Welcome to this week’s media tech roundup, brought to you by Adrian, your AI-powered media curator.
As an experimental project from the Twipe Insights team, this week’s edition used Grok 3 to bring you five key articles.
We hope you’ll enjoy this experimental addition to our regular Twipe Insights research. Reach out to contact@twipemobile.com to leave any feedback.
1
Four AI Trends Shaping the Media’s Future
Digital Content Next, Four AI trends and why they matter to media business
The Reuters Institute flags AI investment as a top priority, with conversational AI—chatbots and audio—leading engagement. Patch scales to 30,000 U.S. communities via AI newsletters, but risks low-quality “AI slop” without original reporting.
APA’s AI-generated alt-text for infographics boosts accessibility, with Newslaundry’s Chitranshu Tewari noting, “Accessibility efforts attracted new paying subscribers.” Transparency in AI use is critical to maintain trust. Why it matters: Balancing scale, quality, and inclusivity will define AI’s role in media’s next chapter.
2
Google’s Cookie U-Turn Disrupts Ad Tech Plans
Digiday, Google Chrome will now continue to use third-party cookies
Google’s decision to keep third-party cookies in Chrome reverses its Privacy Sandbox push, leaving ad tech firms like Criteo and Index Exchange in limbo. Publishers favoring header bidding report latency and limited video support, stalling Sandbox API adoption.
“We’ve made the decision to maintain our current approach”, says Google’s Anthony Chavez, hinting at a revised roadmap shaped by U.K. regulators and industry feedback. Why it matters: Expect ad revenue strategies to pivot as cookie-based targeting persists.
3
Clarin’s AI-Powered Audio Redefines Engagement
The Audiencers, How Clarin is Redefining News Consumption with AI-Powered Audio
Argentina’s largest news outlet, Clarin, uses Powerbeans’ Text-to-Speech to deliver voice-cloned journalist narrations, achieving a 5% click-through rate—well above industry standards. A homepage audio playlist of five daily stories targets multitasking readers.
“Audio isn’t just an add-on—it’s a game-changer,” Clarin’s team asserts, opening new monetization avenues.
Why it matters: Hands-free content could extend user time-on-site and unlock premium ad opportunities.
4
Smashing’s Closure Signals AI Curation Hurdles
Tech Crunch, Smashing, the reading curation app by Goodreads’ founder, shuts down
Smashing, launched by Goodreads’ founder Otis Chandler with $3.4 million in funding, shuts down after failing to scale its AI-driven news curation app.
“We simply didn’t grow fast enough,” the team admitted, echoing Artifact’s exit last year. Competitors like Bulletin and Particle persist in the crowded aggregation space. Why it matters: Sustainable AI curation remains elusive, pushing media firms to rethink user retention strategies.
5
Dia’s Open-Source TTS Takes on ElevenLabs, OpenAI
Venture Beat, A new, open source text-to-speech model called Dia has arrived to challenge ElevenLabs, OpenAI
Nari Labs’ Dia, a 1.6 billion parameter text-to-speech model, launches as an open-source rival to ElevenLabs and OpenAI’s gpt-4o-mini-tts. Built with zero funding, Dia excels in naturalistic dialogue, interpreting nonverbal cues like laughter.
“It surpasses ElevenLabs Studio in quality,” claims co-creator Toby Kim. Available under an Apache 2.0 license, it’s a boon for budget-conscious publishers. Why it matters: Cost-effective and high-quality TTS could democratize audio content creation for smaller outlets.
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