Outsourced! Jim is replaced by a writer in India

[OhioChick]

Thu, May 28 2009 at 5:41 PM EST

I've been writing my weekly print column for 20 years. But this week they found someone cheaper. In Hyderabad.

have, for more than 20 years, written a weekly auto column for the New Mass Media chain of newspapers in New England. I haven’t missed a deadline in all that time.

Until now.

The Chicago Tribune, which owns the alternative newspaper chain, has declared bankruptcy, and that’s put a pinch on everything. My job writing the column this week was “outsourced” to India by the cost-cutters. Instead of my usual trenchant observations about green cars, Mandira Srivastava from Hyderabad (editor-coordinator at Vadamali Media and a writer for www.indiaschoolnews.com) wrote an interesting story on the ultra-cheap Tata Nano. “Buying a car has always been a part of the great Indian dream and the ultimate goal for teenagers,” she writes. The Nano starts at only $2,113.

Maybe if they weren’t saving a few bucks, I could have written about the Tesla Roadster recall and what it all means.

Actually, the outsourcing thing—which covers almost every story in the paper, from the news stories to the restaurant review—was some kind of statement by the New Haven Advocate’s editors. Here’s what they said:

“Vanishing revenues have put the newspaper industry in a death spiral and many papers long ago outsourced other functions (like IT support centers and telemarketing) to India. We devised this issue as an experiment on what outsourced news might look like,” the editors wrote.

“We posted ads on Craigslist in Bangalore and Mumbai back in March seeking journalists to write this issue of our paper — news, arts, food, sex advice, the auto column, the horoscope, the whole pakora. In just weeks, we had over 100 replies from Indian freelancers willing to do just about anything for us.”

It’s not always a one-time trial. California’s Pasadena Now actually outsourced its city hall coverage to Indian journalists, According to the Los Angeles Times, the U.S.-based owners “transmit press releases, PDF files and reports to their offshore crew, which also watches City Council and school board meetings via streaming video. The Indians produce articles and headlines, earning $7 for every 1,000 words. (By way of comparison, guest opinion writers in the Los Angeles Times get at least $250 for 600 words.)”

And there’s more: In 2004, venerable British news agency Reuters announced it would outsource some Wall Street work to a bureau in Bangalore. Reuters Editor in Chief David Schlesinger said at the time, “Now we can send our New York journalists out to do more interesting stories. This is good for our business and good for journalism.”

Actually, maybe my writing about this will give my publishers here at MNN some bright ideas. Please don’t outsource me! I’ll write more! And faster! I’ll take a pay cut!

http://www.mnn.com/transportation/cars/blogs/outsourced-jim-is-replaced-by-a-writer-in-india

[girl gone mad]

1. hmm..

They "long ago outsourced other functions (like IT support centers and telemarketing) to India."

Part of the same cycle of wage deflation that has resulted in no one having enough money to buy the things their advertisers are selling (let alone the newspaper), thus fewer ads and fewer subsscribers.

[BR_Parkway]

9. The phrase "First they outsourced IT, but I wasn't IT so I said nothing"

comes to mind.

[napoleon_in_rags]

2. Outsourced! 1 out of 16 DU posters is now posting from India!

And the sad thing is I'm not kidding: Look at the Alexa page for DU:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/democraticunderground.com
Scroll down to second chart. I'm beginning to see a trend here. :(

[Harry Monroe]

3. And I see where "hamster porn" is the 9th ranked search term.

To get to DU from a search engine. WTF??

[napoleon_in_rags]

8. Man, whatever you do don't Google it.

And if you do Google it, don't watch the youtube video. And if you do watch the youtube video, make sure its NOT the ones with the two hamsters and electric guitar. Just trust me. :)

Seriously though, WTF? Its like the DU is like the 18th result for that, a goofy thread with 3 responses. I wonder how many times that page has been viewed.

[peacetalksforall]

4. I can't begin to tell you how bad I feel. Just the mention of India and the other countries who are

getting our jobs sends me into depression. This has nothing to do with the workers there - this is all the people in the U.S. who are ruining our country, killing our dreams. I am experiencing a very dark picture of our future. Our parents and grandparents don't deserve this. They worked so hard for us and we were supposed to have some kind of stability. I can't keep control. Such greed. Such diabolical machinations. Some people really HATE US. Our own people HATE US. Sorry, I don't think you are expecting my outburst of emotion.

I wish you well.

[OhioChick]

5. I know how you feel. It's depressing and frightening.

:hug:

[truedelphi]

7. it is depressing. I just read an article writtten in

Atlantic Monthly -- and the writer was saying that Obama's economic stimulus plans might work if the more affluent Americans were taxed at higher rates - but hey, the author went on to say, the affluent are already paying 20% of their income now!!

I almost choked. I don't know any middle income person that isn't paying 20 if not 24 if not 28 per cent of their take home for the Feds take on taxes. And on top of that, under $ 92 K or so, you pay the 8 per cent required by Social Security. But the very rich exceed this 92 K - and so they are only getting hit with 20%.

But in the USA the whole thing is - we cannot ask employers to employ US, the citizens, and we also cannot ask for a progressive taxation.

It is infuriating.

[sasquatch]

6. Break out the Guillotines

Let the corpratist go without heads.

[northernlights]

10. I see an opportunity in this

If I were part of an outsourced editorial and writing newspaper staff, I'd get together with the former colleagues, pool resources and start an alternative rag: local news written and produced by local people, who live -- and therefore understand -- local issues. Online and in print.

Keep costs down by keeping out the expensive publisher-elite on the masthead.

Also organize a boycott of the outsourcers, if possible. Their death spiral could be accelerated by the combined unexpected competition and bad press around their outsourcing.

The *free* newspaper in my village is booming. People pick it up simply because it's free. Then more advertisers see that it's the one that flies off the shelves, so they pay to advertise in it. The realtor from a national chain told me they advertise in that paper to the exclusion of the others because they've seen it's the one that brings in buyers. So that little paper gets *all* their ad dollars. Same deal with the used and new car dealers, etc.

It's heavy on the advertising, but I like to scan some of that as well as read the articles, see upcoming events, movie showtimes, do the crossword, and recycle it into my garden paths. The articles are every bit as good as the $1.00 local rag, but the price can't be beat :D

[Joanne98]

11. Media outsourcing? GOOD!