All the News that's Fit to Outsource!

[3113]

Does this mean I can finally achieve my dream of being a Calcutta news reporter without the bother of having to actually live in Calcutta?

Local news reporting outsourced to India

When is local journalism not really local? When it's about Pasadena and written by someone in India.

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the Pasadena Now website, hired two reporters last weekend to cover the Pasadena City Council. One lives in Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a year. The other will work in Bangalore for $7,200.

The council broadcasts its meetings on the Web. From nearly 9,000 miles away, the outsourced journalists plan to watch, then write their stories while their boss sleeps — India is 12.5 hours ahead of Pacific Standard Time.

"A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages," said Macpherson, 51, who used to run a clothing business with manufacturing help from Vietnam and India.

So, on the Indian version of Craigslist, he posted an ad that said in part, "We do not believe that geographic distance between California and India will present unsurmountable problems, and that working together with you will result in your development of a keen working knowledge of this city's affairs."

Dozens replied. One of the two chosen had attended the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Rob Gunnison, the director of school affairs there, is dismayed. "It just seems so fundamental to journalism to be there," Gunnison said. "I still can't quite believe it's not a hoax."

It's not. Macpherson plans to run his first batch of outsourced stories Tuesday. The Pasadena native runs the website, which he said gets 45,000 visitors a month, on a shoestring budget from his condo with help from his wife, a data entry worker and two interns.

Macpherson plans to hire half a dozen more Indian reporters. He'll add some local flavor by doing interviews, then e-mailing the recordings to India. "When you instant-message someone in Mumbai, it's like looking over her shoulder," he said.

Larry Wilson, editor of the 30,000-circulation Pasadena Star-News newspaper, scoffed.

"To pretend you can get the feel and the culture of a town as complicated and interesting as Pasadena by e-mailing and doing things over the Internet is nutty," he said.

Ann Erdman, spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena, thinks the approach is a little odd. But "as long as they get their facts correct, I'm a happy camper," she said.

You know, he could have just hired some journalism students from a Pasadena high school. They might not be able to write as well, but they'd work equally cheap and they'd be local.

 

[rgraham666]

I wonder who's going to buy his papers when nobody in Pasadena has jobs?

And will there be any news then?

 

[mikey2much]

limited views for the reporters to work from

It would seem that the only views that the reporters are exposed to is the ones expressed in the meetings. So they do away with any local opinions. It is news for the leadership , by the leadership and of the leadership.

Not really news at all, sorta like a cheap version of Fox News.

 

[Pure]

yes, i saw the story. it tells something about the significance and viewer interest in city council meetings!

on a more serious note, i was just thinking that those underpaid cashier ladies in the grocery stores and department stores could easily be outsourced. just have a fellow in Calcutta with a camera link, and let the customer swipe his own items.

one big box store here has gone the step further in entirely automated check out, as has one huge library.

 

[rgraham666]

one big box store here has gone the step further in entirely automated check out, as has one huge library.

I wonder how they can call it 'service industries' when they serve us less and less?

I forsee a day we walk in the door, we hand them our money and they tell us to fuck off.

 

[Guest]

I maybe could see a foreign worker summarizing everything in the video of the meeting he was watching for someone back in Pasadena then to use to write the story, seeking out the recorded video for clarification and amplification, where needed. But it sounds like they instead write ready for publication stories. To write a journalistic story, you have to make judgments about what is the most important thing that happened in the meeting; what impacts the community most. That's your lead.

A non-resident, even another American living outside of that community, could not make that judgment.

The only reason to read a local paper is for local news, with local community insights. If I lived in Pasadena, I'd cancel that subscription so fast, and startup a news blog "Pasadena news by a Pasadenian".

I know of a new blog in a small rural community that now has more unique reads each month, then the local newspaper prints copies.

Times, journalistically, they are a changing.

i was just thinking that those underpaid cashier ladies in the grocery stores and department stores could easily be outsourced. just have a fellow in Calcutta with a camera link, and let the customer swipe his own items.

I've read that might be coming to drive through windows at fast food. The person on the other end of the speaker box is in a central call center. This lets the restaurant hire non-english speaking people for the windows, and prevent people from just standing around when there is no one in the drive up (or the line is so long the next car can't get up to them). When that happens, the call center just takes the next drive up from another restaurant.

A positive of that, is if you drive up to a MacDonalds in a Spanish part of town, and speak Swahili, the call center can still take your order because they could have order takers speaking various languages.