Magazines, Newspapers Outsouce Copyediting To India

In a squat, gray building in Noida, a leading outsourcing destination 15 miles from New Delhi, is the headquarters of Mindworks Global Media. Here, 90 young men and women peer into their computers, editing copy, designing and laying out pages, and even reporting over the phone. Mindworks isn't a new publication. It's a company to which media groups in Asia, Europe, and the U.S.--including the Miami Herald and South China Morning Post--outsource work that journalists and copyeditors usually do. The Mindworks staff works two to three shifts a day, seven days a week. Tony Joseph, 46, an editor-turned-entrepreneur, is Mindworks' founder and chief executive. He sometimes drops by at 6 a.m. to see his employees, just when U.S. clients are putting their papers to bed.

Mindworks has been handling outsourcing assignments from non-Indian publishers for four years. It expects plenty more business as the cost-cutting in U.S. and European print media grinds on. Some Western publishers do their outsourcing in-house--Thomson Reuters (TRI), for instance, has moved basic Wall Street reporting on U.S., European, and Gulf equities to a new bureau in Bangalore. But other media companies prefer to outsource to the Indians directly. On June 24, Mindworks made global headlines when the Associated Press reported that the company had taken on copyediting and layout work for a couple of publications owned by the California media publishing group Orange County Register Communications.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[Bystander]

Who cares?

[larry278]

Those who have published monographs on syntax & grammar used by those in India who speak English are in for a windfall. It's probable that the UK's scholars will authorize American editions of their works which use American spellings. Others changes will be made to cater to Americans. Some of find that listening to Pakistani, Urdu speaking & Indian, Hindi speaking associates speaking English a good way to learn syntax & grammar. Indians who speak Tamil & English are rarer in the USA but as these people settle in the USA, their American associates will learn from them. Teachers of English will adapt to the changes in the English language in the USA.
For a preview of the coming changes in American English read the site, Big News Network.

[truth101]

Once AMERICANS wake up to the fact that everytime they turn off the lights or the AC
or buy green, yes everytime, another INDIAN is lighting a funeral pyre putting CO2 into
the atmosphere, from both wood fuel and the human body itself, they will balk at the
IDEA OF CONTINUING TO PAY COMPANIES WHO OUTSOURCE TO INDIA. How many
funeral pyres are burning in INDIA RIGHT AT THIS MOMENT? THE FACT IS
SIMPLE ....... THEIR MONSOONS WILL GET WORSE AND WORSE, THERE WILL
BE MORE AND MORE FUNERL PYRES, AND THEIRE MONSOON WILL GET WORSE AND
WORSE, DOWN TO OBLIVION......inconvenient but true.

[macintoshsauce]

Oh Jesus... First it was tech jobs, now it is media. What the hell is wrong with this country's thinking?

[missette]

Does this mean we'll be hearing more from that nasty koala who eats, shoots, and leaves? I suspect we can also expect more of the following:

The Republicans have abandoned all there principals and basic tenants (just a bunch of administrators and freeloaders, right? And some would say "their principles" were not were saving anyway ).
Lets reign in spending and show our corp values (although I think our country is currently showing a form of "corp." values).
Slow Children Crossing (I guess we're no longer in Lake Wobegon).
Your a good man, Charlie Brown.

I fear good copy editing is like good housekeeping. You don't really notice it unless it's not done.

[truth101]

Actually you also notice it in the best writers because
they have taken the time to edit their own prose
and LOSE verbiage which others would leave in place.
Plato and Shakespeare could be seen as examles of this
par excellence, wheras writers like Proust and Kant
never took the time to actually read their magnficient
mountains of meanderings and cut the fat. Lots of the
bloggers on HP fall into this same category, unfortunately..

[truth101]

THE fact is this outsourcing thing is just a new convolution of the old style
impoerialism. Think of slavery.......was that just exactly the same thing...trying to
get something for nothing. NEWSPAPER who copyedit electronically
deserve to fail as the feeling and local allure and color of their language will
be levled to the monotone of flat grammar witht presto, without zip, without
the magic of the turn of the phrase. but then again its the freedom of the press
to destroy themselves after all its the reward of liberty

[truth101]

Why should USA outsource to a country which pushing up the price of gas
so all INDIANS can drive to the seashore which is quickly rising, and who
insist on BURNING all the deceased in pyres which produce polluting smoke
that adds to global warming. The first thing OBAMA needs to do is outlaw
outsourcing to INDIA until they stop this clearly ANTI GREEN PRACTICE.
Cleary religious beliefs are involved but SO WHAT........ITS TIME TO STOP
THIS AND THE SOONER THE BETTER. in the meantime companies which
outsource to INDIA SHOULD BE LABELED AS ANTI GREEN EARTH WARMING
LOVERS and should be boycotted entirely. readers of these orange country
newspapers should cancel their subscriptions and complain to the editors
The next thing OBAMA SHOULD DO is deny flights from iINDIA THE RIGHT TO
LAND AT USA AIRPORTS UNTIL THEY STOP BURNING DEAD CORPSES.

[ccpostman]

India tech service by english speaking people calling themselves - Bob, Ted;etc. Now this - story by John, Mike, Fred.

It is phony write-ups by phony writers. Matches our phony Government!

[laternighter]

Hope the copywriting in India is better than the communicative skills then the Indian tech support people. Frequently have no idea what they are saying. When booking flights with indian representatives of US airlines they usually book me on the wrong flight at best and wrong day at worse.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

"When booking flights with indian representatives of US airlines they usually book me on the wrong flight at best and wrong day at worse."

And this is by accident?

[Gasparilla]

I think they are told to just say the most general things. It sounds like they are reading from a script half the time, without really comprehending what you are saying.

[MissingAmerica]

This is an example of why we Americans are losing our homes and our lives.

[Charity]

exactly. this is a depressing story - our news filtered through a third world country whose grasp of the english language is provincial, at best.

i edit copy for a local group whose employees/ceo are learned university professors from india who specialize in a technical device. they use me because i am an american who speaks english with a degree and experience in journalism- and they want their documents to reflect a proper english, if you will. so i guess i'm their outsource, but fortunately, i live nearby.

(and if anyone comments on how i blog, lack of caps - hello, you can kiss my a** - it's a freakin' blog, not a dissertation. i type/say what i want, how i want - the other? for that i get paid nicely to pay attention the grammar, spelling, syntax, punctuation...)

[demfriend]

Exporting everything now are we? First the drugs coming at us from India full speed ahead and now we have the writing of the articles and the pictures next to have the american magazine be from India. I think our country is now lost.

[darthdarcy]

Tom Friedman must be thrilled, I bet he's just besides himself...way to go Tom..you're a real patriot..yup you betcha ya...

[JaneaneTheAcerbicGoblin]

I hope they outsource Friedman's job.

[pitneo]

That would be the right thing to do, too:)

[truth101]

Going for the cheapest provider is old hat
so all this talk of globalization is odd. The irony of
orange country outsourcing its newspapers is too much
to thnk about..........talk about total utter hypocrisy.
......it is well known of course that the USA founders initially OURSOURCED the USA CONSTITUTion
BUT were a little unhappy when it came back

"We the members of the castes, but not the untouchables in order to form
a better government of oversee the flow of Karma in our post colonial world,
will form a government with three branches each with rituals of purification
including the use of incense to purify the air especiallly after the vacating of the white
house. We forbid English goods to enter the country apart from Beatles records
and of those gal about rehab.

[wm1066]

"Outsouce"
Thats hilarious, wonder how long it takes them to fix it.
Its poetic justice in a way,..... freudian?

[zull2]

Does anyone outside of that area do anything anymore?

I do wonder, at what point exactly do we outsource so much work that we no longer have enough income to continue buying the products that we outsource. Thereby, causing a global economic catastrophe of epic proportions. If all of our industry becomes outdated and scrapped for strip malls and fast food restaurants...then suddenly, we can't afford to shop at the strip malls and eat out, but the cost to get our industry back up online would be so expensive that the people getting insanely rich off outsourcing simply move to another country...uh oh. And you economic libertarians think you have it all figured out. You guys are probably already learning how to speak Mandarin.

[ErnestineBass]

A "fourth estate" in decline moves to a "third world" in ascension.

What a world we live in...