Executive Summary

Voice-activated speakers powered by intelligent assistants, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, are growing faster than the smartphone and tablets at a similar stage.1 But how are these devices and assistants being used and what is the potential for news? There are very few data available about the usage of news content on these platforms, or on publisher and platform strategies around news. This report aims to address these gaps by combining in-home research with focus groups, surveys, and interviews to provide a snapshot of current behaviours in the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany. We have also interviewed more than 20 publishers, and other experts to understand more about current perceptions and future potential.

This report is focused on a new set of devices – smart speakers – but the technological changes that lie behind them are much more profound, as intelligent assistants like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby will ultimately sit inside many other devices we rely on in our everyday life, from phones to cars and beyond.

Here are some of our key findings.

Penetration of voice-activated speakers is growing rapidly and is now reaching mainstream audiences, but currently most usage is at a basic level with much consumer frustration around more complex tasks.

• More than one in ten US adults (14%) regularly use these devices equating to around 34m people and 17m homes. Usage in the UK (10%) and Germany (5%) is a little lower but has roughly doubled in the last year.

• For heavy users, voice is now the first and final contact point with technology (often replacing the smartphone or radio in the bedroom). This suggests that voice could become a critical gateway to media going forward.

• Most users report high levels of satisfaction with their smart speakers. Almost a third of owners (32% in the UK) have bought additional devices. Two-thirds (69%) say they will replace or upgrade their speaker when this becomes necessary. They find them convenient and fun, but usage is today largely confined to a small set of basic ‘command and control’ tasks such as accessing music, asking for the weather, or setting timers.

• Wider use of functionality is limited by lack of awareness, poor voice recognition, and the difficulties of remembering more than a few simple commands. This is leading to consumer frustration and abandonment of complex tasks. The platform companies behind smart speakers and voice systems know they need to rapidly address these issues if early promise is to be realised.
•  Smart speakers are most popular with those aged 35–44 and they have also proved a surprise hit with much older groups and the disabled due to the simplicity of operation.

• Smart speakers are mostly replacing radios in the home, particularly in living rooms, kitchens, and bedrooms. Some regular users also say they spend less time with the television and with other screens. Consumers see voice as a chance to de-clutter. Within a few years, many expect voice to have largely replaced remote controls, simplifying access to a range of TV, radio, and other devices.

Despite the rapid growth and strong promotion of voice technology, news consumption on these devices is currently lower than might be expected, with most usage focusing on very short news briefings. Many users are unaware of the wider range of options around news, including how to access their favourite brand. Others are underwhelmed by existing content, which is mostly reversioned from radio or print.

• Although around half of smart speaker users say they use the device for news, only around one in five (21% UK, 18% US) use the news briefing functionality daily.

• Just one in a hundred (1%) say news is the most important function on the device compared with 61% who cite playing music, 6% answering general queries, and 4% getting weather updates (UK data).

• Despite this, regular users of news updates say they like the brevity, the control, and the focus. Around half of those who use briefing functionality say that they feel better informed as a result (56% US, 45% UK). The majority of usage is in the mornings, where new habits are emerging, and last thing at night.

• For those who are not using these devices for news, the main reason cited was the ease of accessing news on other devices (52% US, 51% UK). Only around one in ten (14% US, 10% UK) said they didn’t know how to access the news. This illustrates how critical the development of more device-specific content might be – along with better user interfaces.

• Very few people bother to personalise or change their news settings on the Amazon or Google platforms. As a result, news providers that are suggested as part of platform defaults – BBC in the UK and ARD in Germany – currently have a significant advantage. In the UK, two-thirds of usage is for BBC News (64%), followed by Sky News at 19%. Usage of other brands is extremely limited. The combination of the importance of defaults and the limitations of voice as output suggest that this environment will be characterised by heavy winner-takes-all dynamics.

• There is a problem of attribution. Around a quarter in the UK (23%) and nearly one in ten in the US (7%) could not remember the brand that produced their daily news update. Having said that, strong branding within the audio itself may explain figures that are higher than previous attribution studies in search and social media, where over half failed to recall the brand.2

• Many users complain about the quality of news briefings, about how often they are updated, and about production quality. Some users complain briefings are too long and would prefer updates of no longer than a minute.

• We also find that podcasts do not yet attract significant usage on smart speakers (15% UK, 22% US). Some consumers are unaware that podcasts are available or how to ask for them, while others prefer to consume them on the go (e.g. while commuting, exercising). Speakers are often in the wrong room, they say, or podcasts are too personal to share with family.

News publishers are pursuing a variety of strategies around voice, with broadcasters generally more proactive than newspapers. While some remain to be convinced about the need to invest heavily today, most believe that voice will significantly affect their business over the next decade.

• Broadcasters (particularly those with strong radio heritage) see voice as an existential threat. They have moved fast to secure early mover advantage on the platform but recognise that there is a danger of disruption as their privileged position in audio comes under threat. The focus has been on repackaging radio news bulletins and making live streams and podcasts accessible, but now many are starting to create bespoke content and are experimenting with new formats.

• Newspaper groups have generally been more cautious. They have been burned in the past by investing resources in creating content for new platforms, without a path to monetisation. Many complain about the lack of visibility of their brands in end-user discovery processes. A number are investing in daily current affairs podcasts or niche briefings that are less expensive to produce than round the clock news updates. Others are looking at cost-effective audio services such as text to speech, to provide additional value to consumers.

• Publishers are concerned about the extra power platforms could hold in the voice environment where typically only one answer/brand can be given in response to a command or question. They recognise that they will need to learn how to optimise their content and programmes for voice, but fear that platforms will become choke points, making it even harder to build direct connections with users.

• Publishers want to see better tools to make it easier and quicker to integrate content with the growing number of voice platforms. They also want (a) fair and transparent processes to ensure a level playing field, (b) more common commands across news to reduce consumer confusion, (c) better data from platforms on usage, and (d) a much clearer plan for the monetisation of different types of services.

Technology platforms are developing extremely quickly with the introduction of new devices (with screens) and integrating assistants into cars and headphones. Over the next few years voice technologies are likely to move beyond the home, becoming increasingly embedded in every part of our lives.

Although usage today remains limited, we should remember that we are still at a very early stage of development. Voice recognition is improving rapidly, as is the quality of the synthesised voices/responses that can be returned.

Technology platforms will improve discovery, on-boarding, identity management, data, and tooling – but the tensions with publishers are likely to increase as the platforms become critical gateways for accessing media. In the next year we are likely to see voice platforms themselves playing a bigger role aggregating news automatically, while issues of branding/attribution, data access, and monetisation are likely to be the key flashpoints.

1. Methodology and Approach

This report uses a combination of qualitative, quantitative, and interview-based methodologies to gain a holistic understanding of news production and usage on voice platforms.

Working with Differentology, a UK-based market research agency, we conducted in-home depth interviews and focus groups in three countries (UK, US, and Germany) during August and September 2018. The aim was to understand the behaviour of early adopters who had been using news on these devices for six months or more, to understand how media habits had changed and how voice speakers fitted with a range of other devices. We ran a second series of groups with those who had not yet bought the device (but were open to the idea) to understand barriers to purchase. Both groups were exposed to a range of voice news experiences.

• Eight depth in-home interviews – US and UK.
• Six focus groups – US, UK, and Germany. Half the focus groups were early adopters of voice technology, 50% using news and 50% not using voice tech for news. Spread of gender and ages. The other focus groups were for non-users of voice technology but with an interest in news.
  

Working with YouGov, an international market research agency, we conducted nationally representative online surveys in the UK and US where we asked specifically about different kinds of news usage and attitudes to news. Samples of 3,000 in each country were boosted by an extra 1,000 smart speaker owners in the UK and 500 extra in the United States. This allowed us to drill down – with robust numbers – into demographics and explore differences in behaviour between platforms. In most cases we quote the nationally representative numbers but make clear where we are using the smart speaker boosts, which are not subject to the same quotas.

The author interviewed a range of key players from the news publishing industry. The companies that took part were

• United Kingdom: BBC, Sky News, the Guardian (×2), Telegraph Media Group (×2), Financial Times (×2), The Economist, Reuters
• United States: Wall St Journal (×2), New York Times (×2), Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), CNN
• Germany: Der Spiegel (×2), T Online, Die Zeit, ARD
• Rest of the World: Swedish Radio (SR) (×2), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) (×2)

Finally, we asked the three main platforms, Amazon, Google, and Apple, to share key data points and answer questions about their existing and future news plans.

All three platforms declined our requests for data on the numbers of devices sold in the UK, US, and Germany. They also declined to answer specific questions about the frequency and amount of news consumed by smart speaker owners. Amazon did tell us that tens of millions of devices had been sold worldwide – but not how many tens of millions or in which countries. Amazon, Google, and Apple also provided basic information about country availability, about the type and number of news publishers currently available on their platforms, and about how on-boarding worked. Neither Amazon nor Apple was prepared to discuss future plans or offer an interviewee to respond to the issues raised by publishers in this report. Google did provide a background briefing on future developments and access to a senior member of the US product team, who is quoted in this report.

A full list of interviewees is included in the report as an appendix.

2. What is Voice?

This report is nominally about a new category of devices (Amazon Echo, Google Home, Apple HomePod) that offer new ways for publishers to distribute content, but the technological changes that lie behind these voice-activated speakers are much more profound. Intelligent assistants (Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby) will ultimately sit inside many other devices – smartphones, cars, televisions, even microwaves and fridges. We will increasingly use our voice to control devices and access media, because it is a quicker and more convenient input for many purposes than touchscreens or remote controls. The output is a more complex story and depending on the context may often need to involve screen display of some kind.

In the second half of 2018 there has been a stream of new product launches that may indicate the direction of travel. The Google Hub (October 2018) is a screen-based home assistant that adds a visual layer to voice-driven experiences, competing with the existing Amazon Show. Facebook also entered the market in October with Portal, a new screen-based device, which contains Alexa voice functionality as well as its proprietary voice recognition for video calling. BMW has announced its own voice assistant for its fleet of cars worldwide while Amazon is also targeting drivers with a $50 Auto Echo, a credit card-sized box that sits on your dashboard. The latest Bose headphones now come with both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant inside, allowing users to call up podcasts and instant answers directly into the ear.

This not just about smart speakers

5. Publisher Strategies and Monetisation

In this section, we explore in more detail how publishers and platforms are looking at voice devices. How do broadcasters and newspapers and digital-born outlets think about content and monetisation. What do publishers want from platforms and vice versa?

Most companies are still formulating strategies around voice. Others are overlaying them on top of existing audio strategies, which have become more central in recent years. Here is a selection of thinking from leading news organisations.

Washington Post

Type: Newspaper background, US

Monetisation: Advertising, supporting subscription a secondary goal

Owned by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, it is not surprising that the Post has taken a strong interest in voice. It created one of the first Alexa skills back in 2016 for the presidential election, followed by an on demand politics brief, now called The Daily 202’s Big Idea. The Post recognises that it needs to offer something distinctive that complements news bulletins offered by other publishers. This includes two additional Flash briefing products, one for local Washington weather and another called Retropod, an audio snack that introduces listeners to a ‘fascinating moment from history’ every weekday. ‘Flash Briefings can be very repetitive, with many publishers covering the same national and political content. With Retropod, we wanted to add whimsy and delight to the smart speaker experience,’ says product manager for off-platform services Joseph Price. Another early learning is that audiences ‘appreciate brevity more than breadth’. Retropod runs to three or four minutes, The Daily 202 a little longer. The Post finds that there is twice as much audience for Flash Briefings in the morning compared with the evening, so they try to create clear signposting within the programming that bears in mind the busy listening context at that time of day. ‘We want to create programming that works everywhere the user can encounter the audio, whether it’s the traditional podcast or newer smart speaker ecosystems,’ Price said.

Price does not think enabling conversations around the news using voice is likely to be a mass-market activity any time soon. But as voice search becomes much more important he is acutely aware of the potentially powerful role of platforms. Like other publishers, the Post would like to know how it could get attribution and be compensated for the extra effort required to plug content into voice search.

The Post is exploring a new daily show, which will be the ‘most ambitious attempt yet’ to translate its every day journalism into audio. Like their other audio programming, it will likely be featured both as a podcast and flash briefing format.

The Post sees good monetisation potential in existing audio formats, especially those that attract a large and regular audience. For their Flash Briefing programming, they include short (less than 10 second) pre-roll advertising. Supporting subscription is a secondary goal for audio products, with a priority on expanding The Post’s overall audio audience.

New York Times

Type: Newspaper background, US

Monetisation: A work in progress

The New York Times has taken a cautious approach to voice, partly due to the lack of good data and partly because of the expense involved in creating bespoke content. Instead of going ‘all-in’ on voice, they have been conducting qualitative and interview-based research to drive independent insights before setting their strategy. In common with our findings, they were struck by the simple ways in which the platform was being used today and by the clear desire to spend less time with screens. The new editorial lead for voice, Dan Sanchez, will be working closely with research and product teams to run a series of experiments exploring both new consumer experiences and commercial potential.

The Times is focused on short-, medium-, and long-term goals and is looking to identify areas where it can create differentiated experiences. One of the first short-term changes will be to replace The Daily with a shorter, more native flash briefing. ‘[The Daily] is a great narrative deep dive but it not really a way to quickly get informed about what you need to know at the beginning of every day,’ says Sanchez. A medium-term goal is to launch an interactive news quiz, while longer term innovations may relate to multimodal experiments linking say the newspaper to voice and vice versa. With discovery happening off-platform – another key insight – the Times is looking for the best way to raise awareness of new product offerings.

Wall Street Journal

Type: Newspaper background, US

Monetisation: Nascent, a tool for reaching new audiences

The Journal runs news briefings on both Amazon and Google platforms that are updated two or three times a day. They also run a custom skill, which offers podcasts and market updates, but awareness remains a barrier to usage.

As with many news organisations, ownership of voice is split between editorial teams responsible for audio and video, audience engagement teams, and product teams. The audience team led by Carla Zanoni sees voice as an important new way to reach new audiences rather than driving immediate commercial return. The focus is on experimentation, similar to recent work with Snapchat and Messenger bots. Like other publishers from a newspaper background, the Journal sees voice as a medium- to long-term play and thinks it will only really take off when assistants like Alexa become truly mobile through deep integration into headphones and cars, where Americans spend considerable time.

The Economist

Type: Magazine publisher, UK/US

Monetisation: Value add for subscribers plus sponsorship, plus brand marketing

The Economist has been a pioneer in audio for many years. A significant proportion of app usage (10%) already comes from its audio (human-read) edition consumed on the go.

This ‘audio edition’ will be the first of a number of premium voice services that the magazine hopes to extend to the Alexa and Google platforms when functionality is in place. Only subscribers will have access to the audio edition, helping to create extra value and lock-in.

At the same time, the team will be working on a number of new ‘free’ products that they can use to market their subscription trials and offers. The Economist will soon launch a daily podcast, along with many of the other publishers we have talked to.

Advertising and sponsorship will help cover the costs of these enterprises but the real aim is to help The Economist bring in a new generation of subscribers. Innovation work will focus on contributing to new voice search providing audio responses on key questions in areas where The Economist feels it has particular expertise.

Telegraph Media Group

Type: Newspaper background, UK

Monetisation: Mainly marketing at this stage. Money can come later

The Telegraph has invested significantly in voice, hoping to get ‘first mover advantage’ by embedding the brand into emerging morning routines.

An early flash briefing driven by automated feeds was badly received by audiences and was replaced by professionally produced news bulletins in September 2017, read by journalists with a broadcast background. ‘Having a team that has these skills is valuable,’ says director of video and audio Robert Owers. He says it helps the ‘whole organisation think differently’.

The bulletins are currently about two minutes long and are updated four to six times each day. A version with visuals was added for the Amazon Show. Given the strength of the BBC in the UK, the team is now considering making the briefings more focused on the big story of the day to showcase the Telegraph’s strength in politics and original reporting. ‘We can’t compete with the broadcasters. It doesn’t make sense for every brand to be doing the same thing,’ says Owers. A technology brief was added in 2018 partly due to a wider strategic focus on this vertical and they have also experimented with pop-up briefings (for the Rugby World Cup) but found building awareness hard in a short period of time.

In terms of monetisation, the Telegraph can see potential advertising as well as subscription revenue, but believes that building sticky products should be the priority right now. ‘I do believe the money will follow’, says Owers. ‘Everyone knew that it would be slow at the start, I think personally as soon as it moves to cars that breaks down a lot of the barriers for people and there is another reason to speak rather than pressing buttons.’

Sky News

Type: Commercial broadcaster, UK

Monetisation: Advertising focus

Sky News has built its reputation on breaking news in TV, radio, and online and the flash briefing format fits well with this brand. Sky’s round the clock operation and broadcast infrastructure has allowed it to deliver four updated briefings for News, Sport, Showbiz, and Business – each of around 90 seconds.

Sky would like to offer greater depth, explainers, even conversations around big subjects like Brexit and climate change, but their data suggest that audiences are mainly looking for short, sharp, snappy information in response to very specific commands. Senior product owner Hugh Westbrook says the main limitation right now is that the platform is forcing users to learn its language – rather than the other way round: ‘It will only get good when it understands the person and learns how they talk and think – so it gets it right more often.’

ARD, Tagesschau

Type: Broadcaster, Germany

Monetisation: None (public service)

Public broadcaster ARD’s Tagesschau 100-second news briefing comes pre-installed on Alexa devices in Germany. ARD says around 250,000 unique browsers have access each month (September 2018), with each browser accessing the bulletin, on average, around five or six times in that period. We did not survey brand usage in Germany, but ARD’s publisher data suggest that around 50% of those consuming news on Amazon devices may be accessing the Tagesschau bulletin13 – again confirming the power of the default. The frequency data are also consistent with our survey findings, which suggest that only a minority access bulletins daily.

Using new devices like the Echo Show, ARD is looking to offer screen-based controls to allow users to move forwards and backwards through a bulletin. Christian Radler, editor of strategy and innovation at ARD sees voice as both interesting and disruptive but feels that more complex interactions remain extremely disappointing.

It is a new way of accessing content, of understanding context and another way of moving from a broadcast world to a one-to-one personalised world. But we are a long way from that.

T-Online

Type: Digital born, Germany

Monetisation: Brand building and learning for now

T-Online is one of the biggest news websites in Germany, now owned by an advertising and marketing company (Ströer Group) which has built a new Berlin newsroom with a focus on more original journalism and better experiences.

Florian Harms, editor in chief t-online, is a huge advocate: ‘I believe in voice technology because it’s the easiest and most natural way to retrieve information’. He has installed Alexa devices in the newsroom and in the washrooms to help change culture. During the World Cup the washroom walls displayed tips on ways to engage with the devices to get staff playing and learning. T-Online has brought in a former ARD broadcaster to help create and develop native audio experiences.

Currently the main focus is on a flash briefing for Amazon devices. This was conceived as an audio briefing – everything you need to know in two or three minutes. It takes its agenda and name from the email newsletter – Daybreak – that Florian Harms puts out himself. Production is outsourced to a Leipzig radio station and the edition is available at 6am every weekday. The numbers are still small but growing. As the graph shows, the majority of usage comes as part of early morning routines, with a peak at around 7am.

T-Online news usage by time of day

T-Online’s ownership structure means that there is little pressure for immediate financial return. Learning what works in voice is extremely valuable to a company that makes its money from digital marketing and advertising.

Zeit Online

Type: Newspaper background but digital-born approach

Monetisation: Limited advertising and brand marketing (cross-promotion)

Die Zeit has been running a short daily news update for over a year, which generates significant traffic both as a podcast, and via the Alexa platform. With ARD’s Tagesschau providing regular news updates, Zeit’s briefing is focussed on background and original perspectives on the news. Most of the bulletin is finished by 9pm the previous evening and contains around five or six short stories per episode. It tends to include one funny or unusual story – and this serendipitous approach has gone down well in audience testing. They are about to launch a news quiz skill (app) for Alexa – essentially an audio version of the popular website quiz.

Die Zeit is looking to counter declining returns from online advertising. In this respect they see audio and voice as interesting because of the levels of attention that is being generated and because these platforms are not subject to ad-blocking. Their research also shows that audio could be a way of building bridges to the main website and magazine brands. User testing shows that many podcast listeners do not currently use Zeit Online so the focus right now is using voice to market other services. Advertisers in Germany are holding back from going all-in on podcasts but this may shift as audiences grow. Only a small percentage (under 5%) of listening to popular Zeit podcasts come via smart speaker at the moment.

What is Stopping Publishers Investing More in Voice?

From talking to publishers, we find four key barriers at this stage:

1. Lack of resources for innovation.
2. Lack of a clear path to monetisation.
3. Problems of discovery and awareness.
4. Lack of usage data to guide development.

Legacy newspaper groups are finding it particularly hard to find new money for innovation without a clear business case. Previous investments in podcasting, online video, or VR have not always worked out and news organisations tend to be wary these days when the platforms come calling with the next big thing. ‘If you are a broadcaster then it is a no brainer to get into this early but it is much more difficult for us’, says Christian Bennett, global head of video and audio at the Guardian. Spinning up new audio teams is expensive and Bennett is yet to be convinced that there is an audience big enough to start making bespoke content. Part of the problem is that platforms have not been sharing data on the amount of news usage on the platform and that makes him suspicious:

No one showed me any figures anywhere. If a new platform is good they will sing from the rooftops and I’m not seeing that right now.

Talking to publishers, we heard many complaints about lack of data that could help them make rational decisions. As one example, platforms have been pushing for content to be created for their new screen-based devices, they say, but are not providing any information on how many of these devices have been sold. While understanding that there are some constraints around data sharing, one leading publisher said they currently had no demographic data on their own usage and no details of frequency. They also wanted benchmarks from platforms, so they could understand relative performance.

We’ve been told that our content performs better than expected but what does that mean? We see the number of plays, but is that a good number? We don’t have context for the data we have.

In terms of monetisation, publishers are aware that the platform is still developing but want their requirements in this area to be prioritised. Subscription-based publishers, for example, are asking for ways to seamlessly enable premium services on smart speakers. Others would like some kind of payment from platforms in return for content to help build usage, not least because few believe that selling advertising around short-form voice content can ever deliver financial return. This is why podcasts or slightly longer daily briefings are currently favoured options, even if these are not the most always the most native way to use these technologies.

Discoverability of news content remains a critical barrier for others. With broadcasters dominating default positions, the rest are finding it hard to raise awareness of new products. Most discovery is currently happening off-platform but invocation terms (the way things have to be asked for) are sometimes different across Amazon, Google, Apple, and Samsung platforms. This makes it complicated to promote a new offering and drive usage. If platforms can’t create better on-boarding – such as using pre-existing signals about brand preference to flag relevant content – there will be little incentive for smaller players to create that content in the first place.

There are also technical concerns related to the complexity of generating content for different devices. There is little tooling to help media companies create and distribute across platforms. To help with this, Der Spiegel is working with a range of other publishers (the Guardian, El Pais, the Volkskrant, Le Monde, NZZ, FAZ) to make this interface cheaper and quicker.

We want to build an infrastructure for audio content and text to speech solutions, that help us getting into this voice ecosystem much more efficiently.
(Stefan Ottlitz, head of product, Spiegel Group)

Using money from Google’s Digital News Initiative (GNI) they are looking to develop:

• Tools for cross-platform content creation.
• Standards of metadata to describe content that is designed to be read out.
• Tools to help improve the pronunciation of emerging news terms for synthesised voice outputs.
• Easier ways to optimise text content for voice.

Broadcasters may be Disrupted More Quickly

Broadcasters have many of the same concerns as former newspaper publishers but the constraints are often different. With changes in audio listening in full swing, voice is much more central to company strategies.

Our hunch is that voice is a disruptive technological change, much as the mobile phone was or the internet itself.
(Mukul Devichand, executive editor, voice + AI, BBC)

The BBC is investing in product teams, editorial innovation teams and in understanding how media companies can interact with Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms at a deeper level. Constraints are related to internal culture and defining products that can break away from linear broadcast thinking. The wide remit of the BBC may make it a little harder to focus than audio focused organisations such as NPR and Swedish Radio (SR). These companies are probably the most forward thinking in terms of rethinking linear radio.

In Sweden, the biggest barrier has been the time it has taken for voice platforms to arrive in the first place. Google Home devices only launched in Autumn 2018 – and there are no Amazon devices for the Swedish market. Even so, take up in this early adopter market is expected to be extremely rapid.

Broadcasters are also worried about their increased dependence on platforms. Public service broadcasters, in particular, have traditionally had privileged access to their channels and programmes. In the world of voice, there is only one answer to any given question, making optimisation for voice critical in a more competitive audio landscape. This is causing some broadcasters to agonise over the naming of popular programmes. ABC has a programme AM that doesn’t work well on these devices – and there are also frequent naming clashes (many programmes called the same thing) where the platforms have to use a range of signals to make the decision. ‘I think it changes everything and organisations like ours need to be aware of this’, says Stuart Watt, head of distribution at ABC News. ‘As soon as you move to voice, as opposed to touch, as the main interface between the people and the platforms, you are ceding any opportunity to make a decision because the machine is going to have to make the decision for you.’

Platforms will not just be critical gateways for accessing content but also for onward journeys and next step listening. These features have yet to be built out and could further dilute direct connection, attribution, and monetisation by news organisations. This is another reason why broadcasters and print publishers alike would prefer to build up and promote their own destinations on these platforms.

6. Future Developments and Conclusions

Given the lack of data from platforms this research has provided much needed evidence about current usage patterns of voice activated speakers – for news but also more widely.

Device penetration is growing fast across countries, driven by the relatively low cost and the simplicity of hands-free interfaces. Early adopters appreciate the speed with which they can now access existing music and radio services as well as news, weather, and traffic updates. Others find it fun as well as functional, with smart assistants like Alexa welcomed into family conversations and interactions. Voice has helped some older groups access the internet for the first time, whilst a number of our respondents talked about finally feeling in control of technology rather than the other way round.

But significant problems and barriers still exist. Most users are only using a handful of functions, with little desire to learn more. Beyond initial set up, there is little attempt to configure or personalise these devices. Users also report the clunky nature of these early interfaces and frustration in getting the technology to understand the way they talk rather than expecting the reverse to happen. More complex outputs are also painful to access in voice and may ultimately be better expressed in combination with a screen of some kind. For non-users, in particular, there are concerns about the amount of personal data that could be collected by technology companies, along with fears about looking foolish when talking to computers. Among all three countries in our study, non-users are balancing these concerns with the promise of convenience, utility, and fun that they hear about from those who already have them.

Consumer trade-offs

In terms of news, our research suggests a rather mixed picture in terms of current usage and future potential. Beyond passive uses of these devices to play radio or specific podcasts – which is largely replacement activity – native interactions with news are generally short and not particularly frequent. While around a half have used the news function, only about a quarter are asking for the news on a daily basis and just 1% say it is the most important feature. Many of those we talked to felt the existing news updates were too long and wanted a minute or less. From a consumer’s point of view, this focus gives them more control and wastes less time, but publishers have a different agenda. They want longer dwell times, the ability to promote further content, and to sell adjacent advertising. None of this looks easy via native voice interfaces right now, which is why some news publishers see voice as an existential threat.

On the other hand, we did also find some latent needs around depth, serendipity, and interaction. A few respondents were already enjoying longer personalised audio programming that they had assembled from multiple brands. Some of our respondents also showed interest in prototypes that might answer deeper and complex questions around the news. Although few were using podcasts through smart speakers, many said that they would be very interested to access them more easily in cars or via headphones and mobile phones. As voice develops beyond the home, there will be more opportunities to distribute and monetise longer and richer audio content. Indeed, we already know that early adopters of these devices consume more audio, more frequently, than ever before.

So What Should Publishers Do Today?

So how can publishers capitalise on these trends and insights? What is the right time to invest? And how much of a priority should it be today?

For broadcasters it is clearly critical that they make their streams and podcasts as accessible as possible. NPR’s revelation that almost 20% of online radio listening is now coming from these devices shows how important these devices already are today. Broadcasters can also leverage their infrastructure and audio skills in the news update space relatively cheaply to secure the majority of news update listening. But beyond this, it is possible that the traditional ways in which radio news is made – and the tone of that content – may need to be rethought. NPR’s partly automated, personalised wheel of news is one option. More frequent, bite-sized conversational content may be another. Experimentation will help us find out.

Meanwhile, publishers from a newspaper background are hampered by the lack of resources to invest in innovation, and are wary of providing content to platforms without a clear path to monetisation. The lack of good data around news use and frequency is another significant issue holding back investment in native voice experiences. Against that background, it is not surprising that many are following the New York Times in investing in longer, more traditional podcasts and audio briefings – though they should be aware that the supply of content is growing as fast – or faster – than demand.

In terms of innovation, it may be that newspaper publishers are in a better position to break away from traditional audio conventions. Success is likely to come from ‘differentiated experiences’, as the New York Times puts it. This could be mass products or niche ones, but will need to fit the context of the consumer, rather than be an offcut of some other process. Local media could consider short but useful interactions around events, travel, weather, or news, while national publishers could look at owning and monetising a specific topic niche or using the social nature of these devices to create events or games. Answering questions around a specific area of expertise is likely to be challenging in the short term, but could also deliver significant value over time. Assistive and interactive experiences are likely to take time to catch on. Here, as the BBC is discovering, experimentation will be key. In Children’s and in News they are starting with simple interactions and then learning what works through iterating a series of prototypes.

The Role of Platforms

Voice remains a critical focus for technology platforms. Platforms believe that it will change the way we interact with the internet and that in turn will disrupt and change their business models – be that e-commerce, advertising, or hardware sales. The tech companies’ vision for voice goes way beyond smart speakers to become embedded in every device, supporting and anticipating user needs. For consumers, it provides a new and often more convenient way of signalling our intent than a traditional computer mouse or mobile touchscreen.

How news media will be affected by these changes is another question. It should enable quicker and more seamless access to all kinds of content that we already know exists but raises challenges around how new content and choices might be surfaced.

Relations between publishers and platforms are already strained, but the issues of discovery in voice are likely to be even more fraught in a world where the algorithm needs to decide which ‘one answer’, which ‘one brand’, to return. Voice search optimisation and answer engine optimisation are likely to enter the news media lexicon over the next few years requiring new skills and new ways of describing (and tagging content). As consumers look to platforms to answer more questions, what will be the role of publishers? Will aggregators like Google and Amazon take most of the value or will they be prepared to share the spoils with those creating the content? Core issues around data, attribution, monetisation, and fairness are re-emerging in a new context. It remains to be seen if this time platforms and publishers can find ways to resolve these tensions in more constructive ways.

References

Adobe Digital Assistants Report: https://www.slideshare.net/adobe/adi-state-of-voice-assistants-113779956

Edison Smart Audio Report 2018 for National Public Radio (NPR): https://www.edisonresearch.com/the-smart-audio-report-from-npr-and-edison-research-spring-2018/

Juniper Research Report, November 2017: https://www.juniperresearch.com/press/press-releases/amazon-echo-google-home-reside-over-50pc-us-house

Newman, N., Fletcher, R., Kalogeropoulos, A., Levy, D. A. L., and Nielsen, R. K. 2018. Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018. Oxford: Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.

Differentology, Qualitative Research findings, for Reuters Institute, September 2018. https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/risj-future-of-voice-qual-report-slides/

Differentology, Final Quotes tables, for Reuters Institute, September 2018. https://www.digitalnewsreport.org/final-quotes-tables/

Appendix: List of Interviewees

Positions held at the time of the interviews

About the Author

Nic Newman is Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute and lead author of the Digital News Report, as well as an annual study looking at trends in technology and journalism. He is also a consultant on digital media, working actively with news companies on product, audience, and business strategies for digital transition.

Acknowledgements

The author is particularly grateful to media companies and experts for giving their time to share insights for this report in such an enthusiastic and open way. Particular thanks, also, to Peter Stewart for his early encouragement and for his extremely informative daily Alexa ‘flash briefings’ on the ever changing voice scene. The author is also grateful to Differentology and YouGov for the professionalism with which they carried out the qualitative and quantitative research respectively and for the flexibility in accommodating our complex and often changing requirements. The research team at the Reuters Institute provided valuable advice on methodology and content and the author is grateful to Lucas Graves and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen for their constructive and thoughtful comments on the manuscript. Also thanks to Alex Reid at the Reuters Institute for keeping the publication on track at all times.

Published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism with the support of the Google News Initiative.

Please note that Google played no role in selecting the subject of this report, nor were they consulted about the research design or approach. Google, Amazon and Apple were all given the opportunity to participate in the report, to provide data and talk about future plans. The analysis and content of the report is the responsibility of the author and the Reuters Institute.