Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Outsourcing media: take II

Bond Papers raises the issue of media outlets outsourcing copy editing to India. That's not uncommon in the publishing industry. Many academic books have their editing outsourced to India. The rates are very low and the standard of English is very high.

But, in the end, that's just taking existing content and processing it to a certain standard. It's not actually creating or originating copy.

Then there's the case of Pasadena Now, a website devoted to the events of Pasadena, California. Their reporters cover the city council the modern way - each week they watch the webcast then follow up by making calls and do telephone interviews and write the story and file it with the editor.

All from India, as this story reports. It notes that:
When he had the brainstorm to use journalists in India, he was able to hire two for a total of $20,800. Not only is that within his budget, he says it is "apparently" a pretty good salary in Mumbai and Bangalore, where the two reporters live.

While outraged at the idea of covering stories from halfway around the world, journalists say this is far from an isolated trend.

Shhhhhhhhh. . . don't tell Transcontinental.

No comments: