Here’s something you’ll never read about in the Record Searchlight: Many of the local ads that were once created by the newspapers’ nearly dozen in-house artists are going, going, gone overseas to places like India.
Gosh, I wonder if the RS has even told its advertisers about this.
Money, of course, is the reason. Think of it: Full-time staff newspaper artists who receive medical benefits, although many are just barely getting by here in the U.S., cost relatively more money than some person in India, paid peanuts, and no benefits. (Note: Nothing against India, or Mexico, or any other outsource location. It just chaps me to see local employees dumped for lower-paid workers in foreign countries.)
This might save the RS a lot of money, especially if it keeps the ad prices the same. And my oh my, imagine if the RS even increased ad prices.
Swapping in-house, local artists for outsourced, foreign workers is just another of many Record Searchlight cost-saving strategies. Another one is its recent decision to hire free-lance writers, many of whom lack journalism degrees. You may have noticed some of their bylines recently under such descriptions as “Special to the RS.”
Special, indeed.
It’s the kind of RS specialty that has reporters rotate the cops beat, one of the most crucial spots in the newsroom. The cops beat is extra important because of the very nature of its stories. The cops beat requires a solid working relationship of trust and knowledge between the reporter and the entire law-enforcement community. (Lauren Brooks was the former cops reporter. I thought she did a great job.)
But instead of hiring a full-time replacement for Lauren, the paper instead now has a weekly musical-cops-beat game that requires reporters to put their beats (business, weather, city, environment, county, etc.) on ice as they cover cops, something totally out of their realm.
It’s hard on the reporters, whose beats must wait for a week before they’re resumed. But it’s hard on law enforcement, too, because it means carefully explaining every little thing all over again to yet another reporter, someone they may not know or trust.
But back to the artists, those creative people responsible for every kind of possible ad: Real estate, grocery stores, fish markets, car lots, you name it.
To anyone who works at the RS, the news about the disappearing artists is old stuff. In fact, it was whispered at length around the RS water cooler months before I was fired in October.
At first, it was floated as one of those, “We’re investigating” the concept of overseas artists. Nobody panic. Just drink the Kool-Aid and don’t worry your pretty little heads about the future.
I remember conversations with some artists, all of whom were nervous about the possible end of their careers and apparent usefulness at the RS.
One artist said she was keeping her fingers crossed that of the roughly 10 artists expecting eventual pink slips, she might be among the few chosen artists retained as a liason between the paper and the overseas’ artists in Bombay or wherever.
Imagine the kinds of strains that might put on a department and its co-workers as they wait for the axe to fall. One wouldn’t dare step out of line, or speak up, or question authority, or look cross-eyed, for fear of being blacklisted for certain out of one of those precious few jobs. It’s the audition for their livelihoods. Tap dance as fast as you can, folks. Big Sister is watching.
The RS advertising outsourcing came to mind yesterday when I spoke with a young businesswoman. She told what a nightmare it’d been for her to try to place a recent ad at RS. The capper was when she finally saw her proof. She said the last line was a total mess of a run-on sentence.
As if theartist didn’tknowthelanguage.
Youget whatyou payfor.
