Reuters Fears Offshoring Will Cut Jobs

UK journalists come up with a catchy headline for their fears. A publication called The Independent on Monday came up with a report entitled: "Indian mutiny looms at Reuters: Call centres aren't the only workplaces to be threatened with."

"Even journalists with years of specialist experience are wondering whether one year or maybe five years from now, somebody else will be doing their job from a desk in India or Thailand, and so deep is the unease that an informal ballot in the London office last week found that 84 percent of staff were ready to consider a strike," the report said.

The company's management has denied plans to relocate high-skill editing jobs, but insiders and union officials claim that work involving progressively higher skills is steadily migrating from London and Washington to a new Reuters centre in Bangalore.

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The company presents this as a gain for skilled journalists.

David Schlesinger, Reuters' global managing editor, is quoted as saying: "We're trying to fillet out the work that doesn't have to be done on the spot and move it elsewhere. We want to free our more expensive journalists for face-to-face, on-the-spot tasks to get the best value."

The process, he admits, is "very difficult, frightening and painful" in the short term, and some people are losing their jobs, but he insists the payoff will be a better, healthier Reuters.

Reports of Reuters UK moving editorial jobs to India have come up earlier this year.

has also tasted offshore outsourcing. Other major broadsheets, like the New York Times and Time Warner's magazine Business 2.0 have already experimented with offshore work.

IT analyst Forrester has said that due to offshoring, Britain's media sector will lose 4,000 jobs within 10 years.

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