← Blog · 18 July 2026

The audio version of an article is first a service: it lets people listen to what they don't have time to read. But for a publisher it is also something else: new inventory. Minutes of attention, in a format where attention sells well — and which most news sites currently leave empty. Here are the three levers, from the most direct to the most strategic.

1. Pre-roll: the simplest inventory to sell

A few seconds of advertising before the article, as on radio. The format is familiar and non-intrusive — the listener clicked "play", they're engaged — and the inventory creates itself: every voiced article becomes a sellable slot. With audio advertising, the spot is served by your ad server, in the listener's browser, without passing through our servers; the mid-listen insertion (midroll) lands on a paragraph boundary, never mid-sentence. For a local site, this is a very tangible product to offer local advertisers: "your message before every listened article".

2. The registration wall: audio as a member benefit

Full audio can be reserved for your registered users or subscribers: an anonymous visitor hears an excerpt, then the player invites them to sign in. That's the registration wall — and you decide what "registered" means, with your existing account system. Audio then becomes a conversion argument: a tangible, instantly demonstrable benefit that justifies creating an account. Your client-area statistics measure that funnel precisely: how many excerpts listened, how many clicks through to registration.

3. The podcast: the audience that compounds

The automatic podcast turns your articles into episodes on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Monetisation there is less immediate — but the audience accumulates, and pre-roll applies to episodes too. Above all, the podcast reaches listeners who weren't visiting your site: it's top-of-funnel, feeding the two previous levers.

The order that works

Start with the service (audio on every article, free for the reader), measure real usage in your listening statistics, then switch on monetisation where attention is proven: pre-roll as soon as listening volume justifies it, the registration wall once audio has become a habit for your readers. All three levers are included in the plans — details on the pricing page, and you can try it free on your own articles today.