Download audio version of this newspaper

Cantonrep.com, a website of newspaper The Repository, the largest daily of Stark County, Canton, Ohio, has kicked off an audio version of its entire newspaper.

Software developer Presteligence will be providing the tech that makes this happen.

According to this report, the company is offering a download, which you can personalize by various categories, to your PC/iPod/MP3 player.

Nobody else is doing it, Presteligence President Bob Behringer says. "Not the way we’re doing it. We are taking the (entire) content of the newspaper that is in print and we're converting it to audio. It's being read by what we call virtual newscasters (ie. computer-generated voices read the text)".

"We want to offer it to readers who think it will be fun; to readers who might use it when they can't take the time to read; and to people with impaired eyesight who still want to enjoy the newspaper," said Repository Editor David Kaminski.

The pronunciations still are being tweaked but Kaminski says "they’ve come a long way in the quality of the synthesized voice since I first heard it in January."

A help page on The Repository’s Web site will take you through the registration process.
The free trial is valid for 90 days.

One of three newspapers in the Copley Ohio Newspapers group, The Repository's cantonrep.com website claims 7 million pageviews a month, while its newspaper circulation hovers above 83,000.