Outsourcing hits a new class of workers: journalists

[antigop]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/11/19/business/outsource.php

The rush of job recruiting ads on MonsterIndia.com tells the story of the latest class of workers to watch their trade start migrating to another continent.

"Urgent requirement for business writers," reads one ad looking for journalists to locate in Mumbai. "Should be willing to work in night shifts (UK shift)."

Another casts for English-speaking journalists in Bangalore with "experience in editing and writing for US/International Media."

Remote-control journalism is the scornful term that unions use for the shift of newspaper jobs to low-cost countries like India or Singapore with fiber-optic connections transmitting information all around the world.

But the momentum for "offshoring" to other countries or outsourcing locally is accelerating as newspapers small and large seek ways to reduce costs in the face of severe stresses, from sagging circulation and advertising revenue to shareholder pressure.

I wouldn't want to be a journalist at the Des Moines Register.

[Warpy]

1. Time to begin at the bottom again

with local weeklies staffed by hardscrabble working class types who write part time, by stringers who supply digital photos, and a sales force consisting of kids and unemployed and/or homeless adults hawking the papers on the streets.

The 5 corporations that control our "news" have failed miserably and I know the only reason I ever buy the local fishwrap is for the weekly TV guide and the adverts. The rest of the paper is useless. Even the comics suck--they're still running Beetle Bailey.

We the people usually rush in to fill a vacuum left by greed, indolence and stupidity. All we need is a little seed money.

[Joe Bacon]

15. What will Tom Friedman do when he's outsourced?

If anyone deserves to be homeless and fighting for a refrigerator box to sleep in, it's him!

[Warpy]

16. Fighting over it with Charles Krauthammer, I hope

if there is any justice at all left in this world.

[cornermouse]

2. I bet they're going to be right on top of ALL the local news

in hometown U.S.A. And the factual basis and accuracy of their coverage of local and even national news? Well.....
:sarcasm:

[blm]

3. I warned this is what was happening last summer. McClatchy taking over the last good newsorg.

Knight-Ridder - forced to break up and sell by ProBush shareholder.

Expect the newspaper chains to start resembling the cookie cutter broadcast news like Sinclair Media.

Some of us warned but too many ignored those warnings or defended the direction of the newsmedia.

Contact your congresspeople and senators THIS WEEK. DEMAND hearings.

This is the most important media matter in the country today and it is mostly going unreported even as it is known within the industry.


You should crosspost this in GD and call for action. This IS what DU should be about.

[ray of light]

12. I agree. But too many people think that it's no big deal and refuse to help.

[Cassandra]

4. If that doesn't wake them up, nothing will.

What is everybody here supposed to do for money to pay those insurance premiums, drug costs, mortgages, college costs, plus cars, HDTV, cable, cell phones, etc, etc.?

[LiberalEsto]

6. Not to mention student loans

How can you pay $400 a month in student bills on a reporter's salary? The journalism business has never paid well, except for the superstars at the top.

Now if they could outsource all the jerks at Faux News.....

[antigop]

5. The article is from November, 2006. n/t

[blm]

7. The overall news about the print media is going UNREPORTED. Just like most

never realized that Sinclair Broadcasting was using produced cookie cutter taped reports.

[antigop]

8. No argument from me. I just wanted people to know the date of the article. n/t

[blm]

9. Glad you did. It could've been written yesterday based on what I hear going on

in newsrooms these past months.

Alot of good people are leaving - being pushed out.

[antigop]

10. and it will continue if people keep voting for "corporate" candidates n/t

[K Gardner]

11. OMG.. thanks for posting !

[McCamy Taylor]

13. So, will they ask them to replace the striking entertainment writers next?

I am a fiction editor at a sci-fi -zine, and I get stuff from all around the world. People who use English as a second language send me stories that are not fit to use. They have the grammar and the vocabulary down, but they do not know how to write for an English language audience.

Borat is funny, because Sasha Cohen it a Brit.

Bilingual Indians can do a fair job with short copy, but when it comes to nuanced articles---say the corporate media's propaganda that wins them favors from the Bush FCC---how are they going to know which buttons to push? Who will tell them which ethnic group is the punching bag du jour of the right wing? Why would they even want to help the fascists who rule the US get stronger?

[blm]

14. Corporate control = political control = fascism here we come.

.