News Limited outsources copy subbing of community titles to Pagemasters
News Limited is to outsource the copy sub-editing of its regional newspapers to AAP’s Pagemasters, a move made by rival Fairfax more than a year ago.
The decision, announced just after 4pm this afternoon, will result in a number of job losses at the publisher. The changes will take affect by October.
In an internal memo obtained by Mumbrella, editorial director Campbell Reid, who outlined an array of changes to how News Limited’s newspapers will be produced, said that the changes would “reduce duplication and wasted effort” that is necessary “if we are to adapt to market conditions.”
The quality of sub-editing will be maintained by using a detailed service level agreement, Reid said.
Non-stop journo/art job losses are disturbing. I’m happily reporting that a lone independent in Sydney’s inner-west – Burwood Scene – print and online – continues to publish local news. I fail to understand how local content can be produced and published, ‘ensuring the city teams can focus on gathering and developing great local content’, for all mastheads can be achieved across a continent.
Obviously no one at News Ltd has been talking to their counterparts at Fairfax, where senior management now acknowledge the outsourcing of subbing to Pagemasters has been a disaster – and an expensive one to boot.
If recent SMH copyediting quality is anything to go by, this is a backwards step for News Limited. Spelling, grammatical, and factual errors are way to common in Fairfax publications today.
And yes before anyone says anything, I deliberately inserted ‘to’ instead of ‘too’ to see if anyone was paying attention.
I wonder went they will just outsource the whole damn thing to Bangladesh or some other low paid 3rd world country. Syndicate gossip columns, run local weather and “steal” a few headlines from ABC and save a motza!
Way to go News and Fairfax!!
I doubt it Dave. The Bangladeshi fourth estate would be far too rational, intelligent and impartial compared to Piers Ackerman, Andrew Bolt, Miranda Devine et. al.
I was once told outsourcing is the same as paying someone to think for you. Putting someone else in control of the quality of their newspapers shows nobody in the biggest newspapers in Australia are doing any thinking.
Some of these comments could do with a Pagemasters edit!