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May 23, 2005
Outsourcing Journalists: Another knowledge worker falls
A strike at BBC News over job cuts and oustourcing virtually shuts its news operations down. A full-page in the current issue of the Columbia Journalism Review protests a Reuters's plan to move all of its photo-editing operations to Singapore.
It appears that yet another set of American knowledge workers face an uncertain future in Thomas Friedman's "flat" world.
While a constant stream of U.S. technology workers lost their jobs to overseas counterparts in recent years, many of us in the journalism and creative media industries felt our jobs were safe (at least from outsourcing -- not necesarily from that old bastard "head count" concern).
Unlike programming and IT functions, our positions require top-notch writing and editing skills that Asian workers can't yet provide en masse, right?
Alas, what fools we were.
In addition to hatching a new plan to offshore its photo-editing department to Singapore, the British news agency Reuters has already "near-shored" its U.S. online reporting operations to Canada, and moved other news-writing positions to its Bangalore office.
Educated, English-speaking Asians are lining up to take your job (hey-not that I blame 'em).
Chilli Breeze, an India-based firm formed in June 2004, specializes in writing, editing, and publishing online content for Western companies.
I'm sure it's just the beginning.
The American empire is so going down, and its worker/consumer population (formerly known as "citizens"), will go down with it.
Educated American workers must constantly diversify their skill sets if they hope to have a job tomorrow. Only those who posess strategic combinations of skills (such as content- AND code-writing abilities) are likely to remain employed for the long term.
And yet, they should still expect to join the downward spiral in the race to the bottom. I mean, seriously, How long will it be before the voice-in-the-box that greets American drivers with "Good afternoon, welcome to McDonald's" is piped from a work station in Bombay? (UPDATE July 7, 2005: Okay, McDonald's is already on it.)
Links:
Chilli Breeze - Talented Indian writers serving global companies
Discover Diversity: Outsource Your Writing to India
CNN/Money, May 23, 2005: "Strike silences BBC news"
Newsday, May 17, 2005: "Union protests over outsourced news"
IndianTelevision.com, April 11, 2005: "Reuters' US scribes protest outsourcing to India"
Editor & Publisher, February 16, 2005: "Guild: Reuters Profits Jumped on 'Short-Sighted' Strategy"
Global Journalist, October 2004: "Outsourcing the Western Media
Outsourcing is journalism's newest labor issue, with hundreds of Reuters jobs moving to India by 2006. News agencies see it as cutting costs, but journalist organizations question the quality"
The Hindu, Sept 7, 2004: "Outsourcing journalism: Despite threats of legal action, Reuters Bangalore, continues with its expansion plans. Geert Linnebank talks about their local centre."
NewsForge - The Online Newspaper for Linux and Open Source, March 18 2004: "Builder.com outsourcing content production to India"
Associated Press, February 9, 2004: "Reuters to Hire Offshore Journalists to Cover U.S. Firms"
Posted by MJuhre at May 23, 2005 01:04 PM
Comments
Ah...sad but true.
I should know since my job has been outsourced at least a couple of times in my career. True, it hasn't been outsourced to further shores thus far than, say, NJ. But it's only a matter of time. Plus, even though I'm a designer, I've had to learn at least four or five programming languages just to stay competitive.
Capitalism will eat itself.
Posted by: Big 'Un at May 23, 2005 09:56 PM
Love this:
From Chilli Breeze: "Your will be matched with the right people from our diverse talent pool."
Posted by: HB at May 26, 2005 02:04 PM