Copy-editing of some stories in the Orange County Register, as well as layout of a sister community paper, will be handled at a company in New Delhi starting next month, an OCR editor confirmed today. Mindworks Global Media will do the work on a month-long test, said John Fabris, a deputy editor at the Register. From AP:

"This is a small-scale test, which will not touch our local reporting or decision-making. Our own editors will oversee this work," Fabris said in an e-mail to The Associated Press. "In a time of rapid change at newspapers, we are exploring many ways to work efficiently while maintaining quality and improving local coverage."

Fabris did not specify which community paper would be laid out by Indian designers. Add: A Register source says to bet on it being the weekly San Clemente Sun Post. The story is that, when many of the Register's weeklies switch to three days a week, the Indian rent-an-editors will help avoid the hiring of new copy editors who just have to be laid off if the Register continues to tank.