AUDIO VERSIONS OF NEWS ON ONLINE MEDIA WEBSITES: CURRENT STATE AND PROSPECTS

Ukrainian online media editorial teams are actively evolving, keeping up with innovations, leveraging artificial intelligence capabilities, and striving to meet their audience’s needs. Competition in the media market is intense, with a constant battle for audience attention, driving newsrooms to continuously seek new solutions. Audio versions of news are becoming an integral part of modern online media, responding to changes in audience behavior and technological advancements. Ukrainian online media outlets have begun implementing audio narration for their news. 24 Kanal, after launching audio news on its website, achieved one million listens per month. Currently, over 87 % of the news on its platform have audio versions. Following 24 Kanal’s example, other Ukrainian media outlets have also started adopting this format. Listening to audio news provides a great opportunity for busy individuals who want to stay informed while commuting, walking, or exercising. This format is also favored by podcast enthusiasts and is a convenient solution for people with visual impairments. The goal of this study is to determine how popular this format is among high-quality Ukrainian online media and to explore its development prospects in mass media. The research analyzes the current state of audio news implementation in Ukrainian online media. The article examines models for integrating audio news, including automated AI-generated voiceovers and recordings by professional narrators. The study focuses on high-quality online media from the so-called “White List,” published by IMI in 2024. Among the 13 media outlets on the list, only Hromadske Radio and Hromadske offer audio news on their websites. The convenience of consuming news in audio format presents new opportunities for media, allowing users to stay informed while on the go, at work, or during workouts.