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PCN to be designed in Monkey's Elbow, AZ?

A recent column in the Montana Journalism Review by Allison Franz – Losing Home Advantage, http://mjr.jour.umt.edu/losing-home-advantage/ -- told the story of how the pages of the Great Falls Tribune are laid out by designers in Arizona (that has been the case since 2012) and how in 2015, “at least four of Montana’s seven major newspapers will be paginated by designers thousands of miles of away.”

Franz reported that Lee Enterprises (owners of such daily fish wraps as the Montana Standard, Helena Independent Record and Missoulian) will move to these “design centers” as a way to cut costs and get “better pages more efficiently.” Franz also pointed out that this will cost Montana journalists their jobs.

When I first read this column, I was at first intrigued. I have a hard enough time getting people’s names correctly spelled in the pages of this newspaper, but at least I am trying. Why would someone in Arizona care if the two little girls on the front page eating cheeseburgers go by the last name “Mitchell” or “Maxwell?” (sorry about that ladies, the correction to that caption is below.) When the PCN goes to print on Tuesday night and is placed on Wednesday mornings, the folks here at the PCN hope that everything has been properly proof read and all the facts are straight. It doesn’t always go according to plan, but at least it is a plan. As the staff at the PCN walk the streets of Phillips County, shop in its stores and eat at its restaurants, if we have made a mistake, you’d better believe we hear about it…as we should.

I was trying to think how the conversation would go if the pages of the PCN were designed in Arizona.

Reader: Mark, you got my daughter’s name wrong in the paper last week, her name is Sofia, not Sophia.

Me: Ah man! I’m sorry about that. But, actually, it wasn’t my fault. You see we send all of our information to a design center in Monkey’s Elbow, Arizona. We gave them the correct name and then they messed it up.

Reader: Monkey’s Elbow? What in the world are you talking about?

Me: Well, my bosses don’t care enough about this community to keep jobs and money here, so they outsource a large chunk of the work we do here to save money.

Reader: Uh, okay. I think I would like to cancel my subscription.

Me: As you should.

At least, I suppose, these daily newspapers have sent these jobs out of Montana to another state in this country … for now. But how long until some 13-year-old in Dharmavaram, India is doing the work? Can you think of other jobs that have left this country and set up shop in another as a way to save money?

Anyway, at least for now, when you see me shopping in Albertsons, feel free to point out any mistakes we may have made in Your Community Newspaper. My bosses have made no indications that they want this paper to be designed in Monkey’s Elbow, AZ.

 

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