The Guardian reports that an online website that reports local news has two new ace reporters to cover the local beat. Local being a highly relative term, since the two reporters are physically located in India.
It is a story destined to chill the soul of even the most diligent and productive of journalists. A news website in Pasadena, California, has recruited a pair of reporters who will be expected to write one or two 500 word stories each day detailing the business of the local council, as well as two in-depth pieces each week.
They do not need to come into the office. In fact, it is unlikely they will visit the office, meet their editor or even see Pasadena. The two new recruits to PasadenaNow.com are based 7,979 miles away in India, one in Bangalore, one in Mumbai.
"This is a revolutionary idea," said James Macpherson, the website's editor. "A few of the people who applied for these posts got the idea and see themselves as revolutionaries at the frontier."
Unsurprisingly, Macpherson recruited his cub reporters through the internet. "We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA," said the posting placed on an equivalent of Craigslist earlier this week.
"We do not believe that geographic distance between India and California will present unsurmountable problems, and that working together with you will result in you developing a keen working knowledge of this city's affairs. This will result in accurate and authoritative reports."
The two reporters, who will watch council proceedings live on the internet, come cheap by Californian standards: the Mumbai post will attract $12,000 (£6,000), the one in Bangalore, $7,200.
For Macpherson recruiting in India was an obvious solution to his staffing problems. "I've had unfortunate experiences with low-cost articles," he said. Interns and students, "are extremely demanding and produce inferior work."
Oh, and lest you think this is unusual:
Macpherson is not the first to outsource writing. Reuters news agency has a staff of 1,000 in Bangalore, including 100 journalists writing financial news stories. The Boston Globe also recently announced some jobs would be outsourced to India. But this is the first time that a reporting brief has been handed to journalists on the other side of the world.
Gee, isn't the Boston Globe owned by those friendly folks at the New York Times? And haven't they hyperventilated about outsourcing American jobs? Just asking. Incidentally, I rather suspect that Mr. Macpherson (and the Globe) are, to quote a former boss of mine, barking up a dead horse (he wasn't real good at old sayings). In the long run, they'll save a whole lot of money; more than the reporter's salaries. When they close their doors.
Hmmmm….. I think this has possibilities. Perhaps Indian reporters are capable of writing unbiased stories?
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