Remember the times when we all gathered by the TV to watch the evening news? When our parents waited for newspapers to find out about the latest and upcoming events? Fortunately, nowadays we are living in a completely different world. A world when the news spread at a break-neck speed thanks to the Internet.
If you are a journalist, you need to find stories and create material almost in real-time. To stand the competition and be among the first to highlight important events, you not only need talent and speed but also auxiliary tools. For example, SEO optimization to make the content visible, software to create automated transcripts in real-time, and other useful instruments.
In this article, we want to tell you more about transcription services that help you to convert recordings and video into clear and readable text. With their assistance, any journalist will be able to create the content quicker and easier.
1. Transcriberry
Transcriberry is an online tool for manual and automated transcribing. It is great for podcasters, authors, journalists, bloggers, and those who are regularly conducting market research and deal with huge volumes of information.
This transcription service has been occupying leading market positions for many years thanks to an innovative approach, a team of dedicated specialists, and a convenient design. At Transcriberry, you can get a wide range of services including translation and subtitling. They transcribe almost 20 file types – AIF, AMR, AVI, DVD, M4A, MP3, MSV, WMA, Quicktime, Webex, and others. If you have any questions, reach them by phone, live chat, or on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Prices: Automated transcription – ¢25 per minute, manual transcription – $1.25 per minute
2. Rev
The next service in our list that turns audio to text is Rev. Even though it is available both on desktop and mobile, transcription services can be ordered solely from your laptop or personal computer.
Rev was established back in 2010 and by this time has helped 170K+ customers. The quality of provided services is rather good, especially if you pay for manual transcripts. When choosing the cheaper alternative, automated transcripts, be ready for mistakes.
Prices: Automated transcription – ¢10 per minute, manual transcription – $1.25 per minute
3. Otter.ai
If you are interested in audio transcription, pay attention to another decent representative on our list – Otter.ai. It offers a standard set of features – transcription of audio files, call recording, and so on. However, after testing this service for some time we came to a conclusion that its automated transcription can’t catch difficult words and doesn’t work that well in noisy environments. Although it worked well during Zoom conferences and meetings with more than five participants. Keep in mind that when using Otter.ai on your phone, you won’t be able to use several apps simultaneously. For example, to write down extra notes or take pictures. In such a case, Otter will stop recording automatically.
You can test the service for free – new users have 600 minutes without any charges. They also run on iOS and Android devices which is super-convenient for journalists.
Prices: $8.33/month for up to 6,000 minutes
4. oTranscribe
If you need to transcribe a simple conversation with a clear sound and zero distractions, oTranscribe may be a good option. This instrument combines an audio player and a simple content editor. It has a simple and intuitive interface, and you can control the process via your keyboard.
Its advantages include the absence of switching between Word and Quicktime, interactive timestamps, Markdown and Google Docs export, and privacy. However, oTranscribe won’t do for more complex and challenging projects. You should also use it carefully when the conversation is extremely important and you need to remember every single detail. In such a case, we recommend choosing an auto transcriber with more advanced features.
Prices: free
5. Trint
If you want to try out converting audio to text, Trint may also be an option. To boost the experience, use their iOS application and then send the record to Trint. If you need to highlight certain parts or if there are sections to be clarified, it is possible to add bookmarks throughout the text.
One of the biggest advantages one may find at Trint is the simplicity of use. Even if you have never transcribed before, you’ll figure everything out in a matter of minutes. However, we have found a few Trint security concerns, so if you are dealing with classified or high-value materials, it’s better to choose a safer instrument.
Prices: Starter – $48/month, Advanced – $60/month, Pro – $68/month, Pro Team – $68/month, Enterprise – upon request.
6. TranscribeMe!
The last instrument on our list is TranscribeMe! which already has lots of fans across the world. The list of its services is quite standard and includes transcriptions, AI datasets, speech recognition, data annotation, and translation. Unfortunately, they don’t deal with subtitles or video transcription which is a bit disappointing.
We should confess that our first experience with TranscribeMe! wasn’t smooth because the service recognized our file only on the third attempt. However, the quality of transcription was quite good and the number of mistakes wasn’t critical. The standard completion time is 3-4 business days for manual transcription and a few hours or even minutes when choosing automated transcription. The second option, as you understand, may not be a great idea if you need accurate and clean content.
TranscribeMe! is available on Android and iOS.
Prices: First Draft – starts at ¢75 per minute, Standard – at $1.25 per minute, Verbatim – at $2 per minute.
Becoming a top journalist has never been easier
Of course, to become a famous journalist, you need to have great writing and research skills, as well as to be attentive to detail and always alarmed. However, apart from boosting these proficiencies, you might want to use transcription programs to simplify and optimize the process of collecting the material. Try one of the tools mentioned in our article and pick the one which suits you the most. We guarantee you’ll be delighted!
