Articly: How the “Newspaper for Listening” Made its Breakthrough

Lukas and Wolf, you call Articly the newspaper for listening, bundled in an app. Why didn't anyone come up with this idea before you and successfully implement it?

Lukas Paetzmann: The model of having an aggregator for newspapers has probably been built 20 times before. What sets us apart is that we don't claim to set the entire newspaper to music. We only present a small excerpt of quality journalism. These are usually somewhat longer texts that go into depth and into which a lot of journalistic work has gone. In printed form, they are often filed away in the “I'll read that later” pile and gather dust. Listening to them lowers the fear of taking on complex texts.

Wolf Weimer: As with many successful start-ups, the right timing was crucial. We were lucky that the audio topic became really big. There has been a podcast boom for a few years now. People are used to always having their headphones with them and listening to things. And that's also how many people want to be able to listen to the news. It also works so well because the text is emotionalized by the voice, the intonation and the rhythm of the speech. Content that is read aloud is easier to remember.

What is your financing model?

Lukas: We rely on subscriptions. This gives you a free pass and allows you to listen to our current range of around 1,000 articles. But Articly is not a news portal. Most of our articles are timeless, they are background reports or commentaries.

Lukas Paetzmann: Real speakers are our USP

Many newspapers, magazines and news portals have been offering such audio articles for some time now. What do your customers appreciate about having their own platform for this?

Wolf: We can offer high quality content because we brought established publishers on board right from the start. The decisive factor is that the content is implemented and presented well. This has never been done before in this form in Germany. In England and the USA, two successful formats, Curio and AUDM, also developed almost simultaneously.

Is that why you work with real speakers and not computer voices?

Lukas: We launched Articly during the coronavirus phase. Back then, many actors with trained speaking voices were out of work. We were able to provide them with a small income by reading the articles. This collaboration has remained with us ever since. The fact that we work with professional voice actors has become our USP.

Wolf: This also sets us apart from many offers on websites. When you press the play button there, you hear a choppy robot voice. Nevertheless, computer voices are not an issue that we are turning a blind eye to. In English-speaking countries and China, some of them are already indistinguishable from real voices.

The texts on which the audios at Articly are based currently come from 30 media partners. What requirements do you place on them?

Lukas: They have to be serious. And they shouldn't represent any extremely radical positions, but they can certainly have controversial views on the mainstream. We are also observing that the importance of authors who leave a recognizable mark on texts is gaining in importance at the moment. That's why we are currently in the process of retaining outstanding journalists who also write texts exclusively for us.

Do you pay the publishers a flat fee for the texts?

Wolf: At the moment, this is usually the case with the big publishers. However, we are trying to get publishers interested in models in the future where they receive a financial share depending on the number of downloads. A kind of Spotify for texts. Do the media companies see you as competition or as support?

Lukas: There was sometimes a headwind at the beginning. For the publishers who participate, we are a welcome source of income. Because it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to earn money with advertisements. And the article is there anyway. In addition, we are a nice showcase for the publishers and promote the respective media with the set version of the texts. You not only choose your media partners carefully, but also the texts themselves.

Articly: Arriving in the everyday life of the target group

What criteria do you apply here?

Wolf: Over time, we have learned that not every text is suitable for audio. For example, if it contains a lot of numbers, people don't like listening to it. A stock market report works less well than a report from the Arctic. This is the first step in the sorting process. Then we also try to offer a wide range of topics and to be as politically balanced as possible.

How long are your audio articles?

Lukas: Eight minutes on average. That has proven to be the ideal length. But we are not totally committed to this length. There are also shorter texts, or some that are even 20 minutes long. We usually listen to two articles in one session. Then the listener is saturated.

Tell us more about these listeners. How old is your core target group?

Wolf: We see them between the ages of 30 and 45. We also have special target groups, such as dyslexics or blind and visually impaired people. That's a total of around two and a half million people in Germany. Older people whose eyesight is deteriorating also appreciate our service.

Where do these people use Articly?

Wolf: This question is extremely exciting for us. Although we don't yet have any empirical data, we know from customer feedback that people like to listen to us when they are cooking or going for a walk.

Lukas: And sometimes even as a sleep aid.

Wolf: The journey to work is also a big issue. We've been on the ICE portal for a few months now. The collaboration with automotive companies is interesting for us. Being present in cars in the future would be a win-win situation.

Articly: Success in the format “Die Höhle der Löwen”

You took part in the TV show “Die Höhle der Löwen” in April 2023 and won Carsten Maschmeyer as an investor. What impact did that have?

Lukas: “Die Höhle der Löwen” gives you a presence in front of three million viewers: in prime time. These are people who consciously want to engage with your product. We had five-digit download figures on the day of the broadcast. Carsten Maschmeyer also had a magnetic effect in the world of investors. Many people said to themselves: “If he's involved, he must have his reasons.” We don't want or need any further investment at the moment, but good contacts have been made.

In your opinion, is it possible to lead a start-up to success on your own? Or would you recommend getting outside help?

Lukas: Basically, I believe that if you have a few good people and an equally good idea, then you can get relatively far as a start-up on your own.

Wolf: We received important support from Media Lab Bayern right from the start. You get to know other founders there. It was the interface to publishers and important media people for us. The Media Lab helped us a lot in building our network.

What are your plans for the future?

Wolf: We currently have a high five-digit number of active users per month. Our next big goal is 100,000, which would be a solid base. And the large Spanish-speaking region is also interesting.

Lukas: We are now an established company in audio journalism. That means we can help small publishers to leave an audio footprint. Of course, we are also thinking: Are we opening up to a larger target group? Do we perhaps make a journalistic podcast ourselves? The interesting thing about a young start-up like ours is that you never know where you'll be in a year or two.