One of my favorite iPhone apps is now performing a starring role in producing the type of collaborative journalism I am now practicing. Called Dictamus, the app is a recorder which will email resulting sound files. Teamed with my virtual assistant in Manila, transcribers around the world, and my writers (in New Zealand, India and the Philippines), my content system produces well-written, accurate editorial content quickly and at low cost.
First, I record my interviews with 2 devices, my trusty Olympus digital recorder and also my iPhone, running the Dictamus app. When the interview is over, I typically email the audio to my assistant, who is in Manila. My assistant converts the files into MP3 files, checks the sound quality, edits the file is necessary, and then issues transcription work assignments onto Amazon Mechanical Turk.
We have discovered that it is wisest to cut interview audio into no more than 10 minutes in length, so a single 30 minute interview becomes three transcription requests. (In the case of a news story, the interview can be broken into a larger number of smaller chunks and a team of transcribers can be standing by for a very fast rendering of the exact transcript.)
We use a group of well qualified transcribers who live around the world. My assistant watches for the results, and the moment the transcriptions come back he monitors them for accuracy and accepts the work or rejects it.
Meanwhile, I direct my assistant to conduct web research on both the interviewee and on subjects related to the interviewee.
Once the transcriptions have come back and are checked, my assistant uploads them online onto a service we use which creates what is in essence a free, temporary website. We add the background research relevant to the story, including document scans, audio and video files, links to websites, and of course the interview transcripts. If we have conducted interviews with other stakeholders in the story, those are added to the URL as well. Very importantly, I add the actual story assignment for the writer, with the angle I want and frequently a suggested lede or story slant.
My assistant then issues the story assignment to our writers, linking them to the “site” he created, which is loaded with the assignment and research. Writers write the story in compliance with our required turnaround time and submit the story by email. My assistant uploads the story into our Content Management System and saves it as a “draft.” (His authority level within our software actually prevents him from publishing the story.)
Lastly, I, as the Editor, read, fact-check, edit and ultimately publish the story. So, in addition to the time I spent conducting the actual interview, I only spend only a very minutes preparing the assignment and finally in the editing process.
Since today’s web editor must use time wisely, the process I have developede is designed to free me up to focus in on only the important issues related to getting the story we want: the actual interviews, the story angle, even the lede possibly, and completely accurate quotations.
Our regular production cycle for untimed feature stories takes about a day and a half (for news, the process is much faster). A typical interview costs about $3.60 for the transcription, and the writing for each story costs $7.50. My assistant spends about $3.00 of his time. Total story costs: About $14.50 for a 500-600 word story, filled with extremely accurate quotations. News stories can be produced much faster and cost the same. And best of all, the single interview transcript almost always provides the basis for at least 2-3 followup stories.
Posted on April 25, 2010
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