MacSpeech Power Team

MacSpeech Scribe: The Perfect Journalism Assistant

For decades, sportswriters have had to juggle tight deadlines while figuring out how to best describe what they just saw covering a sporting event. On the scene, the journalist would jot down quick notes using pen and paper before returning to a typewriter to whip out a draft. These days, a computer replaces a typewriter, but the ability to start writing while on the sidelines, or at the finish line, is still a challenge.

For freelance journalist Bryce Hubner, the art of writing can now begin anywhere he can record dictation on his iPhone, using Griffin Technology's iTalk Recorder app. When he returns to his Mac, he easily turns that speech into text with MacSpeech Scribe. In cases where it’s convenient to use his Mac laptop, Hubner also relies on MacSpeech Dictate (see related story).

Hubner cites the epiphany when speech recognition with MacSpeech Scribe became his perfect journalism assistant: "I was on deadline for a ‘Men’s Journal’ article. I was in the car and I had a great idea for introducing the content. I spoke it into my iPhone and had it on my Mac within seconds when I returned home. That’s when I realized how great MacSpeech Scribe is."

In February 2010, Hubner was on assignment at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games, and the next month he covered the NCAA Ski Racing Championships in Colorado. He found that MacSpeech Scribe enabled his words to flow faster from up on the slopes down to his editor’s desktop: "If I’m at a ski race and I have an idea while I’m at the finish line, I can write a paragraph or two, go home, and pop it in the computer," Hubner says. "From my car to the mountain to the river, MacSpeech Scribe is there for me."

MacSpeech Dictate: A Journalist’s Time Saver

For critical journalism tasks, Bryce Hubner relies on MacSpeech Dictate. When he needs to start writing an article, MacSpeech Dictate helps him get his creative juices flowing.

"I used to labor over sentences," Hubner says, "but MacSpeech Dictate lets me get the words out. I can just roll with my thoughts, and they’re in my voice." He estimates the time savings when writing articles is in the 50% range. In addition to the Winter Olympics and other skiing events, Hubner has covered outdoor sports and Major League Soccer, as well as travel features, health issues, CEO biographies, rock star profiles, and more. Hubner became a full-time freelancer and MacSpeech Dictate user after a severe neurological injury in late 2008. Keeping active helps the muscles affected by the injury — Hubner uses a wireless microphone so he can walk around while dictating — although he says that the time savings and efficiency gains he has realized with MacSpeech Dictate would keep him using the software even if he were completely recovered.

Hubner has come up with some creative ways that MacSpeech Dictate helps him stay productive. For example, at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, he worked out of a house full of German journalists and athletes since he was covering Germany’s bid to host the 2018 Winter Olympics. The environment was exciting, but the noise was never a problem, thanks to a trick Hubner figured out months earlier.

"I created and trained a profile on my laptop in a noisy café one day, so I could use MacSpeech Dictate in busy places without having to raise my voice," Hubner recalls. "It works brilliantly. It’s very handy when having to write while traveling or, say, when working in a noisy press box at a soccer game."

"Transcribing interviews is also much easier now," Hubner explains, noting another MacSpeech Dictate use that he says cuts the work time almost in half: "I listen to the interview and [repeat the words spoken] as I’m listening to it. It’s much more efficient than typing. A 45-minute Q&A used to take about 80 minutes to transcribe, and now it takes about 50 to 55 minutes, since there isn’t as much starting and stopping."

Hubner relies on MacSpeech Dictate for e-mail, which he says is "super smooth and easy," as well as Safari for web browsing and even Skype while talking to his editors. "I can start a text chat with an editor in Skype, and then I’m hands-free," Hubner explains. "So I can talk to them while looking at ski race results, for example."

He sums it up: "Working and getting better at the same time wouldn’t be possible without MacSpeech Dictate."