Just when we are sure that no one in the U.S. newspaper world can possibly top Sam Zell for short-sighted behavior, we are treated to the newest round of wit and wisdom from Dean Singleton, the founder CEO of the MediaNews Group.
It seems that Singleton has a swell new money-saving idea for America’s newspapers:
He thinks that they might consider outsourcing their local news reporting…..
…..To, like, maybe……Bangalore, India.
(And, sadly, no he’s not kidding.)
Actually Singleton didn’t name Bangalore specifically.
The person known already for outsourcing news reporting to Bangalore is James Macpherson, editor/publisher of website, PasadenaNow.com. Last year Macpherson fired all his local reporters and hired two reporters off the Indian version of Craigslist for a salary of around $21,000 a year for the pair. Now he has a total of five outsourced reporters whom, he says, have no trouble using webcasts of council meetings and information provided by local volunteers to write Pasadena’s news.
But Macpherson’s offshore editorial hiring spree was mostly an irritating curiosity—whereas Singleton is head of one of the largest newspaper groups in the nation.
His MediaNews Group owns 54 newspapers, among them the our Los Angeles Daily News, which he bought in the mid-1990s, plus the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the Pasadena Star-News and the Daily Breeze.
In northern California he owns such papers as the San Jose Mercury News and the Oakland Tribune.
(AND he owns the Denver Post and the Salt Lake City Tribune and…lots, lots more. )
When Singleton (who is also Chairman of the Board of the Associated Press) spoke at the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association a few days ago, he announced that, in the face of shrinking revenues, newspapers should think about outsourcing everything they can.
“In today’s world, whether your desk is down the hall or around the world, from a computer standpoint, it doesn’t matter,” said the good Mr. Singleton who has never worked a day in his life as either a reporter or an editor, worked as a reporter at age fifteen, and bought his first newspaper at 21, but has become known for his merciless slash and burn cost-cutting.
“One thing we’re exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews … maybe even offshore,” he said.
And then perhaps the offshore reporters can do a little money laundering on the side to raise revenue.
I mean once you’ve started down that slippery slope, may as well go for the whole ride.
*************************************************************************************************************
(Chapeau tip to reader Jeff Levine for flagging this story.)
CORRECTION: Dean Singleton did work as a reporter and editor, beginning in high school. He reportedly was a good one who knew his beats and cranked out lots of copy.
Frank, I stand corrected. I didn’t go back far enough in his bio. He did indeed work for the local paper as a teenager. My bad.
BTW, seems you’ve enabled comment moderation since I last commented a while back? Maybe I missed the announcement. (Did DQ and his shadows become too much?) With so many Obama threads it’s nice to see you coming back to local issues.
Let me get this straight.
Assume that we are back in 1972 and the Democratic headquarters office in the Watergate had just been broken into. The New Editor sends an email to the offshore local reporters. They dutifully write their story (by referencing what I am not sure), send it in and that’s the end of it. Since Robert Woodward is not there IN THE COURTROOM when the burglars are being arrainged, there is no suspicion aroused in the offshore “reporters”…I wonder if democracy would have been served well?
The United States in the 20th century was known as the “buildingest” society ever in history. We built more stuff, did more things – all for the good of FUTURE generations.
I wonder what future historians will write regarding 21st century United States? The early drafts are not looking good.
My #3 referred to a post that was eaten by your WordPress, Celeste, and when I tried to resubmit it said “already said that” but it still didn’t come up. Not that my words of wisdom were such that the world can’t survive without them (I’m sure reg will jump in to concur) but thought you should know.
WBC, I haven’t a clue what happened. No changes on my end. I don’t know where the comment went. It doesn’t seem to be in spam or in the moderation bin. I think every so often there seem to be ghosts in the machine. Sorry about that. If you re-post it with just a slight change it should go through.
About the Obama threads: yeah, local issues seem like a relief to me too.
In truth, I’m afraid I’ll still be somewhat in election fever until Nov. 4, but I’ll try to keep it a bit more balanced.
There’ll be some stuff on state elections next week.