Wiley Is Looking for a Copy Editor

In a world where more and more copy editing is being outsourced (and offshored), it's encouraging to see the local Wiley office posting a job for an in-house copy editor (see here). Requirements include prior editing experience, a four-year degree, and tact. I suppose that eliminates a lot of us.

Printing Industry Declines in Wisconsin

There's an excellent article by Eric Decker in the September 5 issue of Small Business Times of Milwaukee and southern Wisconsin. It's an exceptionally detailed and insightful report on the consolidations, layoffs, and changes in the area's printing industry.

Two main points that stood out to me were that those printers that didn't invest in newer equipment are losing out. Also, there's the familiar refrain that a lot of printing business is going overseas, where government subsidies make it difficult for local printers to compete.

And of course, as newspapers suffer the consequences of more people getting their news online, printers suffer right along with them.

Department of Labor Data on the Publishing Industry

One good thing about working for a career publisher is the facility I have gained with government employment data. Scarily, I have the Department of Labor URLs memorized. I thought today you'd like to take a gander at their stats and projections regarding the publishing industry--what the jobs are, how many people have them, median earnings, and the outlook for future employment. You can see it all on the Publishing page of the Career Guide to Industries.

Getting Freelance Work in Tough Times

Beyond the Elements of Style blogger Jeannette Cezanne, whose offshoring posts I've picked up on in the past, extends the discussion today. She acknowledges prior discussions on how much freelance publishing work is being sent overseas, and couples that with the dire implications of the economic downturn. Freelance work might be more difficult to come by these days, so she had good tips on how to scare up more work.

I just got out of a meeting with a rep from a publishing services company who commented on the downturn as well, saying that many publishers are trying to defer expenses to 2009, and thus are scheduling projects to finish up and be billed in January and after. They don't want to spend money on freelancers; yet they've gone through so many downsizings that there's nobody left in-house to do the work. So something's gotta give. Will that result in title count cuts, more things being done exclusively online, or what? I don't know, so what do you think?

The Elephant in the Room: Offshoring

Yesterday I hinted at my persistent worry that someday my job will be sent offshore. I've seen it happen with layout and design--thriving departments of hundreds of people working three shifts reduced to just one guy who sends things to India. A whole room full of typesetters in Singapore who work for peanuts overnight. Even JIST has begun sending some software development work overseas.

Of course, it makes short-term business sense to do it. If you can get things done faster and cheaper (and presumably with good quality), why wouldn't you?

In her post Shipping the Work to India, Beyond the Elements of Style blogger Jeannette Cezanne offers some insights and some hope. If editors can find their niche, they can swim alongside the riptide of offshoring.

But this isn't the end of the discussion as far as I'm concerned. I want to know what all of you think about the offshoring trend. Do you see it happening? Are you doing it? Is it taking work away from you or driving down your rates? How can we as American editors justify our continued existence?