Transcripts
When a government body publishes a meeting transcript — or our monitor extracts one from video — it appears alongside agendas and minutes on the Documents page. Transcripts are public records; JournoHelper makes them easier to reach from your brief.
When transcripts are available
Not every meeting has a transcript. Availability depends on the source: some Granicus or YouTube streams include captions; some agencies post PDF transcripts days later; others never publish one.
On the Documents page, meetings that include a transcript file show it in the meeting's file list. Open the document detail view to see all attached files — Agenda, Agenda Packet, Minutes, Transcript, and others depending on what the agency published.
Where: In the app: Documents → open a meeting → file list.
Opening and reading transcripts
Click the Transcript file to open it in a new tab. JournoHelper serves the cached file from the original public source when possible.
Today, transcripts render as the agency published them — often a long scroll of timestamped lines. In-page search, speaker labels, and agenda-section navigation are on the roadmap but not yet available in the app.
Timestamp links from analysis
When you run analysis on a meeting that has a transcript, story ideas and notable moments may include [MM:SS] badges. Click a badge to jump to that position in the transcript file — helpful for pulling quotes or confirming what was said.
Timestamps come from the analysis model's reading of the document and transcript together. Always verify against the source before quoting in a story.
Where: In the app: document detail → Run Analysis → story ideas with timestamps.
Transcripts without minutes
Some bodies post a transcript before formal minutes are approved. You can still run analysis on the agenda or transcript to prep coverage; minutes may arrive weeks later and will appear as a separate file on the same meeting.
Sharing with colleagues
Copy the document page URL from your browser and send it to a teammate on your JournoHelper team. They must be signed in to view it. There is no guest or public share link for people outside your account.
What's coming later
Planned improvements include find-in-page search inside the transcript viewer, better mobile formatting, speaker diarization where the source supports it, and agenda-item anchors that jump to the right video segment. Those features are not live yet — this guide will be updated when they ship.