Stenonymous is going to be building on its innovative history of publishing information from the court reporting industry.
Coming April 2026 will be at least two surveys.
1. The 2026 Stenonymous Court Reporting Discrimination Survey.
2. The 2026 Stenonymous Education Improvement Survey.
Data collection will continue for 90 days.
A report will issue by September 1, 2026.
I understand more than anyone organizational identification. I’ve lived it. In many ways I still do. Maybe these surveys can help bridge the gap between the people that go unheard and the people in positions to effect change.
If you have suggestions with regard to the content of either survey or ideas for additional surveys please take the time to comment below.
Thank you for your continued readership of Stenonymous.com.
Stenonymous readership statistics as of March 14, 2026
P.S.
Unity Summit by STAR, sponsors.
I said online I wish we were as unified as them.
I also wish they’d realize what I could do with a $10 million budget. The brand is associated with radical honesty. It doesn’t get much better than that.
In a private group the question was posed. And it ended with “if you want to advocate for this profession, whether as a reporter, a student, or other, please just focus on getting better every day. Everything else is just noise and not helpful in you becoming the solution.”
I am preserving my answer here because I feel it has value.
“I am writing honestly and hope you will take the time to consider what I write.
Economically getting better is not really going to help our situation. It may, for sure, improve individual reporters’ outcomes, and the outcome of individual proceedings/jobs. So I support improvement. But we are facing a very specific situation where the guy who got the shortage forecasted under NCRA went to STTI to push digital using that shortage forecast, and the large corporations behind STTI, including Veritext and Stenograph, put their time and attention into expanding digital offerings, with Stenograph offering realtime digital certificates at one time. Veritext advertised every day for years to get people into digital reporting and BlueLedge through Ed 2 Go got its training on college websites across the country.
So you have a situation where the largest companies in the business took a hard shift toward digital under the excuse of shortage. As they shift digital and continue to buy agencies providing stenographer jobs, the number of jobs that would’ve went to stenographers goes down, and this causes public sector to have trouble finding people, so public sector starts recording and the number of stenographer jobs drops even further, reducing our combined political strength even more.
You can see this in the way they act. Veritext went from firing that lady and saying stenographers were the lifeblood of the company to telling reporters digital reporters are reporters so they’d better get used to it and they have 3,000 digital applications a month. True? Unsure. But think about what they’re signaling.
With our reduced power, companies have more power to set rates. “Take what we offer or we’ll give your job to someone else.”
So you have a situation where you can be as good as you want to be. As they economically outplay us and our numbers go down, we will slowly lose our ability to choose our own destiny so to speak. We will be many people fighting for the shrinking number of jobs not going digital. Today it does not matter to you because you are good at your job and feel secure. By the time your job is on the line, there will probably be too few of us to make a difference.
Perhaps think of the field as a pyramid with the realtime jobs at the top. What happens when the bottom of the pyramid disappears? The top of the pyramid ends up on the floor. And that’s assuming it doesn’t shatter when it hits the floor.
If we do not improve our collective understanding of the wider market and what is happening right now, and what has unfolded over the last 13 years, we risk the next 10 or 20 being a very rough ride for those of us that hopefully still have jobs.
We’re basically asking people to shut their eyes to all this and close the gap between 95% and 100% while they get systematically replaced by people that never did this a day in their lives.”
OP writes, “KW Reporting out of California sold to Veritext. How unfortunate. Marking them off my list.”
Whitney Khumar, one of the decision makers behind the sale, and also known for performing as Judge Judy’s stenographer, came onto the post to state, “We completely understand why this might feel concerning at first. Reporters are the heart of everything we do, and supporting and protecting this profession has always been, and will always be, our number one priority.
When we went through this process, we were very clear that the culture we built at KW and the way we support our reporters wasn’t going anywhere. Veritext had actually approached us several times over the years before we even considered it, and those conversations only moved forward once we felt confident that what makes KW special would be preserved.
The good news is Kamryn and I are still here, our same team is still here, the same calendar staff, the same relationships, and the same rates everyone is used to. Nothing about the people you work with day-to-day is changing.
What this does give us is additional resources and technology that will help make things easier and more streamlined for reporters, which we’re actually really excited about.
At the end of the day, we care deeply about the reporters we work with and about this profession as a whole. That hasn’t changed one bit. We’re still here and still committed to supporting our reporters every step of the way.”
I took the time out to reply, “with all due respect to you, unless it’s spelled out in a contract, they’re not going to preserve what makes KW special in the long run. They’re going to do what they do, keep things samey for 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, whatever it is, and then things will morph. And since we know Veritext’s general agenda is to push the private sector towards more digital usage (they were involved with BlueLedge and STTI specifically for this reason), they will push more digital regardless of whether stenographers are available.
Veritext has a long and documented history of lying to court reporters and attorneys. And chances are good they’re lying to you too. So get all you can out of it. And good luck.”
There’s a lot to unpack in that thread and I hope it’s never deleted. People make interesting points and have different perspectives.
P.S.
But now that it’s been a few days I thought it might be good to address some stuff.
This goes without saying, but my assessment is true and honest. Whatever deal they have with Whitney, whatever’s been expressed but not captured in a contract is probably a lie in a long list of documented and undocumented lies. This is just kind of how businesses operate. Look at Plaza College and its acquisition of New York Career Institute. Whatever assurances were made, the old staff was slowly fired and replaced, and what exists today is very different from the school I attended from all I’ve heard. I can only hope that the reporters they produce are more ready for the market than I was. And if any of you are reading, there’s lots to get you over the edge, sell yourself, have good availability, try to be in a position to help a scheduler out, because it can make a difference in whether your long-term relationship with that agency works out.
Anyway, some might’ve been surprised at me toward the end where I tell her to get all she can out of it and good luck. But I figure it this way, the more time we spend mad about things that won’t change anything, the less time we’re spending coming up with creative ways to change the things that make us angry. We’ve demonstrated through this blog that a modicum of light on an issue can change things dramatically. The Stenograph Town Hall was demanded by Stenonymous readers. The STTI was brought down for fraud. The antitrust lawsuit against NCRA cited us. The antitrust lawsuit in Texas had a judge’s ruling that nodded toward the research covered on this blog in the past. There’s 700 posts here, and while I’m happy to concede that some of it is nonsense, the vast majority has gone to helping students and/or reporters in some way. There’s a real value here because the students who read this blog and still say “this is the field I want to work in” are answering a calling that’s going to make this profession shine. They’ve got the corporate cards stacked against them and are still ready to make it work.
But, as I’ve said many times, a great deal of our perspective is survivorship bias. I knew a lot of people who never made it in this field, and I didn’t always believe it was their fault for not making it. Look at all the numbers we’ve published on this blog over the years. They point to a systemic kind of willingness to fudge the numbers and throw on whatever spin makes money. So while we kind of sit here in our excellence culture debating where the comma goes, they’re answering the question “how do I extract the most money from this situation in the shortest amount of time possible?”
And one answer, among many, is a massive reduction in stenographer seats for digital reporting seats. It was claimed online that Veritext stated through one of its webinars that they had 3,000 digital court reporting applicants a month. There’s only maybe 30,000 court reporters in the country. While I don’t necessarily trust, I do think they’re giving clear signals there that we’re becoming replaceable.
Same old solutions. Either start an enterprise to compete directly, unionize, or fund media that shines a light.
As posted to social media, it appears that Utah Senator John Johnson, working with Libertas, is moving to remove licensing for four professions, among them, court reporting.
Our sources say this is on the radar in Utah and that it’s been tabled for the next legislative session.
P.S.
As I admitted on social media, I’ve been on both sides of the licensing argument. As a young New York reporter I thought licensure was necessary because the rates were awful. As a still-young New York reporter, I just think, well, what’s the harm? They want to transform how we do things, cool. Stick me in a senior role and let someone else worry about the transcript. But then I feel guilty because I’ve just joined the “pull the ladder up behind me” crowd.
Of course the end goal would be perfection enough to do away with human oversight.
But we’re a long way off. We’ve learned that in the best of conditions with the best recording equipment money can buy it can be hard to accurately capture a moment in time. But “good enough” is also a threat to stenographer seats. I think we’re kidding ourselves to think otherwise. And make no mistake that it’s good enough. It’s outperformed me. I’ve outperformed it. Does it get better every day? Some seem to think so. But for those tense moments where something cannot be captured correctly, do you trust its judgment?
That’s what the market’s answering every day and a big part of why we’re still here in 2026.
The National Court Reporters Association has released the following.
National Court Reporters Association AI Position StatementStatement from the National Court Reporters Association President regarding the organization’s AI Position Statement
While I commend the organization for such an uplifting message, I can’t help but point out that it sidesteps some very important issues.
Veritext and the big money brigade have all heavily invested in digital reporting. This will lead to the loss of stenographer seats in the private sector and exacerbate shortages in the public sector. As our number dwindles, so too does our bargaining power on the market. And with the digital brigade proclaiming that digital is realtime, it’s foreseeable that realtime rates will go down. The only unknown is time scale. Meanwhile, as corporate consolidation continues, corporate ability to set rates will strengthen. Game, set, match.
Let’s not forget Tyler Technologies’s recent acquisition of FTR. They’ve got a hell of a lot more money than Veritext and it’s pretty clear they intend to push AI. And NCRA as an organization purged the association of volunteers that were most concerned with AI and digital inadequacy. So what is the organization going to actually do to catch the ears of legislators and court officials and ensure they’re not fooled by flashy demos and sweet-talking salesmen? These are nice words. But there is no apparent plan. That means fewer jobs going to stenographers and fewer members for NCRA. That means that eventually NCRA may someday have to open up its membership to voice and digital to survive or die. Or it’ll become a corporate puppet if it’s not already a corporate puppet. After all, the organization lied to its members with regard to the legality of discussing rates for decades, and that helped agency owners, not working reporters.
I can’t help but feel our whole guardian of the record thing is a facade. We stress about nonsensical, almost meaningless moments like the placement of a comma, but we never developed as a group the skills required to communicate to the country our value. Sometimes I’m dumbstruck thinking about how many millions of dollars were flushed down the toilet over the years. Dollars that could’ve gone to preserving your jobs and enhancing leadership skills across the board.
I look back at past endeavors wondering if it was all for nothing. Maybe the rank and file working reporter doesn’t need to learn such skills. But our leaders and institutions spent their time trying to dissuade the corporate scumbags from being corporate scumbags with the anti-gifting, anti-contracting, and the realtime is the future push. Guardians? We weren’t even a speed bump. We said to them, and still say today, “take it all, take the whole market, because you have the money, so you dictate the terms.” These are entities that have asked reporters to change transcripts for their clients. These are entities that allegedly steal from their own employees. The record is in danger. We are currently losing and it doesn’t have to be that way. I proved that half a decade ago.
This all to explain why it became clear to me that the NCRA is not equipped to handle the challenges of our time. The willpower isn’t there. It’s never been. It never will be. The truth might be too stressful for some of us, and that’s okay. For the rest of us, forming something that pushes back independent of NCRA is imperative.
Maybe a publication that rivals the Journal of Court Reporting and draws eyes from outside the profession. Just a thought I had some time ago.
Stenonymous readership statistics released February 27, 2026
Comment from the Stenonymous Blog Post “Public Service Opinions February 2026.”Reply from Christopher Day on the “Public Service Opinions February 2026” blog post.
What can I say? From the court reporting angle we are a very high percentage white, though I don’t know how well those demographics statistics have been updated. It doesn’t always feel that way in New York City because there’s a healthy blend of culture and personalities.
The big question for me was, is that intentional? And to be honest, I don’t think so. I’ve discussed it with others. It probably has more to do with the affordability of mainstream steno. The built-in genius of the corporates was that lowering the cost of entry would dilute the workforce while making them money off the training. I doubt race was ever a factor, except perhaps with regard to hiring practices, where at least at one time it was rumored that Black women were being paid less at Diamond. Of course, I was never able to confirm that because we’re so damn decentralized and the one entity that wants to bring us together doesn’t want to talk about these things openly. I get that it was something you didn’t do historically, but I saw people getting paid a lot less for the same work. And isn’t it supposed to be different? We have laws on this, however imperfect.
But sometimes I wonder what you want me to do, Anonymous. Here I am with my crazy little typing machine trying to give a voice to anybody willing to speak up with me, and most of them just don’t have the time. Most of them work hard. You shot your shot with that lawsuit and the cards fell where they did. How can we change the system together?
Isn’t that the point of documenting all this stuff? So eventually someone with real reach might find it worth talking about? I mean, not for nothing, but the blog was cited in the lawsuit against NCRA. How long until the whole digital training thing explodes into a deluge of people upset with the outcome of their education? Could be now or never. We can’t really know. It depends on the will of those who were deceived by the whole Ed 2 Go / BlueLedge structure. I intend to do my part by maintaining this website.
Who knows? Maybe one day we’ll have funding for the accent and dialect training components I’ve written about in the past. Or maybe we’ll be systematically eliminated. Or maybe some weird blend where the big companies strike a deal with someone like Taylor Jones to create a course to make even more money.
How you contribute to it and interact may yet change our course.
How lucky we are to be the literate half of America.
I was surprised by the boldness. It’s the kind of transparency I think is needed for transformation and triumph. Some dislike the anonymity, but really guys, it’s giving us a shield against companies that are, on a systemic level, acting as barriers against truth.
Honestly, I think I saw numbers between $100,000 and $500,000. And while my information sleuthing™️ over the years made me aware of that inequality, I am reminded of just how few of us spend any time thinking about it because we’ve got busy lives.
I explained in one comment that I believe there is a systematic and a personal responsibility component. What I’ve never been able to figure out is why I have a compulsion toward being a part of correcting the system while most people kind of throw up their hands and say “that’s how it is. bro.“
And I sat behind the levers of our nonprofits and saw that they are not legally structured in such a way that they can effect change except by being acted upon. And that was pretty scary because quite honestly I think the majority of us believe that we’ve got people on this and we don’t. Or perhaps it’s more correct to say that there must be, from all I’ve documented and read, an interesting mix of interests.
And here I am, one in billions, wondering if there’s a pattern that we might be able to create and scale that cascades and impacts industries much larger than our own for the health and well-being of the workers and professionals. Because that would be a billion dollar idea. That would be worth the hours I’ve spent in union training and learning all about the law. I mean, beyond the inherent worth. A systemic cure for personal problems.
But I get busy too.
If there is anything that I have learned from my years as a court reporter and an American it’s that institutions are corrupted by people not caring about other people. Does the lion care about the feelings of the zebra? Can the zebra change his stripes?
Staten Island is a really good community. We export a lot of media. Staten Island’s GDP is like $22 billion so you know we’re hard workers, much like our neighbors all over New York City.
Could we kick off a public reporting corporation that intakes, records, captions, streams, transcribes, and publishes the words of real people from the community, every day 24/7? Kind of like open court, but for profit, but honest about it?
I see it hitting big in today’s “don’t know who to trust for news” economy. I see it locking arms with community stakeholders eager for exposure.
Look at Mirabai Knight and what she built for free, and the businesses that were built from that. What are the possibilities if we start engaging with local and online communities to funnel money back to ours?
If I were a better fundraiser I’d have $10 million for that. We’d double it under half a decade.
And it sounds crazy but the money being poured on the field is irrational. Do they really expect the courts to stop being cash-strapped soon? No. They’re after the big law guys. Leaving untold amounts of money on the table for what our skills can provide the public.
Christopher Day addresses Court Reporter Rates Discussion Facebook Page after 20k reach post about there being no shortage.
The shortage post got a lot of reach. I’ve spent a lot of time documenting and commenting on the state and trajectory of the field. I know people are working hard and don’t have time to read hundreds of posts of modern court reporting market history.
And I honestly don’t want to alarm people, but I’ve always felt a duty to. Because the signs point clearly to lower incomes for the majority of our students absent some kind of intervention. If there’s something special about this field, it’s how we feel about our students. There you are, so many of you, giving dozens, hundreds, thousands of often unpaid hours to helping others succeed and navigate. I would be half the reporter I am today without the people who stood up for and supported me. And I would be double the reporter I am today if I had known half of you.
There’s a lot we can do. Unionization is on the table for some. A private enterprise that starts pulling in significant market share is on the table. Funding and cohesion can make these things a reality in a way that court reporting associations legally can’t. Do I know a guy in finance? Could I make it happen? Yeah. But I’d need significant buy-in from the community.
AI can be a powerful summarization tool. If you are skeptical, despite the negatives of AI, I have to ask you to use it. We can get through this with the best results possible for our students.
(The errors in the AI answer are an integral part of this piece.)
A cherished friend let me in on an article posted by JackimWoods & Co. it’s made its rounds on Facebook so I don’t expect it’ll be completely surprising to many of you. Let me go on record and say I respect Rich Jackim and the article, but I’d like to do a little bit of commentary on this one.
Right at the top, it’s written, “this transaction marks a decisive shift toward institutional-scale investment in AI-powered court reporting technology, signaling the beginning of a structural transformation that will fundamentally reshape the court reporting and legal support services sector within the next three to five years.” He’s not wrong that this is significant, but let’s not forget that For The Record was one of the companies represented on the Speech-to-Text Institute’s board. Rather than defend the organization or its fraudulent statements, For The Record and all the others let it collapse and flounder in the court case it was named in. And it was only three years ago that a For The Record transcript was called a deficit product in a high-profile case. I’ll just note generally, you have to see the guy has financial interests in the consolidation of the industry, so read it from that point of view.
But the fact remains that if big money is spending this much money consolidating the industry, that means they’ll be using their money to steer it a certain way. They have been using their money to steer it a certain way. That certain way is reducing the number of stenographer positions or pushing us into the role of transcribers, unseen, unheard, quietly correcting and/or certifying the AI’s work behind the scenes for a fraction of what we make today and a whole lot less autonomy.
Let me be really clear: You cannot skill your way out of this. This is economic warfare. This is us spending the next 10 years playing musical chairs while the big money collectively deletes stenographer seats one by one unless we start making moves. Moves like unionization. Our field has always thrived on a kind of survivorship bias. We watch this happen, it’s probably Armageddon. But at least the people who still have jobs at that point will be able to say “I made it.”
I’ll note also that people have been talking about the Veritext CEU webinar last night. Finally Veritext came out and said it, “digital is equal, we get 3,000 applicants a month and we accept 2% of those.” This is what I heard. Do I know the truth? No. Veritext habitually lies and abuses the trust of reporters. Do I blame Andrea Wecker, their current front person? Nope. She’s probably made the same exact calculation, and wants to be able to say “I made it.”
I’m exploring some ideas as to what to do about it all. I’m AI-powered too these days, so we’ve got a shot (joke).
