How to build your own Twilio-powered voicemail inbox for readers

The New York Times recently produced an awesome article series called Primal Scream, where a published phone number allowed readers to call in and talk about their experience raising children during the pandemic.

Listening to your readers, however you can, is crucially important in evolving your delivery of digital journalism. Entire consultancies such as Hearken are built on involving communities in business, especially journalism. City Bureau in Chicago bring people together in workshops to discuss the problems they are facing, ultimately producing media that is more honest, more involving, and crucially more desired.

But how do you do that when you’re a national newsroom at scale? Or even at the scale of a single city? How can we use technology to make it easier than ever for readers to get in touch with journalists and becoming involved in our storytelling.

Whilst years ago running a phone in line like this was something that only the largest newsrooms with the deepest pockets could accomplish, advances in digital technologies have made creating the Primal Scream phone line possible for even the smallest reporting outfits.

Recording hundreds of voicemails to a dedicated phone number could cost you as little as $20. It requires very little technical…