App digests news articles as quick video summaries

Wibbitz automatically takes the pertinent facts out of news articles and presents them in a more mobile-friendly video format.

The web is an interactive, multimedia world, but most online news outlets still format their articles as plain, static text. Wibbitz is an app that automatically takes the pertinent facts out of news articles and presents them in a more mobile-friendly video format.

Consumers downloading the free app can view stories from a number of top news outlets, which take the form of quick videos that illustrate the key facts – people, dates, locations, quotes and short-form explanations of the story. Using natural voice narration, images, video, maps and other HTML-enabled features, the clips provide an easy way for viewers to catch up with what’s going on without having to read an entire article on their mobile device. Wibbitz uses complex language processing algorithms to get to the important parts of each article and transform them into easily-digestible content. Each video lasts around one or two minutes. The video below shows the app in action:

Unlike apps such as Flipboard, which reformat items from existing feeds into an amalgamated stream, Wibbitz operates on a more B2B basis. It wants publishers to integrate its service as part of their websites, offering Wibbitz clips alongside its long-form content. Are there other ways that existing content can be reprocessed for different audiences?