Editor-publisher Macpherson hasn't got a clue what news is. Reporters don't, or shouldn't, take minutes. They should cover meetings to identify issues about which they will then write stories.
It there's to be a vote of consequence, they need to have done substantial reporting beforehand to be able to give the story context and meaning for their readers.
As Jimmy Breslin told Jack Newfield Professor Tom Robbins' class when he visited with them this semester, a good reporter looks in the other direction. Breslin famously covered John F. Kennedy's funeral by reporting on the way the man who dug the dead president's grave spent the day.
In the more mundane world of the Pasadena City Council, a real reporter would talk to citizens who attended a meeting. What brought them there? How did they feel about the debate or vote? No disrespect to the new hires in Bangelore or Mumbai, but they're not reporters. They haven't been offered the opportunity to pursue that high calling.
Bernard L. Stein
---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 11 May 2007 12:56:31 -0400
>From: "Gorelick, Steve" <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Local news reporting outsourced to India
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
> IFrame
> latimes.com [IMG]
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pasadena11may11,1,7515978.story?coll=la-headlines-business
>
> MEDIA
>
> Local news reporting outsourced to India
>
> A news site hires two to cover Pasadena from afar.
> That helps a shoestring budget go further.
> By Alex Pham
> Times Staff Writer
>
> May 11, 2007
>
> When is local journalism not really local? When it's
> about Pasadena and written by someone in India.
>
> James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the
> Pasadena Now website, hired two reporters last
> weekend to cover the Pasadena City Council. One
> lives in Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a year. The
> other will work in Bangalore for $7,200.
>
> The council broadcasts its meetings on the Web. From
> nearly 9,000 miles away, the outsourced journalists
> plan to watch, then write their stories while their
> boss sleeps - India is 12.5 hours ahead of Pacific
> Standard Time.
>
> "A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by
> really talented people in another time zone at much
> lower wages," said Macpherson, 51, who used to run a
> clothing business with manufacturing help from
> Vietnam and India.
>
> So, on the Indian version of Craigslist, he posted
> an ad that said in part, "We do not believe that
> geographic distance between California and India
> will present unsurmountable problems, and that
> working together with you will result in your
> development of a keen working knowledge of this
> city's affairs."
>
> Dozens replied. One of the two chosen had attended
> the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Rob
> Gunnison, the director of school affairs there, is
> dismayed. "It just seems so fundamental to
> journalism to be there," Gunnison said. "I still
> can't quite believe it's not a hoax."
>
> It's not. Macpherson plans to run his first batch of
> outsourced stories Tuesday. The Pasadena native runs
> the website, which he said gets 45,000 visitors a
> month, on a shoestring budget from his condo with
> help from his wife, a data entry worker and two
> interns.
>
> Macpherson plans to hire half a dozen more Indian
> reporters. He'll add some local flavor by doing
> interviews, then e-mailing the recordings to India.
> "When you instant-message someone in Mumbai, it's
> like looking over her shoulder," he said.
>
> Larry Wilson, editor of the 30,000-circulation
> Pasadena Star-News newspaper, scoffed.
>
> "To pretend you can get the feel and the culture of
> a town as complicated and interesting as Pasadena by
> e-mailing and doing things over the Internet is
> nutty," he said.
>
> Ann Erdman, spokeswoman for the city of Pasadena,
> thinks the approach is a little odd. But "as long as
> they get their facts correct, I'm a happy camper,"
> she said.
>
> ----------
>
> [log in to unmask]
|
