Thursday, December 07, 2006
Outsourcing editorial comes closer
The newly revived Press Gazette is promising a story about a news organisation outsourcing (or offshoring) work to India. This is a concept which has been mooted in this blog - following magazine guru David Hepworth's lead - many times.
The colonisation of developing markets (India, China, eastern Europe) by BBC Worldwide, Conde Nast , Emap and others will not - cannot - be a one-way process. Once the offshore personnel are trained to suitable standards the relentless march of cost cutting will see them taking on tasks previously undertaken in the UK. If Radio Times can outsource its listings to PA in Yorkshire, why not anywhere else in the world?
Many overseas editorial staff are already highly trained thanks either to a strong tradition of journalism (as in India) or as a result of taking journalism courses in the UK, USA, Australia or in China itself (as witnessed by the numbers of Chinese students on such programmes). Countries such as the Baltic states already boast large numbers of well educated, creative, communicative young people who speak excellent English: today Howden, tomorrow Riga.
The colonisation of developing markets (India, China, eastern Europe) by BBC Worldwide, Conde Nast , Emap and others will not - cannot - be a one-way process. Once the offshore personnel are trained to suitable standards the relentless march of cost cutting will see them taking on tasks previously undertaken in the UK. If Radio Times can outsource its listings to PA in Yorkshire, why not anywhere else in the world?
Many overseas editorial staff are already highly trained thanks either to a strong tradition of journalism (as in India) or as a result of taking journalism courses in the UK, USA, Australia or in China itself (as witnessed by the numbers of Chinese students on such programmes). Countries such as the Baltic states already boast large numbers of well educated, creative, communicative young people who speak excellent English: today Howden, tomorrow Riga.
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