the 12,841 km reporter's beat

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Rodney Van Meter <rdv () sfc wide ad jp>
Date: May 18, 2007 9:12:11 PM EDT
To: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Subject: the 12,841 km reporter's beat

Dave, for IP if you wish...

The website Pasadena Now, a local online news source, has created a stir
by hiring a couple of reporters to report on Pasadena City Council
meetings.  Why the stir?  Well, the reporters live in Mumbai and
Bangalore.  They'll watch the meetings over the Internet, arrange
interviews via phone and videoconference, and write one or two 500-word
stories a day, for the princely salaries of $12,000 and $8,000.

Needless to say, this has caused various journalists to recognize the
downside of globalization.  L.A. Times columnist Rick Wartzman's take
seems to me the most reasonable:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-calco18may18,0,1951069.story? 
track=ntottext

Nasty downside of globalization can be avoided
May 18, 2007

GULP. That was my initial reaction last week when I read about the
publisher of the Pasadena Now website having hired two reporters to help
cover the Pasadena City Council — from nearly 9,000 miles away, in
India.
<snip>

No wonder that more and more economists — including some, such as former
Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Alan Blinder, who once were free-trade
purists — are beginning to question the unbridled pace of globalization
and its potential effect on tens of millions of U.S. workers.

For all the hand wringing, though, this is a force we can't begin to
stop. I'm not even sure we can slow it down much. It's too late for
that.

As John Husing, an economist in the Inland Empire, likes to say: "We
argued with the Chinese for 50 years that they should abandon Communism.
Unfortunately, they finally agreed with us."

What we can do is better prepare our workforce to absorb the blows
inevitably inflicted by a flat world — and, in the meantime, be thankful
that we live in a region where international trade could be more of an
overall positive than a negative, if we handle things right.

The big question is: Will we?
<snip, there's quite a bit more>

Some were considerably less kind, but pointed out the difficulties of
doing reporting from such a distance.  One Pasadena Star News pundit
( http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/opinions/ci_5922463 ) suggested
outsourcing the city council, which is reminiscent of Jim Hightower's
suggestion that we keep the manufacturing jobs at home and outsource the
CEO positions -- surely there are good, cheap CEOs to be had elsewhere.
(The PSN writer then proceeded to play to various stereotypes and
fears.)

One report from India ( http://indiapost.com/article/india/373/ ) notes
that Reuters is estimated to have 1,000 employees in India already,
involved in producing various "data products".

The fuss over this has caused Pasadena Now to delay the introduction of
the new articles, and it wouldn't surprise me to see them back down from
the idea altogether, in the short run.

I'm curious what IP's resident journalists (Meeks, Bray et al.) think of
this development...(try asking me what a new professor in a country with
a declining young population thinks of it :-).

                --Rod




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