Tired of looking at screens? If you get your Rockaway news from the RT website, you now have the option of having each article read to you.
“Americans average more than seven hours of screen time every day. For people who get eye strain, reading the news on your smart phone only makes it worse,” Paul King, co-publisher of The Rockaway Times said. “Giving our customers a way to get the news without adding to screen time is just common sense.” The service also improves accessibility for all and is a great option for commuters sitting in traffic or on the bus or train.
The service option is available for each individual article on www.rockawaytimes.com. Below the byline, there is now an arrow in a circle next to the words, “Listen to the article now.” Click the arrow to initiate the reading. The controller also has a progress bar and buttons that allow you to skip forward or backward by 10 seconds. Longtime users of rockawaytimes.com may need to clear the cache on their browser to enable the new feature.
To offer the new service, The Rockaway Times entered into an agreement with a digital advertising company, Carbonatix, that specializes in text-to-speech technology. Its other clients include notable national magazines. “We needed a service that was proven and reliable for our RT customers,” King said. “We also wanted a partner that would not bombard our customers with audio ads.” Limited advertising from Carbonatix enables The Rockaway Times to offer this new service for free.
The text-to-speech technology is highly accurate but not perfect. For instance, it tries to pronounce long URLs as a single word in English, potentially leading to an emphasis on the wrong syllable. For most articles, the reading will be seamless.
