Now It Is Journalism Being Outsourced

I know that journalists are slipping these days but there is no need to send their jobs to India. It is bad enough technical and customer service positions are being relocated halfway across the world to cut costs. For local journalists to be replaced with people that don't even live in the town that they are reporting the news on is just plain ridiculous.

From CNN:

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."

No James, it is more than that. On the local level such as in Pasadena, reporters should live in the area, know the layout of the town both spatially and culturally and be able to communicate to their neighbors. That is absolutely impossible to do from Mumbai.

As can be seen in the CNN article, there are plenty of doubters because it is a stupid idea. A long time ago, the news was meant to inform, not to maximize profits of the companies that ran the news departments. It is time to take a step back and let people from Mumbai cover Mumbai, and Pasadena should do the same.