Holy smokes. Could this be the start of something big? From The Columbus Dispatch, reporting on itself:
The Dispatch Printing Company has contracted with an Elgin, Ill., graphic-design company to create ads for The Dispatch’s advertising clients, allowing for greater efficiency and more rapid turnaround.
About 90 positions will be eliminated as a result of the contract with Affinity Express Inc. The displaced employees, many of whom will work through next April, will be offered a severance and benefits package, as well as assistance in finding a new job.
Affinity provides similar graphic-design services for numerous other companies, including The Los Angeles Times, Lands’ End, Staples, Advo, Ikon Office Solutions Inc., Xerox Corp. and FedEx Kinko’s Office and Print Service Inc.
Most of the graphic-design work done for those companies is handled by some of Affinity’s 550 employees who work in Pune, India. Advertisements created for The Dispatch will be created there as well.
Okay, I’m going to step in the shit right now: Can Indian graphic designers write and design ads that will be in correct and proper (or proper enough) American English? Or is this going to be as fraught with frustration as customer service funneled through India usually is?
Someone get Lou Dobbs on the case. Soon, ad people won’t be able to afford their black Armani outfits anymore.