The Columbus Dispatch dropped a bombshell in today's issue, announcing that they will outsource the design of all heretofore locally-produced advertising. This will result in the loss of around ninety staff jobs in Columbus.What is most disturbing is who is replacing these locals -- artists in Pune, India. The CD has signed with Affinity Express, an Illinois-based company with creative services in India.
I'm not naïve about the world economy, but it still strikes me as remarkable that if I were the owner of a restaurant in the OSU district and wanted to run an ad in Thursday's Entertainment section, my ad info would be sent to India for design and layout.
The CD explained this decision as a necessary business measure to reduce the cost and improve the timeliness of ad preparation. Affinity Express claims to have staff working 24/7 to offer the quickest possible turnaround.
Kudos to the CD for being upfront about this news, rather than trying to bury the decision. A big Boo to Affinity Express for making no mention of their foreign sourcing on their web site.
I want to reassure our readers that all of the BloggingOhio writers live right here in Ohio, USA; we don't outsource your Ohio feed.
At least, not yet.
1. I'm one of those 90 losing their jobs at TCD. I'm still shocked; the paper will be interesting to view once the India Designers start doing TCD ads. It's a slap in the face that they would outsource; the article made me feel like we are failures and we are not.
Posted at 10:59AM on Nov 13th 2006 by Laura