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Talking newspaper goes online in Echo/charity initiative

The Northern Echo has teamed up with a talking newspaper service for visually impaired people to launch a free weekly news digest via its website.

Visitors to www.thenorthernecho.co.uk can download a 20-minute podcast which provides an edited version of the weekly news and features service published by volunteers working for the town’s talking newspaper.

Peter Barron, editor of The Northern Echo, said: “With us moving rapidly into the era of The Northern Echo providing video and audio content online, it seemed to be the logical next step to use the talking newspaper’s recordings to enrich our website.

“It is ready-made audio material, provided by a committed team of volunteers with expert skills.

“It not only means that visually impaired people have another way of accessing the recordings, but people who are not visually impaired can download a weekly news digest and listen to it at their leisure.”

There are plans for the arrangement to be reciprocal, so that the talking newspaper can also use podcasts recorded for The Northern Echo’s website, which include popular writers reading their own weekly columns.

It is the latest link to be forged by paper and Darlington’s talking newspaper charity, after the Echo gave the service a home in 2004 when it was forced to leave its previous base because of problems linked to new disability access legislation.

Now it enjoys rent-free accommodation in a recording studio built by Newsquest staff at the Priestgate head office in Darlington.

More than 300 blind and visually-impaired people subscribe to the service, which offers news and features on tape and CD.