The idea sounded so weird, it was as if someone had snuck a clip from The Onion into Fly’s Sunday New York Times. But there it was: NYT columnist Maureen Dowd, writing about the work of local newspaper reporters being outsourced to India. It seems that a Southern California publisher by the name of James Macpherson has hired reporters in Bangalore to write about everything from the Pasadena Christmas-tree-lighting ceremony to city politics. The smalltime operator even has a name for this neat trick of buying with rupees and selling for dollars: He calls it “glocal” journalism.
It gets better (or worse): big-time newspaper publisher Dean Singleton, owner of our very own San Jose Mercury News (and every other Bay Area newspaper but the Chron) has endorsed the idea.
Speaking earler this month to the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association, Singleton pointed out that most of the pre-production work at his newspapers has already been outsourced to India, and suggested that he might task one news desk to handle all of his 50-plus papers, “maybe even offshore.” He repeated the idea to a reporter following the speech. “If you need to offshore it, offshore it,” he said. “In today’s world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn’t matter.”
But apparently it does matter to Lean Dean’s local employees. Media consultant (and former Knight-Ridder online guru) Ken Doctor, who runs the San Jose-based media-crit site Content Bridges, recently posted a gag-map, allegedly created by staffers of Singleton’s Bay Area News Group, which depicts the Media News empire relocated to the shores of the subcontinent.
Singleton is typically unapologetic. A typical quote: “Too many whining editors, reporters and newspaper unions continue to bark at the dark, thinking their barks will make the night go away…and the staffing in newsrooms will suddenly begin to grow again.” Clearly, it’s hard times for newspapers. Amid the devastation, the man the Times once labeled “the industry’s leading skinflint” suffers through the hard times in one of his half-dozen homes, which include several Colorado ranches, a summer place on Cape Cod, and a primary residence in Denver boasting 11 bathrooms and an elevator.
And then we wonder why the newspapers suck? This is another example of why America is being sold out right from under us. What will be left? Do we all need to just learn Hindi or Mandarin? And I am no xenophobe!
These CEO’s are just chasing down the short term monetary gain, squeezing the last penny out of their dwindling assets, and to hell with any cultural or human impact.
So why don’t we outsource our police department as well, bring in illegals to do that.
Sweezy—
We still need policeman. I’m not sure I can say the same thing about the ‘dead tree edition’ of the local news.
#2 I agree, I think I wrote in haste. I was just thinking of what other tasks we could outsource that would be just over the top.
San Jose used to have TWO TV stations (36 and 11) dedicated to covering the city, and TWO editions of the paper. Today, we have no TV and about a third of the coverage that the MERC once supplied. KLIV radio is doing a good job though.
Maybe they MediaNews/BANG can outsource its entire C-level executive management to Bangalore and Mumbai as well. Imagine the savings there. Seven-figure salary positions for 80k a year! Outsource the CEO, the COO, the CFO and the publisher. Save hundreds of jobs in the process and keep them far enough away to reduce further destruction. Better yet, just fire them off in the next space shuttle and let them telecommute from weightless chambers via satellite link.
Kenny, Sweezy, Mumler, Fly et al;
I should think you “citizens of the planet” would be celebrating this brand of globalism, not mocking it. After all, what are geographical borders? They’re nothing but artificial constructs created by provincial, ethnocentric bigots. Right?
This December 5 posting is a little bit of old news. I told you on November 4 in comment #4 on Pete Campbell’s “Mercury Meltdown” this:
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“What I heard from a friendly editor is that the Mercury News will outsource abroad every possible aspect of publishing, except for the actual application of ink to slices of dead trees.
Thus the business pages will go to experts abroad who will stay in touch with business leaders here.
Our political leaders will be interviewed by telephone or email from abroad.
Video tapes of council meetings, council committee meetings, and other electronically-captured events will be studied abroad, and the necessary news sent back to San Jose.
Every day at 5:00 PM a small, but sturdy, team of locals will sort through all the stuff sent in, edit it, and make it printable. We will be grateful.”
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Yes, it is funny that San Jose news is believed only after it is printed in The New York Times!
Sorry kids, the market has spoken. When a simple product (like the news in the SJMN) can be produced anywhere, the iron law of profit maximization clearly states that it would be a sin to not shift production to the cheapest place possible, so #6 John Galt is right.
Over the years, San Jose’s news readers have accepted the elimination of much of the local news and independent investigation we really do appreciate and its replacement with the bland mushy pablum of generic newswire reprints and rumor mongering about national (and sometimes local) celebrities. That kind of “news” requires even less on-the-ground reporting than what any journalism undergrad cutting and pasting AP, SJI, or Metro pieces onto a very official looking San Jose Mercury News webserver could offer, whether at SJSU or in India.
The good news:
Readers can continue to count on the privilege of paying to see the Mercury News label on their newspapers or computer screens with some words following the titles and advertisements. Readers can also continue to feel haughty and superior to the less agile competitors in our global job market, like the production team at the SJMN whose jobs have already been hollowed out and may now be outsourced.
The bad news:
The current production and reporting folks at SJMN can count on a long job search since they cannot physically occupy the the Mercury News like the workers at “Republic Windows and Door” have been doing since they got their 3 day notice of lay off on Friday—- check the AP article: http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5ildwrFjwHYjvJPX2edZgBnNb8EEQD94TKFUO0
Seriously though, in order to enjoy the First Amendment’s guarantee of “freedom of the press” you have to own or share a press. I hope that the people who are are serious about journalism and investigation find ways of practicing that art that are never under the thumb of the profit seekers: i.e. do-it-yourself or collaboration among volunteers. When the public is not expecting much from “official” media outlets and the people at those outlets are hemmed in by budget cuts and editorial orthodoxy, being a “professional” journalist just means being a cut rate shill with no job security.
I know, you’re trying to “change things from the inside.” But when there is no “inside” anymore, no press to struggle for control of like the workers in Chicago’s Republic Window and Door are trying to do, why not get a day job and write independently? You would have more fun and might even be more credible.
Hate to say it but I don’t really care if this happens. The local news is a joke these days.
The City Hall reporters spoon feed us stuff they get from the mayor’s office and maybe a council office or two.
The longstanding city hall beat reporter is so depressed and cynical that he doesn’t really do any reporting.
The columnists, news and sports, are the only ones who seem to take pride in their work and journalism.
Keep the columnist and get rid of everone else including the ed board.
What would be the difference?