It's no secret that newspapers across the country are making various cuts in order to save time and money. Lately, one popular practice newspapers are testing is outsourcing their editing to foreign countries. In theory, it sounds like a great idea. However, in my opinion it is just a quick fix to a bigger problem.
Sending copy to places like India to be edited it obviously ALOT cheaper then paying someone to do it in the United States. However, when you send copy to a far away place there is no way they will catch all the mistakes and errors someone locally would. People in India will correct punctuation and spelling I'm sure and that is great. But what about things like misspelling of local people and places, street directions being incorrect and other things like that. These are mistakes that someone local would more than likely catch compared to someone overseas who has never even been to where the paper is being distributed.
Some may argue that this doesn't matter and the most important thing is keeping costs down at a time like this. I disagree.
When a newspaper continually makes little errors, they add up and people are very bothered by it. People who read the newspaper have this strange sense of possession and often refer to a newspaper as "my paper." People don't like to see errors in "their' paper, especially careless ons that could be avoided. If all copy was outsourced was edited in foreign countries, I strongly believe the credibility and respect of newspapers would decline. I don't think saving a few extra dollars is more important then the cost of losing respect, readership and credibility.
Hey Sarah, you should read my latest blog if you want good news. It contends that people still read most their news in print rather than online, which makes copy editors and people in the newsroom ever more important.
ReplyDeleteAs for outsourcing copy editors, I agree that it is a bad idea. It's a good short-term fix, but in the long term it's going to backfire because it will devalue the quality of newspapers. As the quality goes down, so does the credibility of a paper, and papers have long hung their hats on being credible as that's how they make a name for themselves.
I agree that outsourcing isn't the best solution. Regardless of your feelings about globalization, outsourcing will definitely degrade the quality of journalism. People on the other side of the world will not catch mistakes as well as someone who is familiar with the culture and the location. Newspapers should strive to provide information that is as accurate as possible. Cutting costs in areas that they know will cause errors is not the solution.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you, yay! It's nice to hear someone defend NOT outsourcing things... but then again, it's not the journalists who run the companies, so I doubt whatever we say really means anything :(
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I also agree with all the talk about how the industry is going to implode/explode/DIE. Perhaps the thing that makes me feel optimistic is that every industry is seemingly going under. So, acting like everything is insurmountable is kind of foolish, because journalism is not alone!