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| A Pasadena, Calif., website, which stirred an international sensation with its plans to hire two journalists in India to report on local government affairs, has decided to shelve their reports, citing the “attention that we received.”
James Macpherson, editor and publisher of Pasadenanow.com, who hired a Mumbai journalist for $12,000 annually and another in Bangalore for $7,200 said he could not get around to editing their reports because of the publicity. Pasadena City Council meetings are webcast on the Internet and Pasadena Now planned to have the outsourced journalists report from the tapes and do any follow-up with officials by e-mail and telephone. “A lot of the routine stuff we do can be done by really talented people in another time zone at much lower wages,” Macpherson said. Larry Wilson, editor of the Pasadena Star-News, said, “To pretend you can get the feel and the culture of a town as complicated and interesting as Pasadena by e-mailing and doing things over the Internet is nutty.” Rob Gunnison, director of University of California-Berkeley’s School of Journalism, the alma mater of one of the Indian journalists selected to do the reporting, was equally harsh, “I still can’t quite believe it’s not a hoax.” |