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EDITORIAL: The Palm Beach Post, Outsourced!

Posted by , August 24, 2012 Print

The Palm Beach Post

Sounds like a joke but it’s not.

If you’re still advertising in The Palm Beach Post by next week, the person handling your ad is likely going to be doing it in some Podunk town in India or a suburb of Manila, The Philippines.

That’s because your fading, allegedly-local newspaper recently hired an outside company to take on advertisement production and layout.

And while the company hired by the Post is based near Chicago, it’s known to outsource most of the work to lowly-paid workers in India and the Philippines.

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The immediate result of The Palm Beach Post‘s move is that between six and 12 lowly-paid people in West Palm Beach are losing their jobs.

Why the range? The Post reports on everybody else’s lay offs but no longer reports on its own, and Publisher Tim Burke isn’t commenting.

For some of the workers who are about to be replaced by foreigners happy with 2 bucks an hour, today is their last day.

One said they’ve been told not to discuss this with “members of the public.”

But they’re fully aware their superiors recently had a small welcoming party for Affinity Express, the company that claims it can reduce ad production costs by 50 percent.

Affinity Express will now produce ads in which the word “flavor” could end up spelled “flavour,” and “forty” will become “fourty” — as other newspapers that have outsourced ad production fully know. (Hint: read the Stuart News if you can stand it. It’s a lesson in India’s British English!)

But you can’t be mad at Post Publisher Burke. These decisions are made in Atlanta, where the elderly Forbes 400 billionaires who own the West Palm Beach institution are holed up.

Here’s, however, where the Post‘s hypocrisy is extreme, and where Burke would be allowed by his Atlanta handlers to step in:

Historically, the paper’s editorial policy has been to shill for the Democratic Party.

And Dems have been going after Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney for his outsourcing thousands of jobs to foreign countries while he ran Bain Capital.

In the past 85 days, according to the dying paper’s own website, 52 stories published on pbpost.com have mentioned the words “Romney” and “outsourcing.” That’s a batting average that would make Derek Jeter jealous.

When the time comes to pick a candidate for president, however, there’s no doubt that the Post will pick Barack Obama. And the endorsement editorial will probably mention Romney’s outsourcing.

Instead of bullying its laid off workers into not telling members of the public, it may be time for the Post to be honest with itself and admit it now fully embraces Republican principles – especially outsourcing. 

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4 Comments

  1. Monique, 8 months ago Reply

    Mind your own business or use my thighs as ear muffs!

  2. Former Postie Toastie, 8 months ago Reply

    It is so sad to see what has happened at the Post. But as an ex-employee I can say your layoff numbers are too low. Starting with the 2008 buyouts, I’d estimate total Advertising/Production reductions at approximately 30-40 people including the latest round. But Josee you know what is really galling? It’s been alleged that the “Revenue Dept.” managers are all set to receive bonuses for this “cost-saving” outsourcing decision. Maybe they already have received it. I’m talking about Chuck Gerardi, Suzanne P., Raul V., Tracy D. — possibly more including Tim Burke. How about them apples? Would love to see an exposé on this by a Post reporter. But I know the corporate shills would never allow it. Yet they wouldn’t hesitate to report on a local company who downsized this much. Before the 2008 reductions, the Post employed more than 1,000. Now I’d be surprised if there is even 300 left. And what’s even sadder is that the ax will continue to fall so that another “measly” $3 or $4 million can go into the Cox billionaire’s coffers.

  3. Former Postie Toastie, 8 months ago Reply

    Wanted to add that Chuck Gerardi’s crew is a “Gang of Four.” I left out Dougie G. So count him among the bonus-babies for the outsource decision too.

  4. Rodd Smith, 3 months ago Reply

    The outsourcing of small community newspapers in Ontario started almost three years ago and Affinity Express is handling all of it. My point is that my ex-employer is taking away local jobs from small communities where minimum wage and poverty go hand-in-hand. The fact that they have a monopoly in these communities means that there is nowhere else a person can go to get another newspaper job as a graphic designer. The urgency to cut costs of course stopped at the six figured salaries of management and the like and all are still gainfully employed at the paper. You should check out the blog by Affinity Express “10 Tips for Newspapers who Outsource ads by Affinity Express”. It reminds me of the propaganda perpetuated in pre-war Germany, where the most creative graphic designers would not fit in with the kind of work flow Affinity has to offer. If it all wasn’t so sad, it would be funny… a high level of creativity in a graphic designer was once held in high regard, and now it’s a liability and ended up costing me my job in my small town.


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