Thursday, February 12, 2009

The Juice Outsources, Scores Food Reviewer from New Delhi

by Eric Barton


New Delhi newsrooms don't feature Woodward or Bernstein.


The Juice has itself an Indian correspondent, an outsourced journalist, reporting live from New Delhi on the South Florida restaurant scene.

It began with a January 12 email from a freelance writer in India. We're making fun of journalism outsourcing here and not our correspondent, so we'll call her only by her first name, Shalini. Truth is, that's more identification than most of the outsourced media industry workers, who toil in obscurity, doing copy editing for the Miami Herald or taking subscription calls for the Sun-Sentinel.

Shalini's cover letter began: "I take this opportunity of submitting my resume to your esteemed organization, perchance there is an opening for a suitable position that your good self would deem suitable for the benefit of the establishment." Her resume promised "excellent written and oral communication skills" and said she had been a freelance writer for unnamed publications since October 2007.

So what the hell. We offered her a job.
 

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