Transcripts of favorite, missed or maddening stories on NPR used to cost $3.95 each, but now they are free on NPR.org.

Previously, NPR charged for transcripts because an outside contractor worked fast to prepare them to be available to the library within a few hours of a piece airing. It was a costly expense which NPR did for the benefit of classrooms and deaf audiences, or anyone who wrote to Listener Services and was willing to pay.

As of the new NPR.org site re-launch on July 27, over 20,000 visitors had gone online to get transcripts.

Now, all you have to do to get a story's text is visit www.NPR.org and click on the transcript link to the right of the audio button, located just below the story's title.

Quotes from these transcripts are for non-commercial use only, and may not be used in any other media without attribution to NPR.

Why now?

"Transcripts were once largely the province of librarians and other specialists whose job was to find archival content, often for professional purposes," said Kinsey Wilson, the Senior VP of NPR's Digital Media department. "As Web content becomes easier to share and distribute, and search and social media have become important drivers of audience engagement, archival content -- whether in the form of stories or transcripts -- has an entirely different value than it did in the past."

NPR took the new website launch as an opportunity to offer free transcripts, according to Laura Soto-Barra, NPR's Senior Librarian.

"We made a decision to go ahead even though NPR pays a considerable amount of money to produce transcripts on deadline," said Soto-Barra. "Transcripts are posted six hours after the shows air, except for Morning Edition's transcripts which are posted four hours after the show is broadcast. We have offered free audio for a long time and we felt that free transcripts were long overdue."

New software allows NPR's staff to receive daily metrics and supply data for "most popular transcripts yesterday", most popular transcripts for the last seven days" and "most popular transcript ever".

Keep in mind transcript coordinators do their best to catch and correct errors on the text. But since there is a quick turn-around time on transcripts, mistakes can occur. If you notice a spelling or typographical error, please email Transcripts@npr.org, where it can be corrected.
Soto-Barra said that NPR transcripts may contain minor or significant errors, ranging from the use of "ex-patriot" instead of "expatriate." In another example, a transcriber mistakenly quoted filmmaker John Waters as saying of former Manson follower Leslie Van Houten: "She's a yuppie," when what he really said was, "She's not a yuppie."

Transcript coordinators "Dorothy Hickson and Laura Jeffrey do their best to find and correct errors but unfortunately, they cannot proofread every piece," said Soto-Barra. "Librarians and transcript coordinators appreciate when someone calls their attention to errors, particularly when they involve name spellings and use of (unintelligible)."

If you've visited the site today, you've noticed NPR.org's re-design. But since the re-launch last night there have been a few technical bugs, including the disappearance of old comments posted on blogs.

Everything is back to normal on the Ombudsman's column, but visitors may experience glitches as NPR works to solve minor problems throughout the site.

According to this note from NPR's digital media team, the re-design will make it "easier to combine listening and reading, to follow breaking news, to comment on our work and share it, and easier to find programming from your NPR station. Later this summer, we also plan to enhance our support for a variety of popular mobile platforms. Our goal is to make sure that anyone with a mobile device can enjoy NPR and our stations."

If you continue having problems, go to the Contact Us page.

--Chantal de la Rionda
Office of the Ombudsman

Edit: This blog entry was written by Anna Tauzin, the intern in the Ombudsman's office.

Recently, several listeners have written the Ombudsman about guidelines surrounding posting anonymously on NPR.org. They noticed that some people provide their real name while others use a pseudonym to leave comments.

NPR wants to engage listeners in discussion in the comment section following every online article, including the Ombudsman column. The preference is that people use their real names; we think this practice promotes a tone of civility and responsibility.

That said, NPR cannot outright ban someone who doesn't use their real name simply because there is no way to enforce it. Anyone can use a pseudonym. Raquel Smythe could, in reality, be Jennifer Jones.

When comments pop up from users with an obvious fake name, i.e. "CatLover42" or "Number One," NPR usually doesn't delete their account if they are playing by the rules. However, if someone uses the shield of anonymity to troll others, NPR's digital team will block his or her use of the site.

NPR is keenly aware of the issue of privacy on the Internet. There are times when a person should be able to contribute to the online discussion without revealing their identity.

Andy Carvin, a senior project manager in social media at NPR, said, "[It is] one of the reasons why we can't have a zero-tolerance ban on fake names, because sometimes that's the only way some people can participate. But it's definitely a double-edged sword."

When it comes to online commenting, you have to ease the rules a bit and accept the sometimes disheveled democratic nature of the Web.

What do you think? Does it really matter if someone uses a pseudonym instead of his or her real name?

Anna Tauzin