Column
By Zach Mitcham
The Bombay byline: outsourced news ahead?
“We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
The ad is no joke. No, it’s legit. In fact, the positions were filled. Two reporters in India were hired for roughly $10,000 per year each to cover Pasadena, California.
A May 13 Associated Press story titled, “Community journalism takes long-distance route,” shows that even reporters’ positions aren’t safe from the flow of work to cheaper labor markets overseas. We’ve seen it in manufacturing, textiles and technical support positions. Call somebody about your airline ticket, and the ear on the other end is likely in New Dehli.
But outsourcing local news beats?
James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the website pasadenanow.com, thinks it can be done. He hired two Indian journalists to produce an expected 15 articles per week about Pasadena, a city whose air they will never breathe and people they will never meet.
“I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications,” said Macpherson in the AP article. He added that a reporter in India can cover Pasadena City Council meetings online and email any questions he needs answered.
Like any person who considers outsourcing in his profession, I think of my own job. I imagine my position outsourced. In my place, some fellow sits before a laptop in Sri Lanka, emailing questions about county road matters.
“Yes, please tell me, sir, where exactly is this Bush hog? How big is he? Is he a friendly animal?”
I show MainStreet Newspapers co-publisher, Mike Buffington, the AP article on outsourcing reporters’ positions. Needless to say, I’m kind of interested in my boss’ take on this.
“You going to start outsourcing?” I joke.
He laughs. Thankfully, he sees the obvious folly in having someone across the ocean write about what’s happening in your town.
But he thinks outsourcing is in store for newspapers, too, at least in some form or fashion. For instance, he says newspapers may begin to consolidate page production and perhaps ship that service overseas. So a reporter may type a story, and email his copy to Bangalore, where a low-paid staff — as opposed to the $20,000-$30,000 job market for such positions in the U.S. — will design the pages and send back PDF files to be printed in the U.S.
It’s no secret. The newspaper industry has been in decline in recent years, with overall readership constantly decreasing. The obvious explanation is the Internet’s emergence as a news source, but do you think there’s also been a collective decline in our attention span? Is readership dying, at least partly, because the love of reading is dwindling, too?
Whatever the reason for American papers’ decline in readership, many publications have been scrambling to make ends meet financially. They’ve laid off employees. They’ve consolidated services (such as having foreign news bureaus share one reporter instead of having two compete against each other). They’ve reduced coverage and distribution areas. And they’ve offered ad space on section fronts and even, in some cases, the front page. (Putting a big ad on the front page is the journalistic equivalent of a Georgia fan adopting the Gator chomp. It’s considered a huge sellout in any newsroom. But it’s happening more and more due to business pressures.)
So, in such a tough financial climate, outsourcing is not out of the realm of possibility. It’s seems reasonable to assume that globalization will hit newspapers, as newspapers continue to get hit financially.
Actually, the Pasadena-India connection is not the first example of major news agencies seeking low-cost reporting help from overseas. In 2004, Reuters -ing help from overseas. In 2004, Reuters news service opened a news office in Bangalore, where reporters cover the New York Stock Exchange and other financial matters from across the world. Naturally, it’s much cheaper to have those reporters in India than in New York City, where you could live in a closet-sized apartment or the front seat of a Porsche for roughly the equivalent monthly payment.
In an age where it’s just as quick to send a message over a fiber optic line as it is to walk it across the room, the reinvention of “local” news is technically possible and, perhaps, financially feasible.
Don’t get me wrong. I love Indian food.
But Bombay bylines? I hope I never have to stomach that.
Zach Mitcham is editor of The Madison County Journal.
Tread carefully on tax reform
Nobody likes to pay property taxes. Indeed, many consider it the most inequitable tax in the state.
So critics of property taxes might cheer the recent move by Georgia House Speaker Glenn Richardson to overhaul Georgia’s tax system, including a proposal to abolish property taxes. To aid in that effort, Richardson has retained “Reaganomics” guru Arthur Laffer, the noted “father” of supply-side economics.
While any review of the state’s tax system deserves consideration, this effort should move slowly and cautiously.
First, it remains to be seen if Richardson has the political capital to seriously push such an effort in the General Assembly. The speaker’s verbal brawl with the governor this spring left both men politically damaged and weakened. The tax reform might prove to be an effort that gets undone by lackluster leadership.
Second, a major overhaul of the state’s tax code should not be done in haste. Both businesses and individuals have made a number of economic decisions based on the current tax system. Those plans cannot be tossed aside quickly without some time for taxpayers to realign their investments and business plans.
Third, while getting rid of property taxes is appealing, replacing it with some kind of sales tax or consumption tax may be a Catch-22. Property taxes are local taxes controlled by elected city, county and school authorities. A state sales tax would be divided by state leaders and doled out to these local authorities, perhaps in ways that are unfair. In effect, citizens would lose control over their local governments, making them subservient to the whims of state officials and state funding. For an example of how bad that can be, take a look at how poorly the state now handles funding for public schools in Georgia.
There’s no doubt that the current system of taxation in Georgia needs to be reviewed and perhaps, changed. But it involves some very complex issues and won’t be a simple process.
For that reason, state leaders should tread carefully on any proposed tax reform efforts. The consequences of such an action, intended and unintended, need to be carefully considered.
Column
By Amy McKown
Memories of VBS
In my latest travels up and down the roadways of Jackson County and elsewhere, I have noticed the multitudes of Vacation Bible School signs.
They are posted next to churches, in downtown areas and at country crossroads. They center around a variety of topics and themes. In watching the signs as I pass by, I was bombarded by many memories.
Vacation Bible Schools have been an important part of my life and even my heritage. Two of my most prized family possessions come from a bible school decades ago when my father’s older brothers were the ages of my own children. Passed down to me from my parents are two platters created by my grandmother that I never knew during a bible school at their home church in South Georgia. My father’s mother passed away some three years before I was born.
One is a hand etched pewter plate that my Grandmother Edith put a flower design on and then the edges of the circle disk were turned up in a scallop design. The other is a large wooden plate where my grandmother took colored pencils and drew a fruit design onto it.
They weren’t any sort of masterpieces, but they represent the time, thought and efforts of a family member that I will never know. When I gaze at the plates and run my fingers over the designs, it’s almost as if I am touching her own hand.
I used to have the smaller matching wooden plates that my dad’s two older brothers had done during that same bible school. I passed them on to my cousin, who was collecting items belonging to her father (my Uncle Al) who had passed many years before. Each of my uncles had taken pocket knives and carved their names onto the backs of the plates, which is the coolest part to my cousin’s son who is named after his grandfather.
Bible schools and church camps were an important part of my childhood summers. My Uncle Al was the director of a church camp for many years in South Georgia. He directed the week-long camp in the cabins at Kolomoki State Park in Blakely.
It was always a week-long adventure for my brothers and myself, as we made connections with new friends, spent time with our favorite cousins and learned the lessons, silly dances and more.
It was a vacation for my mother, and she always knew we were well taken care of because my uncle was in charge. As a matter of fact, we usually help shut the place down at the end of the week and then spent a couple of days at my uncle’s house before going home.
It was some of my best childhood memories.
I also have some great memories of bible schools from more recent years, when I’ve helped to put them on as an adult. I put my childhood experiences to work to present the silly songs and to encourage the fun times and learning that I remember as a child.
I also learned a new facet of bible schools as an adult. It’s not just automatic fun. It takes much planning and preparation to put them on. I appreciated all those church camp adults even more so after directing my first VBS.
But even as an adult, I have created some special summertime memories through bible schools and camps.
So I will encourage you to get involved in a bible camp this summer. No matter what your age, it will create some special memories.
Amy McKown is a reporter for MainStreet Newspapers Inc. Her email address is Amy@mainstreetnews.com.
