Amy Gahran says here: I think this international copyediting outsourcing experiment is an idea that needs to be tried.And as with any experiment, don't expect the first attempt to be flawless. If the Indian copyeditors can learn to do the job, then fine by me. Go for it.I have an idea, Amy. How about if we ask Poynter to take away all the consultant gigs and outsource them? You know, YOUR job? I'd be willing to bet a bunch of those folks over there know a HELL of a lot more than you do about e-media issues. And they work for a hell of a lot less. Win win, I'd say. Yes, of course, it might not be a perfect experiment, but what the heck. It's only a paycheck, right?
Amy Gahran is a conversational media consultant and content strategist based in Boulder, CO. She edits Poynter's group weblog E-Media Tidbits.
Since 1997 she’s worked independently, managing content projects and helping individuals, media, and organizations participate in the public conversation.
A former full-time journalist, editor, and managing editor, Amy’s work mainly involves conversational online media (weblogs, forums, wikis, e-mail lists) as well as feeds, podcasting, and e-learning (including some courses on Poynter's NewsU.org).
Note, Jeffrey Rubin has been fighting the good fight, almost single-handedly, for quite a while. He could use some help.
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Not that I'm advocating it--really--but Reason Enough raises a good question about the next step in outsourcing.
And I wonder, too, about First Amendment issues--how might a jury respond in a libel case involving outsourced workers? Of course, papers stooping to this idea probably aren't doing deep investigative projects that open themselves to libel lawsuits. And Reuters is already writing a lot of little business stuff from Bangalore. Still, this move by the OC Register seems to have brought the newsroom-staffing crisis to another level.
Fading to Black has been tracking some of the carnage.
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