CINCINNATI – Newsy’s daily news reporting is now available via Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated virtual assistant for users of Amazon Echo and all Alexa–enabled devices.
Newsy, the over-the-top news network, delivers the day’s top stories to Amazon Alexa’s news feature called “Flash Briefing.” Newsy joins an elite roster of publishers whose content is available on the service, including Huffington Post, NPR, CNN and The Wall Street Journal.
Alexa is the voice service that powers Amazon Echo, an innovative device capable of answering questions, playing music, providing news and information and controlling smart devices. Newsy content within Flash Briefings is also available to Echo Dot, Amazon Tap and Amazon Fire TV users.
“We know that our audience is always busy, they’re technologically savvy and always thirsty for up-to-the-minute news and information,” said Blake Sabatinelli, general manager of Newsy. “The Flash Briefing will now help our audience stay on top of the day’s news while they pour their morning coffee or get the kids ready for school — without being tethered to a device.”
To listen to Newsy, users choose “Flash Briefing” within the Alexa app for Android, iOS or Fire devices and select Newsy as one of their preferred news sources. Then, when users request, “Alexa, give me the news,” or “Alexa, what’s my flash briefing?” the Alexa-enabled device will deliver the audio feed from Newsy.
Newsy entered the audio space in 2015 with the release of its free Newsy Radio app for iOS. Newsy also continues to expand its video distribution across the leading OTT services, including Sling TV, Roku, Watchable from Comcast and Apple TV, which named it a Best New App of 2015. Newsy is a wholly owned subsidiary of The E.W. Scripps Company (NYSE: SSP).