In this publisher interview the Our-Hometown team is joined by Keven Zepezauer, President and Publisher at Restoration NewsMedia in North Carolina. We hear about the onboarding process of multiple sites, as well as features customized for their needs, such as a source-based paywall, advanced newsletter design, print-digital subscription management via CircPro, and a new dark visual theme implementation.

The post Keven Zepezauer of Restoration NewsMedia | OHT Publisher Interview first appeared on Our-Hometown.

In this live webinar, Matt will outline the revenue opportunities in podcasting. From host-read and programmatic advertising, to new subscription tools on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, there have never been more ways to monetize audio. Matt will also demonstrate some of the automated tools for generating audio from text content, including Audio Articles.

This live webinar is scheduled for Thursday, November 17th at 2PM EST. The session is free to attend — just click below to register now and reserve your seat for Thursday!

The post Register now for “Revenue Opportunities for Newspaper Podcasts” first appeared on Our-Hometown.

While the benefits that Audio Articles offers to readers are clear — hands-free consumption of the news, multi-tasking, handicap accessibility, etc. — we wanted to focus this week’s post on the key benefit that the add-on offers to our publishers: REVENUE!

Audio Articles introduces a brand new stream of revenue for publishers who aren’t already utilizing audio in their website in other ways.

Traditional web advertising like banner ads and tile ads aren’t as impactful when a reader isn’t looking at the screen, instead opting to listen to the content they’re consuming.

For advertisers to reach these listeners, they’ll need to use a different medium. Fortunately, Audio Articles comes pre-equipped with several options for accomplishing this.

1. Native Audio Advertising – Audio Articles includes native audio advertising, allowing you to enter a text sponsorship message that is read at the beginning of each Audio Article.

2. Third Party Advertising – If you’re using Audio Articles for a podcast, you can utilize BuzzSprout‘s third-party advertising features to add customized ads between episodes of your podcast.

3. Audio Player Sponsorship – Another option is to sell sponsorship of the ‘audio player’ itself by displaying the advertiser’s logo. Most publishers sell this space in tandem with a Native Audio Ad, displaying the advertiser’s logo as well as a text-copy of the audio ad content that is read back to the listener.

4. Audio Only Subscriptions– If your audience takes a liking to Audio Articles, we have the ability to offer Audio Only Subscriptions for users who would prefer to pay for only the audio.

Guy Roginson of SignalsAZ.com was one of our first customers to fully incorporate Audio Articles into their website and marketing strategy, enjoying continued success through the use of audio today. Guy was kind enough to answer a few questions about how has he profited from our Audio Articles feature below.

OHT: What was your process for seeking out advertisers who would be a good fit for audio?

Guy: Our sales staff targeted businesses who have already shared with us that they were interested in podcasting and the audio medium.

OHT: What kind of information and statistics did you provide in your initial pitch?

Guy: We provide overall download numbers + national numbers on podcasting showing how this is a growing medium.

OHT: How satisfied have your advertisers been with the results of their audio ad campaigns?

Guy: I would say overall very positive as our podcasting production is producing a profit.

OHT: Are there any tips you have for publishers just starting to use Audio Articles?

Guy: We determine what written stories get published to podcast by always tracking data and what written stories are trending online. I would also add to publish content as often as possible to continue to grow your audience.

Big thanks to Guy for taking the time to answer our questions and for allowing us to share his insight with our audience! Be sure to check out SignalsAZ.com and take a first-hand look at how his team is using Audio Articles!

If you’re interested in adding Audio Articles to your website and taking advantage of these additional revenue opportunities, sign up or email our support team today before this limited time offer expires!

The post Create new revenue opportunities with Audio Advertising first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Our-Hometown is excited to announce that our Audio Articles premium add-on is being offered to customers at a special discounted price! For a limited time, we are waiving for $250 Setup Fee associated with your first-time Audio Articles configuration!

Audio Articles converts the text content published on your website into narrated audio files and tailored playlists that a reader can listen to in lieu of reading each article individually. Not only does this make it easier for folks to consume the news on the go, it also helps improve website accessibility for visually impaired users!

Audio Articles also opens the door to a whole new stream of revenue with additional advertising possibilities, including the ability to include native ads within each audio article. You also have the ability to distribute each Audio Article as a podcast to various podcast directories where your readers & listeners can easily find them.

Audio Articles is available for $75/month, with NO SETUP FEE (a $250 discount) for a limited time!

Fill out the form below if you’re interested in adding Audio Articles to your website today for $75/mo!

The post Audio Articles now available at a discount for a limited time! first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Audio Articles is an exciting feature available to Our-Hometown customers that automatically converts your published articles into audio files that are played back to the reader, freeing up their hands for multi-tasking while consuming the news.

Each Audio Article is automatically assigned to a Playlist of articles based on the category it belongs to, allowing readers to tune into a specific topic or category and listen to all of the relevant articles on that playlist. We also provide a few customized playlists such as This Week’s Audio Articles and Top Audio Articles, which include the latest articles and most popular articles, respectively.

All of this and more is now available directly within our iOS and Android Applications, as demonstrated by The Clarke County Democrat! Let’s take a look at a few screenshots from the app!

The first image shows the Front Page section within the application. You’ll see a new icon at the bottom of the application represented by a pair of headphones. Readers can click this pair of headphones to access the Audio Articles Player.

The second image shows the Category Playlists available within the Audio Articles Player. Each category playlist contains the stories that are assigned to the category shown.

The third image demonstrates the “Front Page” Playlist, containing Audio Articles of the Front Page stories. You’ll see the playlist begins with the most recent “Front Page” story published to the web.

Finally, while listening to any Audio Article in the player, you can follow along by clicking the newspaper icon to the left of the player controls that reads “Article.” This will display the text and photos of the article above the player. Click the newspaper icon again — now reading “Playlist” — to return to the playlist.

Check it out for yourselves by downloading the Clarke County Democrat application from the Apple Store for iOS devices or the Google Play Store for Android devices.

If you’re interested in an iOS/Android App for your website, or want to add Audio Articles to your existing app or website, just reach out to us at ops@our-hometown.com and we’ll get the setup underway!

The post Clarke County Democrat launches Audio Articles in iOS/Android Application first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Overview

Our-Hometown’s full-service model provides publishers with all the benefits of a digital publication without requiring the time and technical expertise of keeping a website up to date.

Website Updates on Your Schedule

With the Our-Hometown WordPress platform, publishers have the choice between publishing articles to the website themselves or enrolling in our PDF Extraction Service for an additional fee.

PDF Extraction is the simplest way to keep your website up to date. Just send us the same PDF you send to the printer and our staff will handle the rest. No copy-pasting is required by you or your staff.

With extraction, all of the articles and ads you publish for print can automatically be uploaded to your website in a format designed for digital reading.

We recommend taking advantage of the PDF Extraction Service, but publishers can opt out and take over weekly updates at any time to reduce costs.

While it’s important to make all of your content accessible online, we also recommend taking steps to ensure that nothing is being given away for free by implementing a paywall subscription system.

At Our-Hometown, we know how much time and effort goes into reporting and publishing the news. The aim of our Full-Service Publishing is to take the pressure off your team while setting your publication up for success in digital publishing. 

Paywalls

Paywalls are the best way to make sure your publication is generating revenue from the content you’re adding to your website.

Our-Hometown’s Full-Service publishing gives you the ability to sell and promote digital subscriptions and implement paywalls across your published articles.

Paywalls can be set to limit all articles, specific articles, or limited by a meter that allows non-subscribers to read a specific number of free articles per month.

Subscription plans are completely customizable and can include multiple levels of access as well as an option to upgrade a print subscription to include digital and vice-versa.

We’ll also automate your paywall system so that everything from payment collection to digital distribution is handled directly on the website.

We recommend using Stripe as your payment processor. Once it’s linked to your site, all payments will go directly to the bank account you link to Stripe.

Utilizing paywalls is key to creating a sustainable news website and making sure that you and your team are being properly compensated for your reporting.

Social Media Autopost

With Social Media Autopost, you can manage all of your publication’s social media accounts from the same website you use to publish content. 

Posts can be set to automatically generate as stories are published, and then can be automatically posted to social media accounts, or scheduled to post at a later date.

You have complete control over what articles and categories generate social media posts and can change your settings at any time.

Multiple users can be given access to Social Media Autopost to ensure that there is always someone who is able to access your accounts.

After one short setup meeting, Social media Autopost can be fully automated to eliminate the hassle of having to constantly manage your social media output.

OHT Ad Network

The Our-Hometown Ad Network is the cornerstone of our full-service revenue generation plan.

By utilizing an ad network and paywalls along with our automated publishing and Social Media Autopost, you’ll ensure that none of your publication’s posts are being given away for free.

Our platform gives you complete control over the ads being displayed on your site.

You get to choose how many ads are displayed, where they are placed, and what categories of ads are seen by your readers.

You’ll also have the ability to prioritize local advertisers, ensuring that your ads are focused on serving your readership and business model.

Any issues with advertising content or placement can easily be reported to us and modified without any extra effort from you and your team.

The Our-Hometown Ad Network is offered free of charge, with 10% of ad revenue being applied towards service and maintenance.

Ad Network Revenue will be applied to your website hosting bill, reducing your monthly payments. If ad revenue exceeds your monthly charges, you will receive the remainder as a payment directly from Our-Hometown.

The post Full-Service Publishing first appeared on Our-Hometown.

Audio Articles Playlist is a centralized hub on your website where a reader can listen to any of several preset playlists of Audio Articles published on the website. These preset playlists include a dedicated playlist for each traditional article category on the website, as well as more refined Collections such as the self-explanatory “This Week’s Articles“, “Last Week’s Articles” and “This Month’s Articles” playlists.

Of course, the Newest Audio Articles are also prominently displayed so that a visitor can easily catch up on any news they’ve missed.

Once a playlist has been selected, the Playlist player opens up to display the current Audio Article being played, a queue of upcoming audio articles, and your traditional media player control buttons. Listeners can also switch to the Article View to view the full text of the article if they want to read along!

Check out these screenshots below from
the Cattle Business Weekly Audio Articles Playlist page!

We should note that Audio Articles recognizes subscriber status, meaning you can make sure that your audio articles are only accessible to paid subscribers, or could even offer a separate audio-only membership!

The Audio Articles Playlist feature also includes an awesome Top Audio Articles widget to display the most popular audio articles and provide a way for the reader to quickly launch into the playlist player.

Audio Article Playlist is now available for any customer currently using our Audio Articles feature at no additional cost. We’ll even help promote the feature to you readers by adding a button linking to the new Playlist page, and we’ll create a ready-to-send newsletter highlighting the feature that can be sent to subscribers!

To see this new feature in action, check out the Cattle Business Weekly’s Audio Articles Playlist today!

If you’re already using Audio Articles, or are interested in activating the feature in order to utilize Audio Articles Playlist, just send an email to our support team at ops@our-hometown.com and ask!

The post Audio Articles Playlist is now available from Our-Hometown! first appeared on Our-Hometown.

During the presentation, Matthew demonstrated how Audio Articles uses text-to-speech transcription software to automatically convert written articles into audio files that are read aloud by an automated narrator when readers visit the page.

Audio Articles Podcasts takes this a step further by taking those automated audio files and sending them to a customer’s BuzzSprout account, where they are published and distributed as episodes of their podcast.

You can watch Matt’s entire presentation in the video embedded below, or click here to read the article from NNA.org!

The post Automated Podcasting with Audio Articles – NNA Webinar Recap first appeared on Our-Hometown.