While outsourcing of journalism-related activities usually causes journalists to write long articles on the woes of their tribe (Reuters is another examples), outsourcing of publishing-related content goes fairly unnoticed.

There are over a 100 offshore service providers in India for publishing services (legal, educational and academic publishing), according to a report by ValueNotes. The study rates India-based OfficeTiger and SPi as the top providers, followed by Aptara (TechBooks), Macmillan, Newgen, Integra, Premedia Global, Infomedia and Hurix. Q2A and CyberMedia Services are acknowledged as providers with niche capabilities. (See Table 1 for a list of 28 providers that ValueNotes has classified as "credible.")

With a growth rate of 35%, the offshore publishing industry revenue in India is set to reach $1.46 billion by 2010, estimates the study. The industry will hire 48,000 people by 2010.

"There is a big future for the offshore publishing industry, and it is going in different directions," says Ranjit Singh, CEO, Aptara (Techbooks). "Publishers need to publish more and more material because the used book market has become, with the Internet, very big. So they need to refresh their material much faster than ever. Secondly they need to use their content, not only in physical form like a magazine or book but also in electronic form."