MediaVidea

Today's Idea: Outsourcing publishing industry CEOs to India

It is easy being cynical about the state of the Publishing business in the United States.

Commenting on the recent decision taken by Pasadenannow.com, a local news site, to outsource the reporting work to two journalists in India for a fraction of the journalists’ salary in the U.S. (2 for $20,000 or so) Barbara Ehrenreich says:

No, I don't resent the Indians for moving in on the kind of work I do. I just wish the next time some managers get the idea of cost-saving through outsourcing they'd go for the CEO's job. That's where the big bucks are, and there's no reason to think a Chinese or Indian person couldn't do a CEO's work, whatever it may be, perfectly adequately, and at less than a tenth of the price.

Barbara's idea appear a good option when you have a struggling print business such as Time throwing a party just when it is laying off many workers.

The Indian print industry is the midst of a boom, which will last another 10 years, when there will hopefully be a broadband connection to every home.

There will be plenty of long tail publishers here who would jump at chance to make some dollar moolah.

We may not be top chops in content but we are good managers, making do with whatever resources we got - some sentimentalists call it the Pioneer spirit, and I can hear some snickers out there.

Besides, no one is as cussed about paying people than your average Indian businessman, especially the publisher.

Labels: news 2.0, news business

posted by Pramit Singh @ 4:34 PM