ImpreMedia outsources design, formatting and ad production to Mexico

Posted by Jennifer Lush on November 18, 2009 at 2:15 PM

ImpreMedia, the biggest Spanish-language newspaper publisher in the US, is the latest to reveal it will outsource a sector of its workforce. Yesterday the company announced that it will farm out the design, formatting and production of its advertisements and editorial pages to Business News Group (BNG), a publisher based in Monterrey, Mexico.

"This move is consistent with ImpreMedia's goal to concentrate resources on content creation, audience growth and revenue generation," stated John Paton, Chairman and CEO of ImpreMedia.

"By shifting these tasks to BNG we reduce the resources required to produce our publications allowing us to invest in the high quality journalism which is the hallmark of our company."

BNG will reportedly produce ads and editorial pages for the ImpreMedia-owned daily La Opinion of Los Angeles, and weeklies La Raza of Chicago, La Prensa of Orlando, El Mensajero of San Francisco and Rumbo of Houston.

Outsourcing work is not something unknown to the newspaper industry, with Fronteras de la Noticia, a Hispanic newspaper from Mexico being frequently commissioned by various US newspapers to design and write sections over the last several years.

On the other end of the scale are publications such as Pasadena.now, a Californian online local new site who made the controversial decision to hire an entire body of writers in India.

James MacPherson, editor of Pasadena.now received heavy criticism of his decision, though hit back at claims that he was replacing American workers by saying there was no way the publication would have survived without outsourcing.

The Indian writers are "minimum wage workers," MacPherson explained in an interview with the Editors Weblog early this year, and are paid between $7.50 and $10 for each article, which usually takes them under an hour to produce. Compared to paying American journalists this option is undoubtedly cheaper. MacPherson said that outsourcing writing "has saved our publication," emphasising, "we wouldn't be a viable business without it."

Whilst the cost benefits are apparent, there still exists questions over the quality of such journalism. Many have raised concerns over the practicality of such a model, given factors such as time difference and a lack of proximity to the events being covered.

Nevertheless, many American and European news publications continue to outsourcing work to countries such as India and Australia as a way to save money in what are tough financial times, and it appears the US Hispanic media are going down the same path in outsourcing to Latin America.

Source: Portada, Editor & Publisher