Kansas Citians Are Angry: The Kansas City StarOutsources to India

Plenty of Kansas Citians are up in arms over a recent announcement that The Kansas City Star is outsourcing all of the jobs of those who are in the advertising services department - in fact, their entire digital advertising team, according to one blog - to India. The jobs are being outsourced to Infosys Technologies in Bangalore, India. The employees were notified by memo, and the following day The Kansas City Star included a brief in the paper in the business section. The news reported that nine employees were laid off, however in fact there were several more in total. One of the released employees is a very old friend of mine who had been with the company for a number of years.

Now, as if this weren't enough of a blow, the kicker is this: the employees will retain their employment until after their replacements - who are being flown in, and put up here in Kansas City - have been trained by the displaced employees. And furthermore, according to a blog comment from the best friend of one of those laid off, The Kansas City Star is not giving letters of recommendation to those being let go! Talk about serious insult to injury.

The news has certainly spread, and naturally several local bloggers, such as Tony's Kansas City, and The Pitch, have caught wind of the news and have blogged and expressed opinions in the matter. However, there have also been attention from national bloggers, too, such as Gawker.com, who pointed out that McClatchy, owner of The Kansas City Star has taken the same action with other holdings, such as Miami Herald, the Sacramento Bee, and the Raleigh News & Observer.

The bloggers raised good questions. Tony's Kansas City asked, "So, how will a Kansas City advertisers really capture the attention, hearts and minds of the local market?" And in the comments section of that article, one concerned reader brought up the lost earnings tax revenue to the city of Kansas City. Another mentioned the tax cut The Kansas City Star would receive for outsourcing the jobs.

According The Pitch's blog, they attempted a contact to Elaine Lintecum, McClatchy's treasurer, who is a media contact listed on the company's Web site. She said, "I recommend that you call The Kansas City Star," refusing to comment on the situation further, and hung up the phone. Mark Zieman, the new Kansas City Star publisher and Jennifer Kisser, head of the advertising services department, both did not return a call from the Pitch at the time of the blog posting.

Sources:

"Print World Just Got Flatter." http://gawker.com/390833/print-world-just-got-flatter

"TKC EXCLUSIVE!!! The Star disavows new media as it sends Kansas City jobs in digital advertising to India!!!" http://www.tonyskansascity.com/2008/05/kansas-city-news-outsourced-to-india.html

"The Star Sends Jobs to India" http://blogs.pitch.com/plog/2008/05/the_star_sends_jobs_to_india.php