This document outlines a year-long project by the Evening Standard to develop next-generation news experiences for smart speakers. The project will create a personalized daily feed of short news stories delivered by an assistant, experiment with longer explainer and podcast content, and involve testing delivery, tone, and audience engagement. The goal is to pioneer audio experiences and position the Evening Standard at the forefront of the emerging audio news landscape.

1. Chris Stone
Executive Producer, Video and Audio
Evening Standard
chris.stone@standard.co.uk
@chrisstonetv
Next-Generation News Experiences
on Smart Speakers: a year-long
innovation project

2. ‘Alexa, what’s going
on in London this
weekend?’
‘OK Google, play me
the news from the
Evening Standard’

3. ● Personalised feed of sub-60s single-topic stories
● Curated by Assistant
● linked by Assistant Voice
● Opportunities for branding / calls to action
● Potential for hand-off to other products

4. ● Up 20-30 daily single topic stories
● Experiment with longer form (5m+) explainer content
● Podcasts (15m+)

5. ● Product development
○ Audience persona
○ User journey mapping
○ Opportunities to engage with
news audio
● Testing
○ Tone and voice
○ Subject matter
○ Duration & time of day
● Audio Working Group
○ Multiple stakeholders
○ Editorial, commercial, product
○ Ensuring whole business is
thinking about audio
● Forward projection
○ Future of technology
○ Placement of Evening Standard
○ Pioneering experiences
○ What can we break?
A cross-business initiative

6. ‘OK Google, play me
the news from the
Evening Standard’
An entry point to the nascent audio web
? ?

7. Chris Stone
Executive Producer, Video and Audio
Evening Standard
chris.stone@standard.co.uk
@chrisstonetv
Next-Generation News Experiences
on Smart Speakers: a year-long
innovation project