The International Herald Tribune is allowing readers to get audio feeds of any article they like.  Users can go to audionews.iht.com and create custom "podcasts" of any individual news item or news section that they can then play over their computer or on their portable player (MP3, iPod, etc.).  Best of all it’s a free service.  While I started writing this piece as just one more sign that we’re finally seeing newspaper companies embrace the emerging convergence of different media, and how they better speed it up before they go the way of dinosaurs, I’m now looking at this from a different angle.

A while back Celeste and I got a special radio for my grandmother who had recently lost her eyesight.  The radio receives just two stations, one that is the local public radio station and another that is broadcast out of Wake Forest and is dedicated to audio programs that include volunteers reading newspapers, both local and national.  What does a program like the IHT’s mean for these volunteer programs?  If newspapers throughout the country adopt this standard won’t the organizations that distribute these programs simply be able to pick the "podcasts" they want and broadcast them to their listeners?  That would be a bummer for people like my Mom who volunteer to read and enjoy it thoroughly.