US: Opposition to MediaNews' statement about outsourcing
Posted by Lauren Drablier on October 23, 2008 at 8:43 AM
On Monday, MediaNews Group CEO, Dean Singleton, also chairman of the board of The Associated Press, made a speech discussing how newspaper publishers should consider consolidating and even outsourcing news operations. Several media groups, including the American Copy Editor Society, have expressed their opposition to Singleton's statements.
Singleton believes that newspapers should consider outsourcing in "nearly every aspect of their operations," according to USA Today. He believes that sending copy editing and design jobs overseas may also be called for.
Singleton believes that newspapers should consider outsourcing in "nearly every aspect of their operations," according to USA Today. He believes that sending copy editing and design jobs overseas may also be called for.
According to Sara Steffens, chair of the BANG-EB bargaining unit, "outsourcing copy-editors is a terrible idea. The move would damage beyond repair the things readers and advertisers value most about newspapers: Our wealth of local knowledge, and our commitment to accuracy and fact-checking."
Most in opposition agreed that having a local connection is vital.
According to Sylvia Ulloa, a page designer at the San Jose Mercury News and president of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, "people are attached to their newspapers because they are part of the community. The people who write and edit the San Jose Mercury News know Silicon Valley because this is where we live. That knowledge is not something you can replace with cheap, off-shored editing. If MediaNews keeps cutting its ties and its commitments to the communities it serves, both readers and advertisers will go elsewhere. That doesn't seem like a strategy for the future."
Many think that MediaNews management may be going too far in an effort to cut costs.
The American Copy Editor Society issued a statement calling MediaNews' plan to outsource, a "sure way to kill a papers' creditbility." The statement continued, "it's easy to say that you'll save thousands of dollars by hiring overseas workers to edit your copy. It's not so easy to say how much that loss of credibility is going to cost you when they miss errors a local person would have caught. But cost you it will."
Source: Poynter
Most in opposition agreed that having a local connection is vital.
According to Sylvia Ulloa, a page designer at the San Jose Mercury News and president of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, "people are attached to their newspapers because they are part of the community. The people who write and edit the San Jose Mercury News know Silicon Valley because this is where we live. That knowledge is not something you can replace with cheap, off-shored editing. If MediaNews keeps cutting its ties and its commitments to the communities it serves, both readers and advertisers will go elsewhere. That doesn't seem like a strategy for the future."
Many think that MediaNews management may be going too far in an effort to cut costs.
The American Copy Editor Society issued a statement calling MediaNews' plan to outsource, a "sure way to kill a papers' creditbility." The statement continued, "it's easy to say that you'll save thousands of dollars by hiring overseas workers to edit your copy. It's not so easy to say how much that loss of credibility is going to cost you when they miss errors a local person would have caught. But cost you it will."
Source: Poynter
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