PasadenaNow.com recently hired two India-based reporters (combined salary: approximately $19,000) to cover the Pasadena City Council. “A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages,” publisher James Macpherson tells the LA Times.
What’s next? Could it happen here?
August 22, 2007: Bangalore scribe tapped as new Boston Globe metro columnist.
Globe spokesman Al Larkin announced today that Vijay Patel of the Bangalore Times would succeed Brian McGrory, who was promoted to metro editor earlier this year. “Great columnists need two things: reporting chops and a distinctive voice,” said Larkin. “Vijay has both — and at $20,000 annually, he’s a steal!” Larkin also noted that Patel’s cousin recently trained in Boston for a Bangalore-based Globe customer-service position, and will help familiarize him with local issues.
January 12, 2008: Boston Herald to move to Mumbai, continue publishing.
“It’s vital that Boston remains a two-newspaper town,” Herald publisher Pat Purcell told the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce this morning. “That’s precisely why we’re relocating to the subcontinent. Our reporters already know this city better than anyone; in Mumbai, they’ll live like royalty on half their current salaries. And revenue from selling the old Herald site should make future layoffs unnecessary — at least for a while.” The paper’s distribution mechanism remains uncertain, Purcell admitted; also, columnist Joe Fitzgerald is still weighing whether to make the trip.
March 3, 2010: BostonNow run from Iceland since its inception, outgoing publisher reveals.
“That office I showed the local press back in 2007 — talk about a Potemkin village!” cackled Russel Pergament. “But you guys bought the ruse, even after all those mistake-addled headlines.” Pergament described his exit from the paper as “amicable.” Officials from Dagsbrun, BostonNow’s parent company, declined comment.
July 30, 2011: Carolyn Ryan to edit Globe, remain in New York.
“It’s a true pleasure to come back home to Morrissey Boulevard,” said Carolyn Ryan, who was the Globe’s metro editor before leaving for the New York Times in 2007. “Of course, I mean that figuratively, since I’ll be telecommuting from Manhattan indefinitely. But that won’t keep us from delivering the outstanding New York Times wire-service copy that Globe readers have come to expect.”
