice. Toppnyheter has been an important step toward creating a better foundation for developing audio journalism and a significant leap forward in enhancing how audiences interact with our news.

Contact

To contact a company representative about this campaign, click here for the INMA Member Directory