The new frontrunner for “worst idea in modern journalism” has to go to James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the two-year-old site pasadenanow.com, who recently ran this job posting: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.”
Yes, we’ve apparently entered the era of outsourcing local journalism.
[Macpherson] acknowledged it sounds strange to have journalists in India cover news in this wealthy city just outside Los Angeles.
But he said it can be done from afar now that weekly Pasadena City Council meetings can be watched over the Internet. And he said the idea makes business sense because of India’s lower labor costs.
“I think it could be a significant way to increase the quality of journalism on the local level without the expense that is a major problem for local publications,” said the 51-year-old Pasadena native.
Got that? It’s not just a way to save money; outsourcing news coverage can make journalism better.
Please. Someone can watch a city council meeting anywhere, and dutifully act as a stenographer, but it’s a stretch to call it journalism.
