The Star Sends Jobs to India

By ERIC BARTON

Few people would’ve called The Kansas City Star‘s former owner, Knight Ridder, a bastion of great journalism. But one thing Knight Ridder didn’t do is send Kansas City jobs overseas.

The Star‘s current overlord, McClatchy, is firing nine employees in Kansas City and sending the jobs to India. The Star broke the news today about the layoffs in a brief on the second page of the business section. The article says that Star President and Publisher Mark Zieman sent a memo to employees indicating that nine people who do advertising production work would lose their jobs. The work will be sent to Infosys Technologies in Bangalore, India.

McClatchy has been outsourcing advertising production work overseas at many of its papers. And there have been rumors for months within the Star‘s offices that such a move would be likely here.

McClatchy treasurer Elaine Lintecum, who’s listed on the company’s Web site as a media contact, declined to comment for The Pitch. She said, “I recommend that you call The Kansas City Star,” before abruptly hanging up.

New Star Publisher Mark Zieman and Jennifer Kisser, who heads the advertising services department, did not immediately return a phone call from The Pitch.