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.
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