I’ve been a journalist long enough to know that journalism has a problem, though it’s not necessarily the problem you think it is.
It looks like eyeballs. It looks like people. It looks like a lack of control on both of those things. Journalists need to write and be seen and read by humans, and publishers need to run ads so those humans consume the marketing material that pays for these journalists to be in business.
But while eyeballs and people seem like they’re the problem, publishing’s bigger problem is what’s competing for the attention of those eyeballs and people.
It’s everything. Everything competes for eyeballs and viewership, meaning publications are now fighting for attention in a world where there’s so much more than merely what you read, but also what you watch, what you listen to.
What you consume is a big issue. And it all comes down to one rather important point: time.
We all only have so much time, and it’s something you can’t make up. Once time is gone, it disappears completely.
But it doesn’t have to be that simplistic.
Technology finds ways to converge several concepts into the one all the time — like how your phone is also your music player, your camera, your wallet, and for many people also a computer.
So too can your publication. So too can your journalism. This is where the ideas for Elseleaf have led to.
As a journalist for over 20 years, I have been thinking about where journalism is going, and what it can look like. Or rather, what it can sound like.
You can’t read journalism easily while walking around, because you’d probably bump into a bunch of things. And yet you can listen to music and audiobooks and podcasts while you walk, while you exercise, and do nearly anything else.
Much like how technology has convergence, so too can journalism and publishing. Elseleaf makes that possible by using the AI technology already found inside your phone to read the articles to you. No wasting of electricity from servers somewhere far away when your phone can do it for you.
Publications can be read over music, making it a handy friend as you exercise or wait for a train. You won’t need to glance down at your mobile, but you can, and the words will still be there.
And we’ve even found a way to convert photos and images into an audio style. So photojournalists and artists can add words to their visual stories, and have it read to listeners.
Every journalist can have a voice, not just the ones who normally write for a living.
It’s a concept I’ve been thinking about for a while, and trying to see where publishing can go next. It can be read and heard and consumed with ease, and without destroying the planet by wasting energy on the voices that do the reading.
This is Elseleaf, and I am delighted to see where we can go with it. Beyond the page.
