Buy American (copy editors)

The three guilds representing editorial employees at many of Dean Singleton's California newspapers released a joint statement criticizing a comment Singleton made on Monday about the possibility of consolidating his copy desks and then shipping the work overseas.

Here is what Singleton said:

"One thing we're exploring is having one news desk for all of our newspapers in MediaNews ... maybe even offshore."

The guilds' response:

“We understand the need for newsrooms to operate more efficiently in tough economic times,” said Sara Steffens, chair of the BANG-EB bargaining unit. “But outsourcing copy-editors is a terrible idea. The move would damage beyond repair the things readers and advertisers value most about newspapers: Our wealth of local knowledge, and our commitment to accuracy and fact-checking.”

Baltimore Sun copy editor John McIntyre had this to say:

Imagine as a comparable instance that General Motors and Ford, fighting desperately to reverse their plummeting sales and stock values, concluded that it would be smart to save money by eliminating the quality control function. Think they’d wind up selling more cars?