October 21, 2008 06:57 AM UTC

MediaNews Boss plans to profit : Offshoring journalism's future

• 3 Comments
• by: Libertad

After deciding to bailout on real worker rights (Amendment 47) and enjoining the inside dealing Denver Chamber crowd (Amendment 54), MediaNews CEO and AP Chairman is promoting nearly complete offshoring of thousands of American jobs.

Obviously hooking up with the ballot pay-off coalition has given this Boss some creative strategies to maximize his profits.

The Union downside is less jobs. The Union Bosses got a $1-3 million pay-off, but they’ll be seeing even less jobs to give to their nephews and sons.

“In today’s world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn’t matter,” Singleton said after his speech.

MediaNews having combined many operations near San Francisco, now thinks sending those and other positions overseas maybe just what it needs to maximize EPS in the new economy.

“One thing we’re exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews … maybe even offshore,”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/…

“We used to have on-the-ground reporters, but the expense was prohibitive,” said one editor/publisher. “Regretfully, we had to lay them all off.”

Although they’ll miss the local nuance, the cost savings will come through the regurgitation of PR emails from corporate PR goons.

“You might miss the nuance of a sneer on a councilman’s face but you know how he voted and what he said,” he said. “That’s factual and can be reported on from anywhere.”

Editors and reporters have intensely questioned newsroom outsourcing. Long-distance editors might miss locally relevant nuances or fail to fill in context based on a knowledge of the region, said Bernard Lunzer, president of The Newspaper Guild-CWA.

“It may in the short run save costs. In the long run, what does it do to the quality of the product?” he said.

…he said most of the preproduction work for MediaNews’ papers in California is being done in India, a move he said cut costs by 65%.

“If you need to offshore it, offshore it,” he said.

Note: this poll is a multi vote poll, voting is secret and you are not forced to participate.

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