NPR has announced a new partnership as the radio company reached a three deal with Take 1 which will transcribe its news, analysis, and podcast programming.
Under the agreement, which started in January 2022, Take 1 is delivering NPR with exact, XML-based transcriptions for over 30 daily and weekly programs and limited series. Furthermore, the company will provide the stats with turnaround times varying from a few days to just a few hours.
“Almost all of my searches for transcribers show most U.S. providers cannot handle NPR’s high volume, high accuracy, and rush deadlines at an affordable price, and competitive businesses based abroad are unfamiliar with the intricacies of American-English accents, slang, idioms, and cultural references,” Laura Soto-Barra, NPR RAD chief (Research Archives & Data Strategy) said.
“NPR poses an added challenge due to the many specialized subjects we cover, from world politics to science and medicine. Still additionally, the tech requirements and the format that allows the transcript to be ingested in the NPR systems present additional challenges not all companies can resolve. We’ve known the Take 1 team for many years, we’ve used their translation services in the past, and they were one of the very few I knew that could deliver against this brief.”
The multipurpose core of NPR’s transcripts signifies that accuracy and fast turnarounds are equally crucial to the company. In addition to being dispersed to NPR’s network of member stations, the transcriptions that Take 1 constructs are posted on the NPR website to make the content available.
“Almost all of my searches for transcribers show most U.S. providers cannot handle NPR’s high volume, high accuracy, and rush deadlines at an affordable price, and competitive businesses based abroad are unfamiliar with the intricacies of American-English accents, slang, idioms, and cultural references,” says Laura Soto-Barra, NPR RAD chief (Research Archives & Data Strategy).
“NPR poses an added challenge due to the many specialized subjects we cover, from world politics to science and medicine. Still additionally, the tech requirements and the format that allows the transcript to be ingested in the NPR systems present additional challenges not all companies can resolve.” She continues, “We’ve known the Take 1 team for many years, we’ve used their translation services in the past, and they were one of the very few I knew that could deliver against this brief.”