There is an exponentially growing need for content in regional languages. A recent study done by Kantar India and supported by Google revealed that 7 out of 10 online users consumed local news in regional languages. For local languages Hindi and Gujrati, the number was 8 users out of every 10 users online. Clearly there is a significant demand for news and content in local languages.
One extremely interesting number to note here is that of India's approximately 1.4 billion residents, just roughly 125 million are English speakers. This leaves a massive population hungry for news and content in their native or local language. Traditionally these translations were done manually and translating every article into a regional language wasn't easy for news publishers. This problem was more severe for publishers that offered news in multiple languages to its audience. But now, this problem can be addressed with the use of AI tools.
Localized Content: The Long-Term Survival Formula
For bloggers and digital news publications it is important to understand that they are slowly moving to saturation point with their primary language. The next phase of traffic and readership growth will come from regional languages by making the same content accessible to a wider audience. And, in this context, native and localized content is not only unavoidable but will grow in importance over time.
If you are looking to explore regional languages for audience growth AI can help you with translations. AI translation tools are capable of translating text into multiple languages while preserving the context. Translated text can be quickly copy-checked by a regional language editor to ensure it is accurate and complies with the writing style of your publication.
Why AI-Powered Translation Tools Make Sense for News Publishers?
Traditionally, translation in publications was done manually, with journalists translating topics based on their knowledge and experience. The manual process limited the team's production. Another issue with manual translation was translator bias which could result in the translated version being slightly different from the original.
AI tools can help in this situation by translating copies on a wide scale in an unbiased manner. These AI tools are designed to help reporters translate articles into regional languages, which can then be reviewed to verify that the meaning is not lost in translation.
Google Translate is one of the most powerful translation tools and is the most commonly used tool for translations. Google Translate is certainly the most user-friendly AI translation tool available on the market for free. It offers a simple interface in which you simply choose your languages, input or copy-paste your content, and press "translate." And the best part? Google Translate supports over 100 languages worldwide. Google Translate leverages Neural Machine Translation, and its most recent improvements use AI to interpret context when translating.
While Google Translate is free, the Google Translate API costs $20 per 1 million characters.
App Integration
Supports translation for 100+ Languages
Widget for Website Translation
Conversation Mode for Mobile - During a conversation, Google Translate automatically listens and translates the text.
ChatGPT has made waves since its debut in November 2022, generating human-like responses to a variety of prompts using natural language processing. ChatGPT can also be used to translate text from one language to another. According to the most recent revisions, ChatGPT as a language translation tool supports approximately 100 languages. It can handle over 25,000 words of text and is proving to be extremely useful for long-form content creation.
ChatGPT has launched a subscription plan for ChatGPT with the introduction of ChatGPT Plus. ChatGPT Plus also opens access to plugins. Specific translation plugins can be used for better accuracy in translations such as Speak's ChatGPT plugin and Welocalize.
ChatGPT Plus is available for $20/month and allows several benefits to its subscribers such as:
General access to ChatGPT, even during peak times
Priority access to new features and improvements
Has a wider use-case beyond translations
Copy.ai, a generative AI tool, helps publishers to create high-quality content in minutes using the most latest language models. Copy.ai is used by publishers all around the world to swiftly produce marketing/sales copy, product descriptions, and even translations in over 25 languages.
News Publishers can use Copy.ai to translate practically any type of text, including product descriptions, website copy, eBooks, emails, and advertising.
Copy.ai offers a free subscription, or unlimited text generation for $49/month.
Supports over 25 languages
Known for high-quality translation that reflects the intended tone and voice
An easy-to-use interface makes it a breeze to generate translations rapidly and efficiently.
Bing Microsoft Translator is a cutting-edge multilingual machine translation cloud service boasting an automatic translation API that seamlessly supports an impressive array of over 100 languages. The Bing Microsoft Translator is rapidly emerging as an indispensable tool for bloggers and news publishers.
The best part? Bing Microsoft Translator is available at no cost within various other Microsoft products, including Office, SharePoint, Visual Studio, Internet Explorer, Skype, and Bing. Bing Microsoft Translator’s advanced language translation capabilities makes it easier than ever for news publishers to bridge linguistic gaps and connect with a global audience.
Pricing and Features
Free within several other Microsoft products
Supports 105 languages
Allows for multilingual information sharing via instant messaging or team
Capable of translating text, images, and real-time Speech
In-Context Editing
App Integration
Website Translation Widget
DeepL has been touted as the world's most precise and sophisticated machine translation, with the website claiming that it is more than 3x accurate than the nearest competitors.
DeepL is an easy-to-use interface that works well with both Windows and iOS. The application allows users to personalize the translation, and have a lot of control over the automatic translation. DeepL also keeps the original formatting intact, which is one of its best characteristics.
DeepL offers a API as well which makes it easy to integrate it into a CMS. This will help newsrooms to adapt translations into their workflow allowing for faster publishing speed for regional copies.
Offers a free version. DeepL Pro is available for enterprise customers in select countries
Supports over 25 international languages
Unlimited text translation
Whole file translation capability
Customization options
Enhanced data security
All things said we cannot deny that these AI-Powered Translation Tools for Bloggers and News Publishers have limitations. Mistranslations can still occur due to the inability of the technology to identify the linguistic context.
A good practice for bloggers and news publishers would be to fact check the translated article to look for translation errors. An editor skilled in the regional language will be able to identify errors with ease. These translation tools will save publications the time that would have been required to rewrite the entire copy in a regional language. The time saving significantly add up for publishers that offer their content in multiple regional languages.
