Podcasts and audiobooks are growing in popularity. Recent studies show that spoken-word audio now makes up 25% of daily listening in the US. And not only are more people listening, but the average time they spend listening is also increasing. Beating out radio for the first time this year, podcasts and mobile devices are now the primary way people listen.

A few years ago the Spoken Word Audio Report asked respondents why they listen. The top answer was multitasking. Two listeners described it like this:

Rick: …I do everything while listening. Working out, working, cleaning. …it takes my mind off of what I’m doing at the moment.

Anahi: …I used to have more time to read actual books page by page and have more time to watch TV, documentaries and all that stuff. But with kids, I feel like I have to squeeze it into my life one way or the other.

AI and the new reality of audio production

All this suggests that there is real value in offering your work in audio form. So why aren’t more journalists, bloggers, and newsletter writers doing it?

Until recently, producing good quality narration meant using a voice actor. It was slow, expensive, and out of reach for most creators. Large publishers would partner with companies like Audm to produce professional readings of their content. Even then they had to be selective, as it was a costly and time-consuming process.

The alternative was using text-to-speech tools that sounded robotic and were painful to listen to.

But recent advances in AI voice models have changed that. You can now produce audio that’s almost indistinguishable from a professional reading, in minutes. And if you spot mistakes and have to update your text later, the audio can be re-generated just as quickly.

That’s why we built Voxi.fm. To make it quick, easy and inexpensive to add natural-sounding narration to your articles.

AI aversion

It’s worth acknowledging that AI aversion exists. People are tired of reading low-effort AI-generated content that’s flooding the internet.

But the public is rightly more wary of content authored by AI than of AI being used instrumentally. Reading a human-authored text aloud falls into the second category. You’ll notice that large publications like the New York Times and Inc.com, which are now adding AI-voiced narration on their articles, refrain from using the ‘AI’ label, opting for ‘automated voice’ instead.

There is also aversion to AI because of the potential job losses, including for human narrators. Given the choice, I think people would prefer human narration, especially on longer-form content like audiobooks. I certainly would.1

But it’s also true that for many writers and smaller publishers, human narration is simply not an option. So if AI-voiced narration is a viable alternative, why not offer it to readers who’d rather listen.

Your content feed as podcast

The easy creation of narrated versions of your written work also opens up a new opportunity: to distribute your content as a podcast.

Doing so will make your work discoverable for new audiences on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and other podcast platforms. Each new article becomes a new podcast ‘episode’. It also gives your existing audience the option to get updates and listen to your new articles when they are published.

This works with Substack today (see our Substack Voiceover guide), and we’ll soon support platforms that don’t produce their own podcast feeds.

“A podcast like NotebookLM?”

No.

We’ve noticed that when we mention AI and podcast creation in the same breath, people imagine Google’s NotebookLM. But what we’re discussing here is not that.

For the unfamiliar: NotebookLM’s Audio Overview generates an artificial conversation between two AI speakers, in the style of an American podcast, about whatever text you give it. What’s read aloud isn’t your text. It’s a script Google’s AI writes around your text, performed as if two people were discussing it.

Such audio can be useful for personal learning. But when you’re publishing to an audience, having AI write the script as well as read it is a step too far.

Voxi.fm uses AI only to read the text aloud, the way an audiobook narrator would, without generating a pretend conversation around it.

See it in action

The Voxi player is embedded on recent Media Lens articles, and new articles also appear as podcast episodes.

Adding audio to an article takes a few minutes. For readers who’d rather listen, it makes a big difference. If you’d like to add audio to your own content, try it out or get in touch. We’re especially keen to work with smaller publishers, independent journalists, and non-profit media groups.

Feed Control lets you generate custom feeds from almost any web page. You can also use it for Google News feeds, and even create new feeds based on existing ones.

Feed Control with IFTTT can be used to perform a variety of tasks, such as:

• Posting on social media: When a new item is added to an RSS feed, you can automatically post it to X (Twitter), Facebook, or other social media platforms.

• Adding to Google Sheets: When a new items is added to an RSS feed, add it as a row in your spreadsheet.

• Sending notifications: You can receive notifications when new items are added to your RSS feeds.

• Saving data to cloud storage: You can save RSS feeds to a variety of cloud storage services, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or Evernote.

Triggering actions for new feed items

1. Go to the IFTTT website and sign in to your account

2. Click on the Create button and select Applet

3. Choose RSS Feed as the trigger and select the type of trigger you want to use

   

4. Find the feed URL for your feed in Feed Control.

   1. Click the feed name to go into details

   2. Click the Generate RSS/JSON tab

      

   3. Click RSS to open the preview

      

   4. Click Copy URL to copy the feed URL

5. Paste the URL into IFTTT and click Create Trigger.

   

6. Choose the service you want to connect the feed to (e.g. Google Sheets)

7. Choose the action you want to take when the trigger is fired (e.g. Add row to spreadsheet)

   

8. Configure the action settings and save your applet.

Once your applet is created, it will start running automatically and checking the feed for new items. You can view and manage your applets at any time from your IFTTT dashboard.

Examples of RSS feed actions

• Post to X (Twitter): When a new a new item is detected in your feed (e.g. new blog post), automatically post it to X (Twitter).

  

• Send notifications: When a new item is detected in your feed, send an notification to your phone.

  

• Save to cloud storage: When a new article is published in a magazine or newspaper, save it to Google Drive, Dropbox, or Evernote.

With a little creativity, you can use IFTTT to create a wide variety of RSS feed automations.

Feed Control allows you to create custom RSS or JSON feeds from websites that don't offer their own. You can turn any set of items on a site into a subscribable feed that updates whenever new content appears. Feed Creator is usually used to target a regularly updated section on a website, e.g. a news section or jobs listing.

AI-Powered Item Detection

Our latest update introduces automatic item detection that's enabled by default. This AI-driven feature identifies relevant items and generates the appropriate selectors automatically.

Previously, users needed technical knowledge of HTML and CSS selectors to create feeds. Now, Feed Creator handles this complexity for you. When successful, it automatically configures the advanced selector settings based on what it finds.

While our testing shows excellent results across many websites, there may be cases where manual configuration is still needed – either when the AI cannot identify suitable selectors or selects unwanted items. In these situations, you can still set selectors manually as before.

Headless browser mode for dynamically loaded content

Our new headless browser feature lets you capture dynamically loaded items – useful for websites that rely on JavaScript to display items.

To use this feature:

1. Click the dropdown menu next to the URL field

2. Select GET (JS)

This solution now enables feed creation from previously unsupported sites that load items through API calls or other JavaScript-based methods.

We hope you enjoy these new features. You can try them out now. Please let us know if you experience any issues or have suggestions for improvement.

New Features

• AI-assisted item detection, complementing our existing simple and advanced selectors — now available!

• Headless browser content retrieval for JavaScript-dependent sites — now available!

• Visual point-and-click interface for selecting items when AI assistance is not enough — coming in March.

Discontinuing the Free Service

While these features will substantially improve the service, they require additional resources to operate and maintain. As a result, we are phasing out the free Feed Creator service.

Who This Affects

This affects Feed Creator users who have created feeds without a paid plan. If you fall in this category and wish to keep your feeds active, without changing the feed URLs, please read on for instructions.

Feed Creator users on an existing paid plan can continue using the service as before.

Timeline

Effective Immediately:

• All new feeds should be added to a Feed Control plan, or created with an existing Feed Creator access key, to receive updates

• New Feed Control users can try the service with a free 7-day trial

• Existing Feed Creator feeds will continue to update as normal — whether created on a paid plan or created free

Starting January 15 17, 2025:

• Feed Creator feeds not connected to a paid plan will require a Feed Control account to continue to function

• Users can add their existing Feed Creator feed URLs to Feed Control to maintain feed updates without URL changes

• AI-assisted item detection becomes available

• Headless browser retrieval becomes available

February March 2025:

• Point-and-click interface rolls out

• Further information will be sent regarding the transition of the old plans to Feed Control

To ensure a smooth transition, we encourage you to explore our Feed Control plans and take advantage of the trial period.

Adding new feeds to Feed Control

We have updated the Feed Creator interface to direct you to Feed Control when you want to save a feed. The steps are as follows:

1. Visit Feed Creator

2. Paste a page URL in the URL field

3. Keep automatic (AI) mode selected or enter selectors manually

4. Click Preview to make sure page items are detected correctly for the feed

5. Click Add to Feed Control

6. In Feed Control you’ll have a few more steps to go through where you can set additional options, e.g. full-text fetching, filters

7. Click Save

8. You’ll then be able to find the Feed Control-generated feed to use in your feed reader or application in the feed’s details view.

   

9. Click RSS to see a preview of the RSS feed and also the URL you can use.
   
   Note: We recommend using the feed generated by Feed Control. And if you’ve enabled full-text fetching or any other Feed Control-specific output settings, only the Feed Control-generated feed will have those. But if you prefer the Feed Creator-generated feed, you can use that instead by going to the Source tab and copying the URL from the Feed URL field. Any Feed Creator feeds registered in Feed Control will automatically update at their original Feed Creator URL, even after these changes.

Adding existing feeds to Feed Control

To add a previously-created Feed Creator feed to Feed Control, follow the steps below. This will ensure the previously created feed URL continues to be updated:

1. Go to Feed Control’s Add Feed page

2. Copy your Feed Creator feed URL (beginning with createfeed.fivefilters.org) and paste it into Feed URL field

3. Click Next

4. Check Preview and apply filters and/or enable full-text fetching if needed. Click Next when you’re ready

5. In Alerts and Integrations you can decide if you want to be notified when new items are detected. Click Next

6. Click Save and then click Manage Feed (if you don’t have a Feed Control account, you’ll be directed to the registration screen first).

7. In the Feed Detail’s view, click the Generate RSS/JSON tab to find the Feed Control-generated feed URL you can use.
   
   Note: We recommend using the feed generated by Feed Control. And if you’ve enabled full-text fetching or any other Feed Control-specific output settings, only the Feed Control-generated feed will have those. But if you prefer the Feed Creator-generated feed, e.g. maybe you need more time to update feed URLs, or the feeds were added for clients on systems that you cannot update easily, you can keep using the previous feed URL. Any Feed Creator feeds added to a Feed Control account will automatically update at their original Feed Creator URL.

Self-hosted Feed Creator

We are still supporting the self-hosted version of Feed Creator, and will continue to update it. The changes above only affect our hosted service. If you’re hosting Feed Creator on your own server, your feeds are not affected.

Frequently Asked Questions

→ We have a lot of feeds generated with Feed Creator. Can we send them all to you to add to our Feed Control account, to ensure that they continue receiving updates?

Yes! Simply choose a plan type that can accommodate all your feeds and email us the list at help@feedcontrol.app. We’ll add them to your account. (If you need to increase the feed limit, please contact us and we’ll be able to give you a quote based on the number you need.)

→ How do I know if a feed was created with Feed Creator’s hosted service?

Feeds created with Feed Creator’s hosted service begin with:

https://createfeed.fivefilters.org

→ How do I find the feeds I created with Feed Creator?

Unlike Feed Control, Feed Creator does not maintain a list of feeds you have created. This is by design. Feed Creator users register the feed URLs generated by Feed Creator in their own applications, e.g. a feed reader or custom app. So you will need to look through your feed reader or app to find your Feed Creator feeds — see previous question about how to identify them.

→ What happens to old feeds created with Feed Creator?

If they were made on a paid plan, and the plan is active, they will continue to update and work as normal.

If they were made without a paid plan, they will stop returning items after January 15 17. To re-activate such feeds, you can add them to a Feed Control account.

→ How do I know if my Feed Creator feed is connected with a paid plan?

Feeds connected to a paid plan contain &key=, following by a code, somewhere in the URL. For example:

https://createfeed.fivefilters.org/extract.php?url=…&key=xxxx

→ How do I find the generated feed URL for a feed in Feed Control?

Once you’ve added a feed to Feed Control, go into its details, and you’ll be able to find a Generate RSS/JSON section.

Click the RSS link to see a preview of your generated feed and its URL.

→ How do I find the URL for the source feed in Feed Control?

Click the Source tab and you’ll see it listed next to Feed URL. If you plan to use the Feed Creator-generated version, this is the one you’ll want to use.

Thank you

If you have any more questions about these changes or need assistance with the transition, please don't hesitate to reach out. Our support team is ready to help at help@feedcontrol.app

Thank you for your continued support as we work to provide you with an even better Feed Creator service.

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