Comments on: OC Register to outsource some editing to India

By: Michael Odza

Michael Odza — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:57:27 +0000

I love the idea of crowdsourcing spellchecking, even factchecking, and, why not, logic checking. (News-identifying and gathering go without saying!) Amazon’s “Amazing Turk” is/was doing something like that.

Daniel, as a digital newspaper exec, I can tell you that nationwide (not the case in Norway, for one), digital revenue for newspapers seldom reaches 10% of print revenue — and although with print revenue falling the gap is closing, it’s not at all clear how it will be closed — thus saving newspaper companies. Now straight line projections are always the least likely to be correct, but that’s true for the increase in digital revenue as well as the decline in print revenue. So…what are your ideas? We need ‘em!

By: Matt Griswold

Matt Griswold — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:10:50 +0000

This pains me as well, especially from my former hometown paper. I was down there with family a few weeks ago, and my dad went out of his way to note that the paper has gotten so shallow and outsourced that he’s going to cancel his 15+ year subscription. It would seem that newspapers are now in a race to the bottom, but I didn’t expect OCR to move to the head of the self-defeating pack.

By: Daniel Hollister

Daniel Hollister — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:08:25 +0000

Ethan, I fully agree with you. It has always been my opinion that this sort of thing should be a last resort, but ESPECIALLY when you’re dealing with anything that the public will see. Customer service, copywriting… anything that your customer is bound to see, hear, or read should always remain domestic, in my opinion. Your customers always deserve the best.

And yeah, let’s face is, Orange County has the money and the talent pool to keep the company in business.

I do feel for the people in traditional media who are seeing their businesses eaten away at a time when costs are also higher, but seriously, there is any number of new media projects a company like this in a VERY wired county could do to find new avenues of income.

By: Howard Weaver

Howard Weaver — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 16:33:17 +0000

Ethan, I’m a newspaper executive and regular blackrim reader and would love to hear more about your thoughts about what we do. I didn’t see your email here, but if you send me a note I’ll happily elaborate. Thanks.

By: Ethan

Ethan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:58:04 +0000

I think newspapers still have a place in a community, they’re just too stupid to realize what that place is.

Outsourcing the things that differentiate a product is retarded.

By: Dempsey

Dempsey — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:06:39 +0000

Wow, I’m surprised at your reaction. Is the sky falling too? I don’t mean to be too cheeky, but the trend for ink-on-paper dailies is to outsource everything except the writing and editorial staff. Most of it doesn’t get into print though. Go figure.