Media and Publishing Outsourcing

Last updated: November 11, 2026

Media and publishing outsourcing means that news organisations, magazine and book publishers, broadcasters, OTT platforms, digital publishers and content networks hand over defined production and operations work to an external team: subtitling and transcription, archive digitisation and metadata, comment and community moderation, social media operations, newsletter and CMS production, ad operations, subscription and reader support, and maintenance of websites and apps. Editorial judgement and publishing decisions remain inside the organisation; much of the work around them can be run by a trained team. 360 Soft provides these teams from Istanbul, remotely, at your newsroom or office, or in a hybrid model. This page covers the typical problems of media organisations, the work packages that can be handed over, what should stay in-house to protect editorial independence, regulation, human oversight of AI tools, engagement models, SLAs and pricing factors.

Typical problems of media and publishing organisations

Revenue pressure: advertising and print revenues fall while digital output must grow.
24-hour news cycle: websites, apps and social channels need coverage day and night.
Moderation load: comment sections and social channels attract spam, abuse and illegal content.
Accessibility duties: subtitles, transcripts and accessible websites are increasingly required, for example under the European Accessibility Act.
Archive value: large print and video archives remain unsearchable without digitisation and metadata.

Scope: work packages and roles

Work package	Typical tasks	Roles
Subtitling and transcription	Subtitles, closed captions, transcripts, translations	Subtitlers, transcribers, translators
Archive and metadata	Scanning, OCR correction, tagging, rights metadata	Archive and metadata specialists
Moderation	Comment and social moderation against your policy, 7/24	Content moderators
Social and newsletter production	Scheduling, formatting, A/B tests under editorial approval	Social media and CMS producers
Ad operations	Campaign setup, trafficking, reporting	Ad ops specialists
Reader and subscriber support	Subscription questions, billing, delivery issues	Support agents
Technology	Website, CMS, app and OTT maintenance, WCAG audits	Developers, QA engineers, DevOps

Editorial independence: what should stay in-house

Decisions about what to publish, headlines, investigations, sources and corrections belong to your editors. An outsourced team does not publish news on its own authority, does not contact sources, and does not decide on takedown requests. We build workflows in which every editorial output is approved by your staff, and production tasks such as formatting, tagging, scheduling and moderation follow written guidelines. Source protection is respected: our team has no access to confidential source material unless you decide otherwise.

Regulation and standards in media

In Turkey, broadcasting is regulated by RTÜK under Law No. 6112, internet publications and access blocking fall under Law No. 5651, and the Press Law No. 5187 covers periodicals. Intellectual property is governed by Law No. 5846. For EU audiences, the Digital Services Act sets notice-and-action and transparency duties for online platforms, the Audiovisual Media Services Directive covers video services, the EU Copyright Directive governs rights, and the European Accessibility Act affects e-books, websites and apps. Local rules in your country also apply. Our team applies your policies to these rules; legal decisions remain with you and your counsel.

Delivery and engagement models

Model	How it works	Best for
Remote dedicated team	Named team works under your guidelines, managed by our team lead	Subtitling, metadata, production
Managed service with SLA	We own an outcome, such as moderation response time	7/24 moderation, reader support
Event-based capacity	Extra staff for elections, sports events or launches	Peaks in news and traffic
Project-based	Fixed scope, such as an archive digitisation or a site migration	Archives, redesigns, audits
On-site or hybrid	Team members work in your newsroom or office	Production desks, archives

Human oversight of automation and AI tools

Speech-to-text, machine translation and AI moderation tools speed up work but make mistakes, especially with names, dialects and context. We use tools only where you approve them, and a human checks every subtitle, translation and moderation decision that leaves the workflow. AI-generated material is labelled according to your policy, and the EU AI Act transparency rules are taken into account. Confidential or unpublished material is not sent to external AI services without your consent.

Process and typical timelines

Discovery: guidelines, style books, volumes and systems are reviewed.
Contract: scope, KPIs and approval workflows are agreed.
Recruitment and training (typical start 1–2 weeks): the team learns your style book and policies.
Pilot (2–4 weeks): outputs are reviewed by your editors.
Stable operation: monthly quality reports and calibration sessions.

SLA and KPI table

KPI	What it measures	Example target type
Subtitle turnaround	Time from file delivery to finished subtitles	Hours, by content length
Subtitle accuracy	Errors per minute in sample checks	Agreed threshold
Moderation response time	Time from flag or post to decision	Minutes
Moderation accuracy	Decisions confirmed in calibration	Percentage agreed in SLA
Metadata completeness	Archive items with required fields	Percentage per batch
Reader ticket response	First response to subscribers	Hours, by channel

Pricing factors

We quote per scope: per FTE per month, per managed-service volume and SLA, per event capacity, or as a fixed project price.

Factor	Effect on cost
Coverage	7/24 moderation needs shifts
Languages	Each language needs native-level staff
Content type	Live content and legal sensitivity need more senior staff
Volume variability	Event peaks need backup capacity
Tools	Your tools or ours, and AI tool licensing

Media and Publishing Outsourcing — overview

In-house team, freelancers or outsourcing

Criterion	In-house	Freelancer	Outsourcing (360 Soft)
7/24 coverage	Costly	Not practical	Shift planning included
Consistency with style book	High	Variable	Training and calibration
Scaling for events	Hard	Limited	From 1 to 200+ people
Continuity	Depends on retention	Low	Replacement process included

Risks and safeguards

Editorial errors: approval workflows; nothing editorial goes live without your staff.
Moderator wellbeing: rotation, breaks and support for teams exposed to harmful content.
Copyright infringement: rights metadata checks and use of licensed sources only.
Leaks of unpublished content: restricted access, NDA and logging.
Over-reliance on AI: human review and sampling.

Data security, GDPR, KVKK, NDA and IP

Unpublished stories, subscriber data and user accounts are confidential. We work in your CMS and tools under role-based access; subscriber data is processed only on your instructions.

Contract and legal note

We work under a B2B service agreement that defines scope, service levels, deliverables and acceptance. It comes with a mutual NDA and a clause that assigns intellectual property in all work products (documents, data sets, code, designs) to you. Where our team processes personal data on your behalf, we sign a GDPR data processing agreement (DPA) with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, or the UK IDTA/Addendum for UK data; our own processing in Turkey follows KVKK (Law No. 6698). Subtitles, translations, metadata and code created by our team are assigned to you.

360 Soft employs its team members under Turkish labour law and remains responsible for their payroll, social security and supervision. The engagement is a service, not the hiring-out of workers: you define the outcomes and priorities, and we manage the people. Local rules in your country, such as worker classification or agency-work rules, should be checked with your own legal adviser before signing.

Partner selection checklist

Does the partner respect editorial independence and approval workflows?
Can it apply your moderation policy consistently, 7/24?
Are native-level staff available for your languages?
How is human oversight of AI tools organised?
How are moderators supported?
Are KPIs, calibration and reporting defined in the contract?
Are NDA, IP assignment and a GDPR DPA included?
Is there a replacement and backup process?

Illustrative scenario

Illustrative scenario. This is not a client case; it shows how such an engagement could be set up. A digital news publisher with a video channel and an active comment section wants to subtitle all videos and moderate comments around the clock. A team is set up in three parts: subtitlers who check speech-to-text output and deliver subtitles within agreed hours, moderators who apply the publisher’s comment policy in shifts and escalate legal questions to the publisher’s editor on duty, and a part-time developer who maintains the CMS plugins and fixes accessibility issues. During election night, extra moderators trained in advance join the shift for 48 hours.

Frequently asked questions

Which work can media organisations outsource?

Subtitling and transcription, archive digitisation and metadata, moderation, social and newsletter production, ad operations, reader support and website, CMS, app and OTT maintenance.

Can the outsourced team publish news?

No. Editorial content is published only after approval by your staff.

How do you ensure compliance with RTÜK rules?

We apply your policies and checklists based on RTÜK and other rules; legal decisions remain with you.

Do you provide subtitles and accessibility services?

Yes. Subtitles, closed captions, transcripts and WCAG audits of websites and apps.

Can comment moderation run 7/24?

Yes. We organise shifts and an escalation path to your editor on duty.

Who implements access blocking or takedown decisions?

You decide; our team can carry out the technical steps on your instruction.

How do you manage copyright risk?

By checking rights metadata, using licensed sources only and escalating doubtful cases to you.

Can you add capacity for peaks such as election night?

Yes. Event staff are trained in advance and join the shifts when needed.

Can you maintain our OTT or news app?

Yes. Developers, QA and DevOps support for web, mobile and OTT platforms.

How is pricing set?

Per FTE per month, per managed-service volume and SLA, per event capacity, or as a fixed project price.

How are news sources protected?

Our team has no access to confidential source material unless you decide otherwise.

Contact us

Tell us which media workflows you want to hand over, your languages and coverage hours, and we will propose a team and a model. Call or WhatsApp us on +90 850 335 10 87, write to info@360-soft.com, message us directly on WhatsApp, or use the form on our contact page. 360 Soft Marketing Yazılım ve Danışmanlık Ltd. Şti., Nidakule Ataşehir Batı, Barbaros Mah. Begonya Sk. No:1 D:2, 34746 Ataşehir/İstanbul.

Türkçe: Türkçe sürüm