Arun Jethmalani, CEO of ValueNotes, discussed outsourcing. He said his company is a research company and they do a lot of research on media. One of the subjects being discussed is outsourcing in the media.
Outsourcing is not new to the newspaper industry. For some time, newspapers have used freelancers.
Jethmalani used Wikipedia as an example of modern outsourcing. Despite the fact that Wikipedia can be looked down upon as poor quality content, there are 85,000 contributors and 1,000 articles every day. Wiki content is in over 260 languages and a has reader base of 65 million a month.
Jethmalani compared outsourcing to an industry: parts are being made in one country, assembled in another and sold to many others. “Outsourcing can be a solution.” With a lot of research done, their company developed a method of benchmarking their outsourcers, particularly in India.
Jethmalani acknowledged that there are concerns people have with outsourcing such as the quality of articles and loss of control. However, there is currently very little differentiation. Newspapers must find what is unique and different about their content. The internet allows us to reach out to writers who in turn cover more subjects, thus giving news sites a more vibrant online presence.
"Look at outsourcing strategically and not just technically."
