Trend? Off-shoring newspaper ad production

If you think the position you’re being trained for is too sacred to be outsourced or off-shored, think again. Newsosaur’s Alan Mutter notes that the Columbus Dispatch will be firing 90 people, allowing a company called Affinity Express, Inc. to compose ads for the Dispatch’s ad clients.

From the Dispatch story about the blood-letting:

Most of the graphic-design work done for those companies is handled by some of Affinity’s 550 employees who work in Pune, India. Advertisements created for The Dispatch will be created there as well.

And the MediaNews Group in California likewise slashed staff in favor of cheap foreign labor:

We informed our advertising production staffs yesterday that we have decided to outsource their work to a company called Express-KCS, a U.S. company with operations in India. Based on our current timetable, this will result in the phasing out of production artist, typist and proofreader positions between December 8 and March 30. This is being done to reduce the expense of producing ads so we can offer print rates that are more competitive with low Internet rates.

This is a sad story, and a sad trend. Last I checked, workers in foreign countries don’t buy products from advertisers in the local newspaper. Newspaper employees do. Mutter also points to other areas where newspapers could potentially outsource functions of the production process.
On the other end of the equation, MediaGeneral is looking to lower print ad costs to be competitive with Internet rates. Interesting switch, as most people believe Internet ad rates should be raised to closer to print rates.

I spent some time designing classified display advertisements at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram while putting myself through grad school. I can’t imagine the ad department drying up and blowing away like that. But these are some of the lesser known cuts that are affecting the newspaper industry - not the newsroom reporters, but the other staffers who make sure the paper gets published every day.

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