We think it will improve our customer service for our newspaper readers... ...that the move will enable customer service to operate with extended hours, which should improve quality.
i'd LOVE to hear how they justify that...
Posted on 08/28/2006 7:36:36 PM PDT by summer
CHICAGO -- Tribune, which owns daily newspapers in 10 cities, said Monday it is eliminating 250 jobs at its circulation call centers and outsourcing the operation to the Philippines.
The cost-saving move was announced internally at Tribune papers at the end of last week.
Tribune spokesman Jeff Reiter confirmed that calls about circulation and delivery will be shifted to APAC Customer Services, which has operations in the Philippines. He said 120 full-time and 130 part-time jobs, or about 1% of Tribune's publishing operations, will be cut when the shift is made starting this fall and into 2007.
"It does two things," Reiter said. "We think it will improve our customer service for our newspaper readers, and secondly it will make our newspapers more cost-efficient."
Executives at Tribune newspapers said in disclosing the move to employees that the move will enable customer service to operate with extended hours, which should improve quality. The Los Angeles Times, Tribune's largest daily, has been outsourcing the service since 1998.
Tribune's other papers include the Chicago Tribune, Newsday, The Baltimore Sun and the Orlando Sentinel.
The action is part of the $200 million in planned cost-savings moves Tribune announced in May. The circulation service change, coupled with common systems for advertising and editorial will save about $40 million combined, Reiter said.
FYI.
Also, I don't think this is such great public relations when a newspaper does this. Who really wants to have their local newspaper delivery problem handled abroad? I can't imagine this service being popular.
Smart move...why pay Americans more than the market rate for the job? Finally the MSM gets conservative...if only their editorial stance would move a bit to the right, too!
Well, then maybe they should outsource it to Africa and save even more money. I realize companies do outsourcing now, but -- it still seems strange to me, to deal with people so far away with respect to customer service.
I don't know why, but buying a newspaper once in awhile, from a local newsstand, just appeals to me more than having to deal with someone abroad for something like a newspaper.
We think it will improve our customer service for our newspaper readers... ...that the move will enable customer service to operate with extended hours, which should improve quality.
i'd LOVE to hear how they justify that...
Paki abot a replacement newspaper.
I wish I was a customer...So I could tell them to shove it...
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