For years, request by viewers of TV programs for transcripts of the shows were damned nuisance until James Smith recognized the opportunity hidden in all that aggravation. Smith was an MIT dropout, operating a small typesetting business in Manhattan when he ordered a transcript of a MacNeil-Lehrer Report show and waited three weeks for it to arrive. To demonstrate that even his dinky company could do a better job, he taped a MacNeil-Lehrer show, stayed up all night transcribing and typesetting it, and hand delivered the product to the show’s producers the next morning. He secured an exclusive contract to produce the show transcripts and fulfill the requests.
For TV producers, his oddball business, called Journal Graphics, offered a service that relieved them of problems. Smith said to the producers: You can flash the Journal Graphics address and phone number on the air, we’ll handle the requests, and if a particular transcript sells enough copies, we’ll even pay you a royalty. He quickly captured the transcript rights to most major talk shows and about one-third of all CNN’s programming.
Of course, most shows do not generate enough transcript requests to amount to much money. But, then, keep in mind that the costs of preparing a typical transcript for copying are less than $100, and copying cost are about two cents a page, about a buck for the average complete transcript copy. Journal Graphics lays a 300 percent or better markup on that, selling each transcript for $3 to $5. And the occasional blockbuster bestsellers make it all worthwhile. Phil Donabue’s April 8, 1993, show, featuring the “Recipe Detective’s” do-it-at-home versions of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Kentucky Fried Chicken. And other famous food products sold 100,000 transcripts! Bill Moyers’s PBS interviews with Joseph Campbell about myths sold a respectable 20,000 transcripts.
It all adds up to over $3 million a year, with an advertising budget of zero. And the business is on a growth curve. In addition to the individual consumers interested in the Recipe Detective or the interviews with transvestite hookers who want to adopt children. Sally Jessy Raphael, law firms, newspapers, radio talk show producers and even government agencies want transcripts of all the Nightline programs, and they’ll pay extra for fast delivery via satellite, computer, or fax.
