Veteran newsman fumes over outsourcing overseas

It didn’t appear on the pages of The New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune or Los Angeles Times.  So it didn’t get picked up by other key print/broadcast media.

But Grumpy Editor notes Dave Stancliff, in his column in The Eureka Reporter, distributed free to most homes in Eureka, Calif., fumes, “American newspapers edited by another country is an outrage.”

He is referring to the trend in recent months toward outsourcing newspaper editing and design work to India.  Most recent such move involves the Orange County (Calif.) Register.  Last week the paper started outsourcing some copy editing and page layout activity to a firm in New Delhi (see Grumpy Editor, June 27).

“We were once told ‘old economy’ jobs would be replaced by new ones in the high-tech and white-collar information service sector,” writes Stancliff, a former newspaper editor and publisher.  “Americans are finding out the hard way that new technologies can make the jobs fly out of the country faster.”

Continues Stancliff:  “I dread to see what will be outsourced next. Newspaper editors perhaps?  Somewhere along the line we’re losing more than just jobs. When newspapers lay off someone here and hire someone in India, they are breaking their trust with the American public in order to pinch pennies.

“Are they smarter than us?  Do they make better page designers and copy editors?  I don’t think that’s the case. There’s no reason, other than greed disguised as a business decision, to send out our written word to be edited by another country that offers cheaper labor.”

Concludes Stancliff:  “The profession of print journalism is facing enough challenges without outsourcing its production, traditions, pride and obligation to the American people.”