Now hear this ...

Catching up on some back reading, and in another space has been a thread about newspapers starting to provide audio versions of their stories using text-to-speech technology.

Here's an example.

It sounds just weird enough to be off-putting for me.

And you know, turning the newspaper into radio -- bad radio -- may be OK for those who are sight impaired, but I'm not sure it accomplishes for the rest of us what is intended. Just running the paper through some software to produce audio has that "cheap" feel about it and produces something much less memorable than the original story (think how much of your typical radio broadcast you really remember) -- even if it is the original story being read. In fact, that's the problem; those stories really are not designed to be read out loud, but in your brain.

If you are truly aiming at that audience that's rushing around then maybe it's better to rewrite the thing into briefs at least -- something with a little more substance than the typical radio story, but not much. Something like the Wall Street Journal podcasts (this link via Mobilcast)

Anyhow, some links to companies doing it:
http://www.newsworthyaudio.com/
http://www.podcastnewsservice.com/
http://www.taldia.com/ It uses voice talent.