Make your news app listenable with Pugpig x BeyondWords. BeyondWords has partnered with Pugpig, the mobile app platform that powers the world's biggest media brands, to help publishers bring high-quality AI audio into their apps using ElevenLabs voices - without adding work for editorial or engineering teams. With audio embedded into the app experience, publishers can reach audiences in more moments, improve accessibility, and drive deeper engagement. Leading brands are already using the BeyondWords x Pugpig integration to make audio a core part of their app offering. Let's look at three examples, each with a different goal and approach. The Irish News: Keeping users informed on the go. The Irish News uses the BeyondWords x Pugpig integration to add audio to every in-app article and let listeners build custom audio queues. And listening isn't confined to the in-app experience. Audio continues playing even when the app is minimized or the device is locked. So readers can stay informed while doing other things, without having to keep the app open in front of them. That flexibility extends to the car. With support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, listeners can take their playlists on the road, turning drive time into dedicated news time. For a regional title with a loyal, engaged readership, the result is a more flexible, habit-forming experience that keeps audiences connected to the news that matters to them. The Week: Upgrading to a premium audio experience. The Week US previously offered in-app audio using Amazon Polly, but the voices weren't living up to the quality of the journalism. So, the publisher switched to ElevenLabs voices through the BeyondWords x Pugpig integration. The step up in voice quality is significant: more natural, more engaging, and better suited to holding attention across the long-form briefings The Week is known for. The Week also delivers AI audio versions of articles and daily editions in its UK app, using a voice tailored to the region. Because audio is generated and embedded automatically, there's no delay for listeners and no added workload for editorial teams. Subscribers can listen while commuting, working out, or doing chores, fitting The Week's journalism into the moments they actually have available. DC Thomson: Delivering the right voice for every audience. DC Thomson uses the BeyondWords x Pugpig integration to deliver high-quality AI narration across its Stylist and Press and Journal apps, tailoring the listening experience to each distinct audience. For Press and Journal, a regional title serving northern and Highland Scotland, authenticity was non-negotiable. So, DC Thomson worked with BeyondWords to create a Professional voice clone, capturing a tone and accent that feels familiar and credible to local readers. For Stylist, the brief was very different. The team selected a pre-made ElevenLabs voice that matches the magazine's editorial personality: clear, confident, and distinctly on-tone for a fashion-forward audience. Because the BeyondWords x Pugpig integration handles the full audio workflow, DC Thomson was able to launch two distinct listening experiences without building complex infrastructure. In-app audio without the overhead. The BeyondWords x Pugpig integration makes it straightforward to deliver in-app audio, covering everything from CMS integration and audio generation to player integration and analytics. This means you can modernize your app - and meet changing audience behaviour - without adding complexity for your team. And that's just the beginning. The same audio can be distributed across your website, podcast platforms, and social channels, helping you extend your reach and build a consistent sonic identity. BeyondWords also lets you turn articles into short-form videos, ready to embed or distribute across channels. Speak to your Pugpig customer success manager to see how quickly you could get started. Or contact its team to book a BeyondWords demo.

Applied History Fellows appointed in new partnership between the Society, Institute of Historical Research and publisher DC Thomson. 19 May 2026 The Royal Historical Society and partners, the Institute of Historical Research and DC Thomson, are very pleased to announce Dr Sadie Levy Gale and Dr Matthew Stephens as the recipients of a new programme of Applied History Fellowships. The Fellowships are an initiative by the Society, the IHR and the publisher DC Thomson to support early career historians who have recently completed a PhD. The Fellowships seek both to expand the range of professional futures open to post-doctorate historians, and to enhance the applied skills of those who do pursue a university career. Fellowships offer a bursary of £12,000 per award, generously provided by DC Thomson, for a 6-month period. Sadie and Matthew take up their Fellowships from May 2026. The programme provides financial and other support for historians to develop the wider impact and application of their academic research. It also includes a two-day per week online placement with DC Thomson's The Social History Archive (TSHA) to enable Fellows to gain skills and experience within a commercial history context. In addition, Applied History Fellowships provide time for holders to develop publication, impact and engagement profiles. During her Fellowship, Dr Sadie Levy Gale will focus on record collections concerned with social welfare in The Social History Archive, including material relating to healthcare, urban development, and social reform. Sadie will also work on publications based on her doctoral research, which examined the visual culture of social reform in early twentieth-century Britain. I am delighted to be starting as a fellow in Applied History at the Institute of Historical Research, in partnership with The Social History Archive. TSHA has a vast and fascinating digital archive that I'll be curating, alongside working on my own research. A dream role that I can't wait to begin. During his Fellowship, Dr Matthew Stephens will curate new collections for TSHA Primary Source Series. This work will focus on digitised newspaper archives which are central to Matthew's own research. I'm thrilled and excited to be starting my role as an Applied History Fellow, which will give me the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing development of vital digital historical archives, working with an incredible network of people in the Royal Historical Society, the Institute of Historical Research and publisher DC Thomson. On the appointment of the Applied History Fellowships, Lee Wilkinson, Managing Director DC Thomson History said: Royal Historical Society is delighted to announce this partnership between DC Thomson History, the Institute of Historical Research, and the Royal Historical Society, bringing together three organisations committed to rigorous, impactful historical scholarship. This fellowship programme will give two exceptional early career historians dedicated time at The Social History Archive, working with its teams to develop commercial collections from its archival holdings. By embedding early career historians directly in the creation of new products, Royal Historical Society is supporting their professional development and demonstrating how the study of history can be applied in a commercial context, while ensuring its collections are shaped by those at the forefront of research, for the benefit of academics and students alike. In addition to the Fellowships, Sadie and Matthew will become Fellows of the IHR and be offered a 12-month Associate Fellowship of the Royal Historical Society, where they will receive professional mentoring from members of the Society's Council. Both Fellows will also be invited to become members of the TSHA editorial board. By collaborating on this initiative and partnering with DC Thomson History, the Institute for Historical Research and the Royal Historical Society are supporting work that develops and showcases the value of applied history. Royal Historical Society is pleased to be working with early career historians who are demonstrating the range of skills developed through historical practice, helping to bring the collections held by The Social History Archive together in new and exciting ways while engaging with the practice of history in a commercial context. Royal Historical Society look forward to supporting them throughout their projects, and to extending opportunities for other historians to apply their professional skills outside of academia. Claire Langhamer, Director, Institute of Historical Research Lucy Noakes, President, Royal Historical Society