OffShoring Activism

I remember having extended conversations with activists working on international issues that we will be off shoring activism in my life time.

I can see the office set up today. American radio, TV and culture piped into the office in India or Ireland. Employees crunching on American newspapers and street lingo. How many full time staff could these off shore sites employ to develop web content, newsletters, position papers, membership services, call centers and other advocacy backend services. Should a global climate change group have 5 people working in NYC or 15 in India? What is better for the environment?

Increasingly advocacy groups are engaged in toe-to-toe struggles with mulit-national companies. How are we multi-nationalizing the strategy.

Unfortunately, we have not even mastered the ability to pool labor skills from PA and NJ yet. However, advocacy and campaigning will make the distance leap from in the same office to across the state to international within the next 10 years.

Need to get a monthly email out to your members .. email your content writer in Jamaica.

Reuters, the financial news service, will today officially unveil an office in south India that will see 20 journalists cover 2,000 small to medium-sized American companies listed on the New York stock exchange.

The operation, based in Bangalore, has been running for six months with a six-strong editorial team reporting on companies' earnings, press releases and filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission as well as analysts' stock alerts.

This is just the beginning for Reuters in Bangalore. The company's data unit, which archives material for 30,000 global firms, already employs 300 people and will grow by another 300 next year. The average age in the office is 25.

In outsourcing journalism and data processing, Reuters has become the first large media company to base US corporate reporting functions offshore.

The job of financial news reporter is just the latest in a long line of positions, ranging from call centre operator to legal researcher, which have been sent abroad in recent years. Part of the reason is improved global communications; the other is that work can be done more cheaply in poorer countries.

Reuters admits costs are 60% less in Bangalore than its "onshore" centres in New York, Britain and Singapore.