Dow Jones Factiva Listen Capability Transforms the Way Users Consume News

NEW YORK, March 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Dow Jones & Company introduced a new "text-to-speech" capability in Dow Jones Factiva that allows users to listen to the news that drives their business. With one click, users can now listen to a news article rather than read it, freeing them to do other things and multitask as the pace of business today requires.

Currently available in beta format, a "Listen to Article" link appears at the top of any full-text article with fewer than 4,000 words. The listen capability is available in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish languages and automatically defaults to reading in the interface language previously selected by the user. 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. "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."

The listen capability is a Web-based service provided by VoiceCorp (www.voice-corp.com) that converts text into speech on the fly. It is made available 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 further builds on Dow Jones's goal of integrating various forms of multimedia content into Dow Jones Factiva. In August 2007, Dow Jones Factiva added highly relevant video and audio information including business news, CEO interviews, executive speeches, shareholders meetings, product reviews and other meaningful business content.

Dow Jones Factiva searches across more than 14,000 authoritative sources, including the exclusive combination of The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones and Reuters newswires.

For more information about Dow Jones Factiva products including Dow Jones Factiva Newsletter, visit www.factiva.com. For more information about the Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group, visit www.solutions.dowjones.com.

ABOUT DOW JONES

Dow Jones & Company (www.dowjones.com) is a News Corporation company NYSE: NWS NYSE: NWS.A ASX: NWS ASX: NWSLV. Dow Jones is a leading provider of global business news and information services. Its Consumer Media Group publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, MarketWatch and the Far Eastern Economic Review. Its Enterprise Media Group includes Dow Jones Newswires, Dow Jones Factiva, Dow Jones Client Solutions, Dow Jones Indexes and Dow Jones Financial Information Services. Its Local Media Group operates community-based information franchises. Dow Jones owns 50% of SmartMoney and 33% of STOXX Ltd. and provides news content to radio stations in the U.S.