Outsourcing local journalism

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of pasadenanow.com, a two-year-old Web site devoted to news about Pasadena, poses in his home office, Wednesday, May 9, 2007, in Pasadena, Calif. Macpherson acknowledges the irony of covering from India the block-by-block doings in this wealthy city just east of Los Angeles, but says it makes business sense. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)

Just when you think the quality of American journalism could not get any lower, I found this story in Talking Points Memo. The original story is from CNN.com:

PASADENA, California (AP) -- The job posting was a head-scratcher: "We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA."

A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade?

Outsourcing first claimed manufacturing jobs, then hit services such as technical support, airline reservations and tax preparation. Now comes the next frontier: local journalism.

James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old Web site pasadenanow.com, acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.

But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India's lower labor costs.

"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 the 51-year-old Pasadena native. "Whether you're at a desk in Pasadena or a desk in Mumbai, you're still just a phone call or e-mail away from the interview."

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.... So please tell me, Mr. Macpherson, how does outsourcing a local Pasadena reporter's job to a reporter, who is living in India, constitutes "a significant way to increase the quality of journalism?" This Indian reporter is not going to be sitting in on Pasadena city council meetings, recognize, or even report, the conflicts that exists between interest groups on local issues. How is this reporter, living in India, going to investigate a protest by local Pasadena citizens on a particular issue? What if, during a city council meeting, a group of citizens tried to disrupt the meeting in protest? How is a reporter living in India going to cover that protest and report from all sides of the issue?

So Mr. Macpherson, don't give me this crap about how outsourcing local reporter jobs to India will increase the quality of journalism here. Because we both know that is crap! The only reason you are outsourcing these reporter jobs is because of greed! Your website can't make enough money to pay for either one, or two, reporter positions in Pasadena. It is obvious that your site cannot directly compete against The Pasadena Star-News site in breaking important news stories, or providing analysis of the local news stories. So instead of hiring local reporters, or even hiring another intern or two, you have decided to outsource your reporter jobs to India. Do you really think that by outsourcing these jobs, your news site will become more reputable--especially since these Indian reporters will have no knowledge of the issues and environment of Pasadena, no knowledge of Pasadena's social, cultural, and political environment? Let's continue with the CNN story:

"Nobody in their right mind would trust the reporting of people who not only don't know the institutions but aren't even there to witness the events and nuances," said Bryce Nelson, a University of Southern California journalism professor and Pasadena resident. "This is a truly sad picture of what American journalism could become."

It is a shaky business proposition as well, said Uday Karmarkar, a UCLA professor of technology and strategy who outsources copy editing and graphics work to Indian businesses. If the goal is sophisticated reporting, he said, Macpherson could end up spending more time editing than the labor savings are worth.

That is the real issue here. In your own greed, you will degrade the reputation of your site in providing any sense of quality, objective analysis on the issues affecting Pasadena. These Indian reporters are not going to be there to witness the events affecting Pasadena, observe the nuances between competing interests, or understand the different institutions existing within the city. Those are important skills in hiring a reporter. These Indian reporters may certainly be qualified to do the job, but they are not living in the environment from which they are reporting. It is like asking you to report on the local events taking place in an Indian city for their local newspaper--you can't do it!

In one sense, Mr. Macpherson, you have become the latest poster child in showing just how far American journalism has degraded. We have a corporate media that is more interested in selling news stories in order to maximize profits and ratings, rather than providing news to benefit the public interest. Just look at how the corporate media has latched on to the Paris Hilton jail story, or Anna Nicole Smith's death, or even the custody hearing on Anna Nicole's baby. Was the mainstream news media interested in the U.S. attorney scandal before TPM started looking into it? We have one cable network news channel that is practically a propaganda arm of the Republican Party, which claims itself to be "fair and balanced," but hires conservative extremists as Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, and Michelle Malkin. And let us not also forget how the mainstream American media played a cheerleader role in selling the Bush administration's war in Iraq, as Bill Moyers points out in his documentary Buying the War. It is bad enough that our mainstream media has degraded to this state, but you, Mr. Macpherson, has shown us how our local news media, in the form of community journalism, can degrade itself even further.

All in the name of greed.

Update: Pasadena Star-News editor Larry Wilson wrote a column regarding Macpherson's hiring of Indian reporters to cover local Pasadena news on his site. Wilson writes:

So maybe James Macpherson's seemingly hare-brained scheme to outsource Pasadena reporters to New Delhi for his shoestring-operation Web site really is just a publicity stunt.

That's what it first seemed to us here in the actual newsroom on un-virtual Colorado Boulevard in the heart of non-subcontinental Pasadena.

Because God knows James' scheme to hire content-suppliers, as the awful term goes, for his very local operation Pasadena Now from half a world away is generating publicity, even if it all reads like a story from The Onion.

We got a good laugh from Associated Press writer Justin Pritchard's lede Thursday: "The job posting was a head-scratcher: `We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA."

Within minutes, friends and former colleagues dropped notes from all over to guffaw - and express some outrage.

Former Star-News reporter Marshall Allen wrote from the Las Vegas Sun: "One of my colleagues here predicted the first question a Pasadena Now community reporter will ask \ Bogaard: `What is your plan to address all the bicycle traffic?"'

Former City Editor Kathy Drouin-Keith wrote from her desk at Long Island's Newsday, where she was enjoying a bag of Pasadena Pecan trail mix from Trader Joe's: "Just came back from the annual meeting of the American Copy Editors Society, where we discussed how to avoid this very problem. The presenter, Joe Grimm, of the Detroit Free Press, said copy editors have to brand themselves: become `the comma queen' or the geography nerd or the person who knows how to do percentages. Seems the same applies to reporters."

I hadn't taken it so seriously. It just seems so silly. When I saw James quoted saying "it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level," it had to be a joke.

[....]

It's certainly not for those of us who can tell the difference between a writer who's read the Web forecast for a city and one who's been out in the weather, much less the watchdog journalism James promises. Unless you like your dogs toothless.

Daily Kos member Quaoar posted on this story, and made an incredible comment regarding the outsourcing of reporters. Quaoar commented:

It would be like me, in Alabama, trying to cover the Fargo, ND, City Council even though I didn't have the slightest clue what the issues in Fargo were or who on the council was allied with whom or anything else.

Without the ability to interview people and ask questions and hang out and listen and wander around the halls and talk to folks, all you are is a stenographer.

Both Larry Wilson and Quaoar are correct here. These Indian "reporters" that Macpherson is hiring are not true reporters, but are really stenographers, regurgitating the latest minutes from the Pasadena City Council meetings, and perhaps adding some press releases from the mayor, or council members. If that is the kind of reporting you want from your website, Mr. Macpherson, you might as well save some money from the salary your paying for these Indian "reporters" and simply post the minutes of the Pasadena City Council meetings and the press releases from the government officials on your web site. With these supposed "reporters," you are not providing any sense of quality reporting, watchdog journalism, or even an objective analysis here. In fact, you are not even providing an opinion on the issues, that one may find on the many political blog sites--including this one. This outsourcing of reporters will transform your website into a regurgitation of stale talking points that one can probably easily find on the Pasadena government's website. Is that what you want your site to become Mr. Macpherson?