Marie-Catherine Beuth. “Being lazy is a sign of intelligence.”

That’s what Marie-Catherine Beuth’s grandfather used to tell her. But take one look at what Beuth has accomplished and it’s clear she’s far from lazy.

Beuth’s grandfather didn’t mean “lazy” in the literal sense. He was talking about efficiency: Aim for the best possible results with little time and effort. That mentality can be seen in the user experience of Beuth’s News on Demand app, a mobile news solution built around people’s busy schedules. Last year, Knight Foundation invested $35,000 to help Beuth prototype the app, which curates news based on a reader’s available time and attention. She developed the app with co-founder Benoit Hochedez who is the design lead. They also hired contractors for the technical development.

News on Demand curates news based on a reader’s available time and attention.

“Even if you spend a very, very small amount of time on news, you can get a very basic awareness,” Beuth said. In this era when consumers are bombarded with countless media choices, Beuth believes it’s wrong for journalists to complain about readers not spending enough time consuming the news. Journalists’ role, she asserts, is to make the most out of the two or three minutes that a consumer might spend reading the news.

The News on Demand app lets users read top news based on how much time they have. The news stories are currently human-curated, which Beuth says resonates with users because of the trust and curiosity linked to another person curating the information. Eventually, she added, an algorithm might help. The free iOS app (which Beuth plans for Android eventually) has a simple, sleek design, linking to stories from a variety of news organizations – like on a recent day, from TIME, the BBC and Mashable. She characterizes her approach as a sort of “news concierge” for people.

Originally from France, Beuth’s passion for journalism began at age 14, during her first newsroom internship. She liked it enough that she pursued a journalism career and was published in national magazines in France by age 19. In 2004, Beuth landed at one of France’s leading national newspapers, Le Figaro, where she spent more than seven years covering topics such as social media and mobile apps. Witnessing all the innovations in the media-technology space eventually inspired Beuth to apply for a John S. Knight Journalism Fellowship at Stanford University.

“I felt like all these technologies [were] disrupting our field as journalists,” said Beuth, adding that she believed this was great for making information available to more people on more devices – but that it didn’t necessarily make people better informed.

She explored those questions as a Stanford Knight Fellow in 2012-2013 and dived into her news concierge concept, laying the groundwork for the News on Demand prototype. Later, a two-day workshop with other Prototype Fund winners, where they explored human-centered design and interacted with each other, enhanced the experience. In addition to $35,000 in funding, Prototype Fund winners join a cohort and receive access to other resources, such as design training.

“It was an opportunity to meet with excellent people who are doing very different things but absolutely brilliant things in that field,” Beuth said.

Beuth is continuing development of News on Demand, while working for Le Figaro and Radio France Internationale. She said the app will eventually have more personalization, more content in other languages and algorithmic sorting that won’t require too much user input.

Vignesh Ramachandran is a Bay Area-based freelance writer. He can be reached via email at [email protected].

The next deadline for the Knight Prototype Fund is May 15, 2015. Apply at prototypefund.org.