Can an India-based reporter cover what’s important to people in Pasadena? Apparently, publisher and editor James Macpherson, who runs pasadenanow.com, believes so. According to this article on Siliconvalley.com, he has just started advertising for a reporter based in India to cover, at the very least, city council meetings, which can be watched via the Net.
I have used writers from Indian (to cover India-based events) and transcriptionists from North Dakota and the Philippines. But I, as an editor, would never choose to have my local reporting come from a country half a world away.
That said, this is a situation where experience will be the teacher. All he has to do is edit the pieces coming in from his reporter to realize there are cultural, political and geographical gaps that will make the cost savings he’ll presumably enjoy not worth the effort or his publication’s reputation.
