Chicago Sun Times sacks all staff PJ

summicron1 · May 30, 2013

The newspaper I just retired from here in Ogden has done this too. When 4/6ths of the photo staff quit last year for better jobs that actually gave you pay raises, the photo editor bought a bunch of point and shoots and handed them out.

I asked if we could be paid at least $5 each for any picture that ran -- incentive, what a concept -- and was told to be glad I still had a job. The paper has since added a couple of new photographers who also write stories, but the output from the reporters with those point and shoots is iffy at best.

The problem that is causing all this is the severe decline in ad revenue, coupled with the firm belief by the bean counters who've bought all the papers in this country that the readers won't notice the difference.

Mainecoonmaniac · May 31, 2013

Thanks!

JBrunner said:
Title fixed.

Appreciate it.

Tom1956 · May 31, 2013

Mainecoonmaniac said:
My question with the Tribune using strictly freelancers is it going to raise or lower the quality of editorial work?

How would anybody know if there had been any quality change?

Jeff Kubach · May 31, 2013

Losing your job is a pain, that has happen to me a number of times over the years.

Jeff

RattyMouse · May 31, 2013

I doubt any of these photographers were still shooting film so it's a bit of a mystery why this is in the Film Industry forum.

vpwphoto · May 31, 2013

RattyMouse said:
I doubt any of these photographers were still shooting film so it's a bit of a mystery why this is in the Film Industry forum.

There are many professionals here on APUG that have spent half, three quarters, or even 80% of their careers using film. Your comment is not needed in this discussion of the use and payment of images digital or film in the industry. Some very talented photographers were put on the street yesterday including one of the best, (again who was a master of the B+W film medium for most of his career).

zsas · May 31, 2013

^ (I will continue your line of thought). John H. White, a photographer who inspires and gives his heart to the field (in work and by giving back as a teacher of photography).....

http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/shooting-from-the-hip/2012/05/the-great-john-h-white.html

Ratty - Is your comment a statement or a question? This kind of thread, regardless of where posted here is just dang sad. Does it really matter where it's posted at this point? If so report it to a mod and move on with your day and not stir the pot an fan the flames....

Give that above a read and think about who we are talking about; photographers not as Tribune v Sun Times, but photographers, who inspire...

Mainecoonmaniac · May 31, 2013

Change in relationship between photographer and news paper

Tom1956 said:
How would anybody know if there had been any quality change?

Obviously spot news will always be spot news. But since Chicago Sun Times will only use freelancers, will photographers have a greater influence as independent contractors? Will the hungry photojournalist will be shooting more on spec? Obviously, some freelancers won't work for staff photographer's wages. Also, how about ownership of images? Will freelancers hand over the rights to get work or hang on to the rights so they can resell the images?

Sal Santamaura · May 31, 2013

JBrunner said:
...No doubt some will call it progress. Personally, I don't.

http://www.largeformatphotography.i...-photo-staff&p=1032363&viewfull=1#post1032363

Ken Nadvornick · May 31, 2013

When your cool, new-age, high-tech business model says you must fire Pulitzer Prize award winning staff photographers and replace them with random teenagers with IPhone video cameras who just happened to be walking by, I think it tells you all you need to know about the intellectual and technological Walmart-ization of not just the newspaper industry, but of your very culture itself.

Ken

vpwphoto · May 31, 2013

^^^Bingo Ken^^^

The local Ganett paper's flat rate take it or leave it, we own the copyright for freelance work is $40 last time I checked.
Unless you have a once in a lifetime photo that occurs in isolation you won't command top dollar. Look at how many "citizen" robot cameras captured the asteroid over Russia a couple months back. You could have a great photo, but nobody would give yours a second glance with a the "free stuff" or cheap stuff to be had. It's over, I'm done, the people on the cigarette boats, and who vacation in the French Alps have won.

winger · May 31, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
When your cool, new-age, high-tech business model says you must fire Pulitzer Prize award winning staff photographers and replace them with random teenagers with IPhone video cameras who just happened to be walking by, I think it tells you all you need to know about the intellectual and technological Walmart-ization of not just the newspaper industry, but of your very culture itself.

Ken

Totally agree, Ken.

It's a business decision that they're passing off as money-related, but that really comes down to the decrease in need for quality.

What I've been noticing in reading news stories is that it's not just the photography. No matter the source, news stories have so many grammatical errors and spelling mistakes, they look like they're being written by the same random teenagers who'd rather be texting. Stories are written so quickly and published within seconds - no one edits them and no one fact checks. Yet the masses take it all as gospel.

zsas · May 31, 2013

Ok Ken and VPW - Where are you getting the info that the Sun Times is going to use crowd-sourced-kids-off-the-street-with-iPhones for their videography? I, like all of you are sad to hear those still photographers in my community are affected, though your characterization of videography as somehow the most revolting media in the world is frankly rude to anyone in videography. I respect your dissatisfaction with the Sun Times move, but respectfully disagree with your characterization of those who are videographers. I think you are venting about more than what is actually occurring here...

Prof_Pixel · May 31, 2013

No surprise here. I remember a discussion I had with a Pulitzer Prize winning photographer over an Anchor Beer in San Francisco something like 20 years ago. Digital was just taking over the newspaper business and graphical web browsers for the Internet were beginning to appear. We discussed reporters of the future needing to be triple threat players: reporters, still photographers and videographers. I guess now they must also be social media experts as well.

Ken Nadvornick · May 31, 2013

zsas said:
I think you are venting about more than what is actually occurring here...

I am.

The value of isolated instances is not what they say about themselves. It's how they fit into and what they say about the bigger picture. A single dot has little meaning beyond its own existence. A scatter chart filled with dots begins to show patterns. A fully populated series of patterns begin to show tendencies. And enough tendencies show direction. I did not use the term "Walmart-ization" lightly. Nor did I use it out of context. Reread Bethe's post above.

You have to look for and see the bigger picture, if you want to understand what is really happening.

Ken

Sirius Glass · May 31, 2013

One cannot earn a living when one has to compete with a GWC1 who will give it away free.

1 Guy/Girl With Camera

Klainmeister · May 31, 2013

Just hop on flickr or something, pay them $100, be done with it. I'll play devils advocate here:

What if it just got more efficient? I mean, 1 photojournalist cannot be everywhere at once, but we now have people with cameras everywhere at once. Welcome to the new age....

Mainecoonmaniac · May 31, 2013

Does anyone remember HuffingtonPost not paying a penny for content, then Adrianna Huffington sold it to AOL for $316 million?

Mainecoonmaniac · May 31, 2013

You've hit the nail on the head?

Ken Nadvornick said:
When your cool, new-age, high-tech business model says you must fire Pulitzer Prize award winning staff photographers and replace them with random teenagers with IPhone video cameras who just happened to be walking by, I think it tells you all you need to know about the intellectual and technological Walmart-ization of not just the newspaper industry, but of your very culture itself.

Ken

Take a look.

http://petapixel.com/2013/05/31/sun...-strategy-reporters-with-iphones/#more-112896

zsas · May 31, 2013

Fair enough Ken. I'm pretty aware of scatter charts btw, in fact motion charts (search Hans Rosling), the old scatter chart has even changed....

I guess I'm merely saying, technology sure changes the workforce. I am sad for the local photog's affected, but media, is always rapidly evolving though. I tend to think at a slower pace then when say Gutenberg hit the scene a few years back....

Ken Nadvornick · May 31, 2013

Mainecoonmaniac said:
You've hit the nail on the head?

And this: How the Internet Killed Photojournalism.

"Glut of imagery + short attention span = the demise of an industry. Laying off the entire Sun-Times staff probably isnt necessary, but its convenient. Now you have 20 starving photographers who are desperate for freelance work earning a low day rate with no benefits.

"Blaming the situation solely on the increased demand for video content is a ruse by management to wipe the slate clean. The truth is that they are reacting to the harsh realities of the journalism business nowadays, where profits trump newsmaking."

Ken

Prof_Pixel · May 31, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
... the harsh realities of the journalism business nowadays, where profits trump newsmaking."

Judging from the large number of newspapers that have gone out of business in the last few years, there isn't much profit to be made in that line of business.

Tom1956 · May 31, 2013

They do it to themselves.

semi-ambivalent · May 31, 2013

Ken Nadvornick said:
And this: How the Internet Killed Photojournalism.

...short attention span...

Ken

This is true, and it's what worries me.

s-a

zsas · May 31, 2013

Chicago Sun Times sacks all staff PJ

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