Dow Jones & Company has introduced a new capability to enable users to listen to the news that drives their business. This new “text-to-speech” capability in Dow Jones Factiva needs only one click to allow users to listen to a news article rather than read it.

The “Listen to Article” link is currently available in beta format and the link appears at the top of any full-text article with fewer than 4,000 words. Listeners can select English, French, German, Italian and Spanish languages and the application can automatically default to reading in the interface language previously selected.  

To test the Dow Jones Factiva listen capability and hear this press release, click here.

“Dow Jones Factiva continues to set itself apart from the competition by being the first to offer text-to-speech technology in the current awareness, news and research market,” said Dennis Cahill, senior vice president and chief product officer of the Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group, in a Wednesday statement.

“This new capability builds on our commitment to provide customers with relevant news when, where and how they need it and to reinforce our No. 1 position in the marketplace.”

Provided by VoiceCorp, the listen capability is a Web-based service that converts text into speech on the fly. It is available to users wherever full-text articles are found, including alerts, search results and newsletters. Once the link is clicked, the listen capability uses a Flash player to read the article.

The addition of text-to-speech is meant to further build on Dow Jones’s goal of integrating various forms of multimedia content into Dow Jones Factiva.

In our multi-tasking society, we are constantly on the look-out for solutions that can make our day a little less hectic by combining tasks. Why not try out a solution that reads an article to you so you can catch the important news, while also skimming e-mails, looking at reports, or finishing that paperwork?

While multi-tasking may not be the end goal, this solution can provide a great tool for those individuals who are concerned with the issues, yet lack the time to sit down and reach about them. Such a solution can also have even broader applications and could find another niche in which to market the solution.