American publisher to subcontract work to APAC

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — The McClatchy Company, a newspaper and Internet publisher listed on the New York Stock Exchange, will tap the soon-to-open call center site of APAC Customer Services, Inc. here. Martii Salazar, corporate director of McClatchy, visited this city recently to assess the skills of Filipino workers. Her visit coincided with the job fair that APAC held to recruit personnel for its call center here, the first in Eastern Visayas and the first APAC site outside Metro Manila. Ms. Salazar said they have a long-term partnership with APAC, a NASDAQ-listed business process outsourcing (BPO) company. Based in Sacramento, California, McClatchy owns 32 daily newspapers, including the Sacramento Bee and The Miami Herald, and about 50 nondaily newspapers. McClatchy is tapping APAC amid an impending recession in the US. In June and September, the company laid off thousands of workers, blaming low advertising earnings. "We’re hopeful that things will turn around quickly in the United States," she said. APAC Vice-President for International Operations Doug Almond admitted that the financial crisis in the US might affect outsourcing companies here. "But it will force companies that never thought about outsourcing to take a look at it," he added. He said APAC was unlikely to be affected by the global economic slowdown since most its clients are in health care, publishing, travel and logistics. He said BPOs whose clients are mostly in the US financial sector would be hit the most because of the ongoing crisis there. — Sarwell Q. Meniano, BusienssWorld