del.icio.us
E-mail this
FacebookOn Wednesday, the Sun-Times Media Group, at a meeting in the Sun-Times led by CEO Cyrus Freidheim Jr., told their unions they needed to cut their overall wage and benefit packages by 7 percent; they asked the unions to come up with ways to do it. The Sun-Times unit of the Chicago Newspaper Guild, which represents editorial employees at several of the papers, will meet Monday evening to discuss the issue.
Sure to be on the agenda too is an idea the company floated Friday afternoon at the Sun-Times. It's to eliminate 25 to 30 jobs -- about a fifth of the editorial jobs remaining at that paper -- by outsourcing the copy editing and layout functions, possibly to India. The idea was flatly rejected -- the Guild would be surrendering jurisdiction over those jobs. But that simply means that if and when the company proceeds, the guild will file a grievance.
The Sun-Times Media Group would have to be in terrible shape to consider such an idea. To turn copy over to editors on the other side of the world whose idiomatic English is so different is to guarantee constant aggravation and frustration, not to mention published howlers. But this company is in terrible shape. It cut itself to the bone to slash 2008 expenses by $50 million and now it's trying to find $50 million more to cut. Its third-quarter losses were $168 million.
On Thursday the company announced it was closing 12 of its suburban papers.
i want to say 'will cyrus, cookie and the rest lead the way by taking a paycut?' but i think rather, as the sportscaster would say, 'it's over, it's all over.'
http://newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/Final_Com...
Check out for yourself the quality of the top Indian and Pakistani papers, below:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Homepage/Homepage.as...
http://www.dawn.com/2009/01/12/index.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Don't forget that some of the best English writers in modern times are of South Asian origin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English_litera...
Live and learn!! And open your mind!
The label: "Slumdog copy editors" is rude and insulting, perhaps your rednecks have a better solution?
We need to pause before judging and applying steriotypes to Indian copy editors. Please consider that the Times of India was the fifth most visited newspaper website in the US, see paper below (at pg. 32 of PDF).
http://newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/Final_Com...
Check out for yourself the quality of the top Indian and Pakistani papers, below:
http://newmillenniumresearch.org/archive/Final_Com...
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Homepage/Homepage.as...
http://www.dawn.com/2009/01/12/index.htm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/
Don't forget that some of the best English writers in modern times are of South Asian origin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_English_litera...
Live and learn!! And open your mind!
The label: "Slumdog copy editors" is rude and insulting, perhaps your rednecks have a better solution?
Hey Slumdog,
I read the Times of India and the Hindu practically every day, but that doesn't mean I'm not occasionally howling.
I love the subjects in the very serious newsmagazine Frontline, too, but the prose is almost universally turgid and tortured.
Newspapers are worried about fleeing readership, and this is not the way to keep Americans reading.
The Sun-Times is less relevant than the Rolling Stones, just so happens people still pay money to see the Stones.
And for anyone who actually works in journalism, tell me how often you actually have to stand face to face with a copy editor. It happens on the phone and by email exchange.
People file their stories, they go home, and the copy desk calls.
Moving out is radical. But once the rim gets up to speed, it's not that different.
It's not that this is not problematic, but it is an idea to keep things afloat. It's ugly, but it may stave off the inevitable for a while longer.
.
And sooner or later, advertisers will realize there is very little benefit to tagging such sources to garner customers. Don't you all just Google what you're looking to buy to find the best price? And who, in his right mind would buy inside the city of Chicago with a 10.25 sales tax?
Say goodbye to ink as you know it.
The bigger problem is that the information we really want doesn't come free. It does cost. And sooner or later we'll all be seeing that what we get, well, what we get is what we pay for....
And, I just wonder, of the 13 Vice-Presidents, how many are really needed? Most of what they were responsible for is now in India. And how much of a bonus will they get for selling their departments to another company? If you want to win REALLY big, take a page from the I.T. department, go to India, set up a company, outsource your department to it and rake in the cash. It worked well with at least one V.P. so it should work well with another.
Too bad they didn't just fire the department head caught in a rather indescrete moment last year with a subordinate. That would have saved some cash.
The News paper business isn't really dying in Chicago, it's just being outsourced.
Hopefully the new leadership sees that most of their senior management is little more than friends of VP's and upper management who hire their friends and family as consultants. This will account for the hideous amounts of money spent on projects that go nowhere and only produce red ink.