When the Republic had to introduce cost-cutting measures in the early summer of 2023 because income and expenditure were no longer in balance, the read-aloud service was left untouched. The service was very popular and we did not want to compromise on quality or the working conditions of the speakers. Our overall budget was cut significantly, but the costs for the read-aloud service remained the same.
Even today, we are still sailing close to the wind. The economic conditions in the media industry are and remain challenging and the Republic must budget carefully and with foresight. The top priority is journalism, the content of the Republic. At the same time, accessibility remains an important concern.
Against this background, the Republic is pleased that the quality of synthetic voices has improved massively over the last year. The audible differences between human and synthetic voices have become much smaller. When planning the budget for the 2024/2025 financial year, a more favorable alternative therefore presented itself for the first time, allowing all contributions to continue to be offered in a high-quality audio version.
The Republic has therefore decided to replace the existing synthesized voice with a new and better voice from October and to no longer have the contributions additionally read in by speakers. This also has the advantage that the high-quality version will always be available from 5 a.m. onwards.
article translated from the German with DeepL
Swiss newsmagazine Republik will replace the audio version of articles which were previously read by humans with synthetic voices. Thoughts on this?
byu/LenaRybakina inSwitzerland
Posted by LenaRybakina
1 Comment
It’s a shame, but when there’s a need to cut budget it’s a good place to start, as long as they’re transparent and don’t start generating AI articles that just get reviewed by editors like in some boulevard papers, I’m okay with it.