Chicago Sun Times sacks all staff PJ

[Andy K]

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but there's a rather good hashtag on Twitter at the moment: #iphonenewspics Well worth checking out.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Maybe they should have considered firing all the reporters and giving the photographers notepads, pens, and audio recorders and said, "go to it!"

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Next time I need brain surgery* I think I'll hand the scalpel to the receptionist at the hospital front desk. I mean, she's really nice. Really cute, too. She seems to have much more free time than those overpaid brain surgeons. And, well, she's also a hospital employee just like they are, right?

Besides, I heard she carves a mean Thanksgiving turkey!

Ken

* Don't go there...

 

[JBrunner]

Being in the advertising business, and seeing how this is related, here is something ill share that hasn't really bubbled up to the top yet. Turns out that there are big problems with "new media" as an revenue stream. Click through ratios have been going south for some time, and conversions are in free fall. Everybody has figured out how to avoid the ads. Forced ad watching is very unsuccessful. The computer user is even more likely to click away than the old school TV watcher with a remote. Attention spans are dwindling. To someone invested in the model this just sounds contrarian, but the facts are starting to roll in. The Internet is many things, but by and large it isn't a place where advertising pays big dividends, and that is becoming more true every day.

 

[removed account4]

Maybe they should have considered firing all the reporters and giving the photographers notepads, pens, and audio recorders and said, "go to it!"

that would be great david,
but i think it is a lot harder to write a "good article"
than take a 'fair photograph"

 

[pstake]

Being in the advertising business, and seeing how this is related, here is something ill share that hasn't really bubbled up to the top yet. Turns out that there are big problems with "new media" as an revenue stream. Click through ratios have been going south for some time, and conversions are in free fall. Everybody has figured out how to avoid the ads. Forced ad watching is very unsuccessful. The computer user is even more likely to click away than the old school TV watcher with a remote. Attention spans are dwindling. To someone invested in the model this just sounds contrarian, but the facts are starting to roll in. The Internet is many things, but by and large it isn't a place where advertising pays big dividends, and that is becoming more true every day.

I understand the need for revenue but from a purely journalistic standpoint, this could be good news.

 

[Truzi]

that would be great david,
but i think it is a lot harder to write a "good article"
than take a 'fair photograph"

I've a degree in journalism and had worked for a few local weekly papers. Unfortunately, there aren't many "good" articles any more, even in the daily papers.

 

[Sirius Glass]

Journalists have given up providing news, they have settled to more product sales at the expense of news, truth or the facts. Thus bringing on the level of disrespect that they so richly deserve.

 

[lxdude]

that would be great david,
but i think it is a lot harder to write a "good article"
than take a 'fair photograph"

And these days, it is very hard to find a fair article.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

As someone who writes press releases as part of my day job, it's always disappointing to see how much of what passes for "journalism" is just mildly rewriting someone's press release, but then it's all the more encouraging when you can tell that someone's taken the time to do some additional research and write a real story.

 

[JBrunner]

I understand the need for revenue but from a purely journalistic standpoint, this could be good news.

It takes revenue to pay good photographers and reporters. This is one of the ways the Internet has suceeded in completeley lowering the bar of human endevour. Arguments to the contrary will be numerous because everybody is a fan of democracy, but democracy in endeavor is simply rabble run amock.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

Turns out that there are big problems with "new media" as an revenue stream. Click through ratios have been going south for some time, and conversions are in free fall.

Very true, but this doesn't mean that paper newspapers will be returning. Many papers are trying to go to a subscription based Internet paper (or by the article); somebody will figure it out eventually.

 

[Truzi]

The Cleveland Plain Dealer is reducing it's delivery. It will deliver only a few days a week, but it will be available at the newsstand (stores) every day. People are upset and this will likely cost them some subscriptions. Unfortunately, advertising is based on circulation, and subscriptions are a large part of determining that. I think they are risking a bad spiral.

Nearby we have two daily papers; the Lorain Morning Journal and Elyria Chronicle-Telegram. They are not as large (and in some cases not as good), but both seem to be doing well in comparison.

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Cleveland ceased to be much of a newspaper town when the Press folded. When the venerable Plain Dealer is compared to the Lorain and Elyria papers, this is a sad state indeed, but it wouldn't surprise me if the smaller local papers have taken over as the real source for local news, as the larger papers have become mainly vehicles for syndicated stories, and local news is even being outsourced-- http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentis...ournatic-new-media-outsourced-hyperlocal-news

 

[pstake]

It takes revenue to pay good photographers and reporters. This is one of the ways the Internet has suceeded in completeley lowering the bar of human endevour. Arguments to the contrary will be numerous because everybody is a fan of democracy, but democracy in endeavor is simply rabble run amock.

I agree. I won't work for free. I just meant that the failure of the internet to drive ad revenue could force/capitalistically-motivate the creation of something new, a new type of medium in which the content is so good that people will cope with the ads. I wasn't trying to be Mr. Granola hippy love, furthering the age-old rivalry between the newsroom and ad dept.

 

[pstake]

As someone who writes press releases as part of my day job, it's always disappointing to see how much of what passes for "journalism" is just mildly rewriting someone's press release, but then it's all the more encouraging when you can tell that someone's taken the time to do some additional research and write a real story.

This is related to what I was saying about reporters having to do everything. When you have to meet a quota of two stories, two blog posts with video and five tweets each day, re-writing a press release is sometimes what you have to do in order to keep food on the table. For a lot of journalists these days, that's what it boils down to. This is not to say there are not worthless vagrants polluting the ranks, codging stories together from freebies. There are. But whether or not someone makes phone calls, does research and fleshes out the story can be the result of very arbitrary factors that have nothing to do with the journalist's integrity, the story's importance nor publisher's agenda.

At the Sun Times, the list of tasks now includes photos.

Which is really puzzling because good art is what draws in the readers. And good reporters know this, especially good reporters who are not good photographers.

It makes me wonder how much the Sun Times is going to start leaning on readers to submit photos, if maybe they are hoping to boost circulation by getting families and friends to buy the paper because Johnny has a photo in there.

EDIT: I forgot to mention pagination. A lot of the reporters are having to lay out their own pages, now. I still haven't learned InDesign and I hope I never have to.

 

[Truzi]

It makes me wonder how much the Sun Times is going to start leaning on readers to submit photos, if maybe they are hoping to boost circulation by getting families and friends to buy the paper because Johnny has a photo in there.

Something like that always works in the short-term, and then backfires.

(InDesign? Doesn't anyone use Quark anymore?)

 

[pstake]

Something like that always works in the short-term, and then backfires.

(InDesign? Doesn't anyone use Quark anymore?)

I agree. It's a temporary solution if anything. This seems like a last ditch kind of maneuver, anyway.

I'm sure a lot of papers still use Quark. Probably a few that still use paper and tape.

 

[Truzi]

I had advised an high school paper for a few years, and would never have had each reporter layout their stories - that is crazy. As a reporter you have no idea what other things will go in the paper. It looks bad for the paper as a whole.

As a learning experience I had each student layout the whole paper in turn - just one person per 12-page issue.

 

[Prof_Pixel]

Today's J-school is far different from yesterday's. I had an occasion to work with a graduate student from the University of Tennessee School of Journalism and Electronic Media for a week at the end of May and he was completely comfortable doing both photography and writing.

From the UTK website: "The mission of the University of Tennessee School of Journalism and Electronic Media is to contribute to the evolving world of media and journalism. … Writing, editing, graphic design and production skills, along with critical thinking, ethics and research skills are given both interdisciplinary and media-specific emphasis. The School is dedicated to continuously ascertaining and serving the needs of its students and of media organizations with print, broadcasting, Online and mobile communication platforms."

 

[removed-user-1]

Just an update, a little comparison. www.tuaw.com/2013/06/27/why-replacing-newspaper-photographers-with-iphones-may-not-have/

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

THAT is simultaneously hilarious... and so sad...

Ken

 

[zsas]

Has anyone else but me, one actually from Chicago, commented to this thread? Must be easy for you all to take this recent change and make big assumptions of media, photojournalism, etc....

However, something you all have failed to address is the difference in these papers.....

The Tribube is a much different paper than the Sun Times....before this change....

Nothing here surprises me....

Correlation....causality...bla..bla...

Again, I mean no disrespect to those affected in my community...I am just not surprised by the actions of the Sun Times.....now if the Trib did this....I'd be "sky-is-falling"....

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Still, the assumption would certainly have to be that the Sun-Times, once the determination has been made to run a photo with a story, would still be choosing the best photo they had available, right? I mean, they wouldn't intentionally be selecting worse than the best available. At least I hope not, regardless of their market niche.

Since you are from Chicago and are apparently familiar with the paper, did they have a pattern of intentionally running poor photography before all of this happened? And if so, why then would there have been a Pulitzer Prize award winner on that staff?

Ken

 

[zsas]

The Sun Tines photography was top notch before this change....