Fox Tales last checked in with 032 Outsourcing in late 2024, just a year and a half ago. As we said in that interview, outsourcing is a proven and cost-effective option for the media business. It’s been used for decades in advertising sales, telemarketing, and magazine circulation. Outsourced magazine production and marketing were increasing as well.
032 Outsourcing specializes in connecting media companies with qualified and skilled virtual employees from the Philippines. These professionals can fulfill just about any task a media company in the U.S. might require, including sales, customer service, accounting, project management, SEO, digital marketing and lots more.
We recently had a chance to check back in with Co-founder Kevin Thompson. What’s remarkable is how the kinds of services he offers have expanded to other parts of the media enterprise. Through those changes, we can also see how the media business itself is changing. Read on for our fascinating (but nevertheless brief) conversation. We’re sure you’ll be as surprised—and engaged—as we were.
Fox Tales: In the two years since our last conversation, how has the media outsourcing business changed? What new demand are you seeing? Is print making a resurgence as is sometimes suggested?
Kevin Thompson: We’re seeing a lot of growth in revenue-adjacent roles. Rather than offshoring sales functions, we’re seeing publishers bring offshore into functions around the sales cycle, allowing in-house sales folks to focus on closing more deals. For example, we’ve seen publishers build teams for “Best Of” contests or other specials that have huge revenue upside but involve a lot of moving pieces and high volume. Print is definitely continuing to thrive in many areas. Of course there are segments of our industry that are negatively impacted. However, there are still many areas that are very strong. Publishers that are continuing to support their audiences with not only print but other mediums as well are continuing to grow.
Fox Tales: More generally, what interesting trends and directions do you see in the media industry?
Kevin Thompson.
Thompson: The trend I’d point to is publishers leaning into special and custom products as a way to add touchpoints, not replace the core schedule. “Best Ofs,” SIPs, and targeted or custom content are turning into real complements to the regular print-production calendar. The thread through all of it is meeting the audience where they are, across whatever medium fits, and using that to connect audience with advertiser in more places than the core book could on its own. The publishers growing right now are the ones expanding how and where they show up for their readers, not just how often.
Fox Tales: How has AI changed your business, either internally or with customer-facing services?
Thompson: AI is an amazing tool, and we’re regularly exploring where to implement it internally to gain efficiencies and increase productivity. My view is that it shouldn’t be treated as input/output. It’s a supporting technology. Humans still do the work; AI just powers it to happen faster, more consistently, and more predictably. I equate it to email marketing when it first came out, but on steroids. The platform let us reach thousands with one click, but a human still had to write the email, think through the messaging, and build a strong call to action.
A concrete example on our side: We’re building a candidate-intelligence tool that uses AI to vet, screen, and score candidates and match them to open opportunities. Instead of touching every resume that comes in, AI pre-qualifies candidates and matches the right ones to open positions, so we’re not manually searching or trying to remember every candidate’s best qualities. The judgment still sits with us. The tool does the heavy lifting underneath.
Fox Tales: When it comes to media outsourcing, what are the one or two most common misconceptions media operators have about outsourcing? What kinds of services does it most apply to?
Thompson: Two come to mind. First, that physical presence is required. Technology has made the world a lot smaller. I shared a post on LinkedIn recently about working with my publishing virtual assistant for my own media company, designing mock ads with AI while screen sharing on Zoom like we were sitting in the same cubicle. There are very few roles today that need someone under the same roof to get the same outcome.
Second, that offshoring is limited to task executors. Offshore team members today have the same capacity for productivity and impact as onshore ones. I always encourage keeping the specialist and strategic roles in house, but offshore the noise around the role. The things that pull your strategist away from strategy should be delegated, and offshore team members are great in those supporting seats. Where it applies most: Publishing virtual assistants and supporting functions like production, digital marketing, and billing, and in some cases the same person impacting cross-functionally in roles that traditionally don’t align into the same seat.
Fox Tales: Describe the profile of companies that you serve and how it’s changing, if at all.
Thompson: The most successful businesses we work with are always learning new ways to do things, driving innovation and growth, and looking for different ways to build teams. They’re growth-minded owners and operators building a team to support their core. What’s changed is the kind of work they trust offshore. Ten-plus years ago, businesses leveraged offshore for very specific single-function roles like customer service and chat support, scopes that had very little deviation. Now you’re seeing companies use offshore for higher-leverage roles: Impacting the customer journey further down the funnel, helping get customers through with less friction, better post-sale support, and audience engagement. The seat has moved up.