This American Life exposed a new low for local news in this week’s episode, “Switcheroo,” which revealed how U.S. media corporations have outsourced local news to the Philippines. The story focuses on a company called Journatic, which produces “local” news for dozens of newspapers around the United States. The problem is, they don’t use any local reporters to do it.

Journatic uses an assembly-line process that whistleblower Ryan Smith refers to as “pink-slime journalism.” The process starts with writers in the Philippines and then moves to editors in far-flung corners of the U.S. The assembly line even includes computer programs that auto-generate paragraphs. Oh, and it gets better. In many cases, the stories have been published under fake bylines.

"It's sort of a tattered product that's being written overseas, halfheartedly edited and just kind of slopped on the page," Smith says.

Journatic CEO Brian Timpone argues that this pink slime is the future of local news. He admits it’s not perfect but says it’s better than nothing, and challenges anyone to come up with a better idea. And that’s where This American Life’s story leaves off, with producer Sarah Koenig admitting, “I don’t have a better idea.”

Well, I do.

Newspapers should reinvest in local news and put local reporters back on their beats. First off, let’s be clear: Newspapers aren’t outsourcing local news to the Philippines out of necessity. According to a Pew Center study, most newspapers remain profitable. It’s more about how newspapers and their parent companies choose to allocate their resources.

Community papers are experiencing more growth than their national counterparts. Indeed, smaller local papers continue to make slow but steady gains. Why? Perhaps, in part, because local papers with local journalists on the beat have stories that aren’t available elsewhere. Some newspapers generate as much as 90 percent of the news they carry. These are unique, original stories, not news recycled from press releases.

Big media conglomerates should be denied local news monopolies. A handful of companies already controls almost everything we see, read and hear. But there’s one rule that helps keep consolidation in check: No one company is allowed to own a newspaper and broadcast outlets in the same market. But corporations like the Tribune Company are lobbying the Federal Communications Commission to remove that restriction. Local media monopolies would lead to further newsroom cuts and would prompt outlets to rely more heavily on companies like Journatic. Preserving a competitive local media landscape is crucial to preserving real local reporting.

Two words: public media. If media conglomerates won’t invest in serving the public interest, I can think of who will: public media outlets. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has a robust local and national news network, but it’s woefully underfunded. So here’s an idea: Instead of letting big media companies use public resources like the airwaves for free, why don’t we charge them for the privilege and reinvest that money in public media?

Chicago Tribune Responds

Just to recap — your local news is being written in a news sweatshop in the Philippines, then basically slapped with a “Made in the USA” label and printed in your local paper. This is all happening while media giants lay off local reporters and then sit back and rake in the extra profits.

In response to This American Life’s exposé, the Chicago Tribune has launched an investigation into whether Journatic is adhering to the paper’s ethics policies. And from now on, Chicago Tribune stories written in the Philippines will use the label “Neighborhood News Network” instead of fake bylines. This change, if anything, reinforces the fact that the Chicago Tribune is trying to obscure the origins of its news product. Using “Neighborhood News Network” might be slightly more ethical than making up American-sounding names, but let’s not forget the real issue here: Tribune thinks it’s OK to outsource “local” reporting.

Demand Better

Don’t let Journatic convince you that outsourced local news is the future of journalism. Real local reporting is economically feasible, and there’s plenty we can do to make it even more profitable. Let’s start by making sure the Tribune Company and the other media giants get the message. Sign our petition demanding truly local reporting and we’ll deliver it to newspapers that have outsourced their news.

If you care about protecting local journalism, please consider a donation to the Free Press Action Fund.