chicago sun times lays off entire photo staff

One of my friends is a free lancer. Well he freelances for several papers, New Yorker, Bloomberg Business week ect. Anyways he just shot the cover of New York times. He is under under 30 so things arent so bad for photographers. Wish i knew how much he got paid for that haha.
 
gb hill said:
I've just about quit watching videos because of the aggravating commercials.
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I've never understood this push by print news organizations for video. It was touted as the next big thing, the savior of newspapers to have video on their websites. It isn't. No one wants to watch. You want to see a video you turn on the television. The only videos being watched on the internet are for entertainment.

Then there's the issue of putting a 10-30 second ad in front of the video, it's irritating, most people just close the window. And video takes time, no one wants to sit in front of their computer watching a tiny video for 5 minutes. Then you have the bandwidth issue. Who is on their phone watching the news? The carriers have limited bandwidth. People aren't wasting 30 megabytes on a video when they could read an article to be informed and view a handful of images to put it in context.

I believe the next big thing is radio stations hiring photographers. Increasingly news radio outlets are providing visual content for their websites. Basically radio and newspapers will be competing for the same readers on the web. And TV news outlets will have to move to an on demand medium like Hulu or Roku.
 
Here's what you do ....

Here's what you do ....

Photojournalists in a rapidly changing and shrinking market need to reinvent themselves. Some have gone into wedding photography, but there's another potential huge market that should be obvious.

With smartphone photography and the decline of newspapers, we now have thousands of highly skilled and experienced photojournalists who need to find new ways to monetize their skills and experience.

With smartphone photography, we also now have tens of millions of unskilled potential photojournalists everywhere, eager to snap photos of interesting happenings in the hope of getting their photos published.

If these experienced photojournalists could organize and put together "Citizen Photojournalist" workshops with chapters in all the major cities, they'd have more work then they could handle. Remember, photo-journalistic photography is a hand's on skill that can't be remotely taught and outsourced to some blogger in India! (no offense intended to India).

So to those photojournalists who've lost your job, I would encourage you to see this as: You have been freed to change the world by bringing powerful visual narrative skills to the people. If trained, these citizens can use that democratic weapon called the camera to bring about change to our society and the world. You've wanted to do this, and you did your best within the limitations of the big-business advertising driven newspaper industry. Now you have no such limitation.


Like when China invaded Tibet and the Dali Lama had to flee. He found a new mission in bringing the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Similarly, the Diaspora of photojournalists can be the foundation of a new era where the citizens can begin taking back the narratives of their lives. You have millions who need you now more than ever. They need you to show them how.
 
Visual language, including photographs (I've had a glass of wine, so bear with me), is a newly democratised language. Suddenly, everyone's started to talk. The plethora of images now being created is just the sight of more people communicating through the image. That's not to say all of this speech is worth looking at, or listening to, but the more jabber there is, the more people will recognise the Shakespearean language of the masters (for me , HCB, Winogrand, Eggleston etc, etc, etc...) more will learn from them. I thank you.
 
RedLion said:
Photojournalists in a rapidly changing and shrinking market need to reinvent themselves. Some have gone into wedding photography, but there's another potential huge market that should be obvious.

With smartphone photography and the decline of newspapers, we now have thousands of highly skilled and experienced photojournalists who need to find new ways to monetize their skills and experience.

With smartphone photography, we also now have tens of millions of unskilled potential photojournalists everywhere, eager to snap photos of interesting happenings in the hope of getting their photos published.

If these experienced photojournalists could organize and put together "Citizen Photojournalist" workshops with chapters in all the major cities, they'd have more work then they could handle. Remember, photo-journalistic photography is a hand's on skill that can't be remotely taught and outsourced to some blogger in India! (no offense intended to India).

So to those photojournalists who've lost your job, I would encourage you to see this as: You have been freed to change the world by bringing powerful visual narrative skills to the people. If trained, these citizens can use that democratic weapon called the camera to bring about change to our society and the world. You've wanted to do this, and you did your best within the limitations of the big-business advertising driven newspaper industry. Now you have no such limitation.


Like when China invaded Tibet and the Dali Lama had to flee. He found a new mission in bringing the wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism to the West. Similarly, the Diaspora of photojournalists can be the foundation of a new era where the citizens can begin taking back the narratives of their lives. You have millions who need you now more than ever. They need you to show them how.
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Very true but what puts food on the table for these ex-photojournalists?

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Very true but what puts food on the table for these ex-photojournalists?

Cheers,

R.
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Presumably, offering the courses to paying customers who will then go on to provide the foundation of a new photojournalism.

I don't think it will get them very far in terms of feeding themselves or their families.

This is all part of the downward spiral.

Randy
 
Roger Hicks said:
Very true but what puts food on the table for these ex-photojournalists?

Cheers,

R.
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Roger,

Putting on workshops would the initial monitization. Ultimately though, there's practically no limit, including beating the Newspapers at their own game.

But I do think organization would need to come first because there has to be a vision for what Citizen Photojournalism can be - what it's potential is for transforming the narratives which currently dominate our culture. There's enormous potential here for the return of truly participatory citizenship.

Use your Smart-phone. Restore Democracy.
​

Logistically, I could imagine some experienced and esteemed photojournalists getting together to form a collective, a website, a Facebook Fan page, and issue a vision statement or manifesto and begin to blog, get Facebook likes, etc... and build an online following and then offer traveling workshops. Eric Kim (a newcomer to street photography) did almost exactly this and now has 30,000+ Facebook followers and travels the world giving street photography workshops. I only use him as one example showing that it can be done.

There's also huge potential to form alliances with all kinds of other grass roots organizations who would also be interested in the benefits of increased citizen participation on all levels.

Photography, aided by the Smart-phone, could be the catalyst which brings back participatory democracy, because at this point it's about the only thing that allows a citizen to change or influence the narrative.

I also see there's a website: http://www.citizenphotojournalist.com/ where a student is documenting their thesis:
The purpose of this research is to explore methods that will increase the amount of legitimate photography assets available to newspaper newsrooms and to help understaffed photography departments generate vital news-photography content. Citizen photojournalism is one solution to this problem.
​
He seems to be focused on helping the newspapers, but the potential is far, far beyond that.

As for myself, I'm just a hobbyist amateur photographer, but if someone creates an organization (similar in spirit to what I wrote above), I will freely donate to them some appropriate domain names.

Joe
 
This is what you get when you lay off an entire photo staff and replace them with el cheapo do-gooders:

media_xl_1686412.jpg



Now I ask you: how can the amount of water in this picture be even realistic if the buildings on either side of the picture are warped beyond recognition by this a cheap glass-jar wide angle lens?

Oh, and shame on the newspaper to even run it with an article, btw.

The entire article (in Dutch, ran on a major Dutch newspaper today June 5th) is here: http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2664...sjechische-en-Duitse-steden-onder-water.dhtml
 
Surely the responsibility lies with the editorial staff? That is what they are paid to do, isn't it?

I don't have an opinion one way or another regarding permanent vs. freelance photo staff, but the content, and the quality of that content is the responsibility of the editor. The paid, professional editor chose to use this photo.

Sure, the buildings are curved, but the photo illustrates the story, and that is what it's there to do.

Cheers

Garry

buzzardkid said:
This is what you get when you lay off an entire photo staff and replace them with el cheapo do-gooders:

Now I ask you: how can the amount of water in this picture be even realistic if the buildings on either side of the picture are warped beyond recognition by this a cheap glass-jar wide angle lens?

Oh, and shame on the newspaper to even run it with an article, btw.

The entire article (in Dutch, ran on a major Dutch newspaper today June 5th) is here: http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2664...sjechische-en-Duitse-steden-onder-water.dhtml
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Sure, it's a terrible photo, focused on the background rather than the subject no less. But out of the many comments on the article, only one person complained about the photo and he is probably a photographer himself (and RFF'er :)). I think the reality is that the general public does not seem to care about the quality of the photographs that accompany their news anymore. At least, that seems to be the calculation that Chicago Sun-Times made and I am not sure that they will be proven wrong. That is not to say I agree with what they did or how they did it, but I don't think they will lose a significant number of readers because of it.

JSU said:
As this thread began with the Chicago Sun-Times, perhaps an example of their new modus operandi might help demonstrate the failure of this approach.

Note the byline under the image and that above the article.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/...empts-suicide-retiree-seeks-harmless-fun.html
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JSU said:
As this thread began with the Chicago Sun-Times, perhaps an example of their new modus operandi might help demonstrate the failure of this approach.

Note the byline under the image and that above the article.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/...empts-suicide-retiree-seeks-harmless-fun.html
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Gotta admit, that is even a lot worse than the flooding picture I posted above...:eek:

In the Netherlands you have tabloids like Spits and Metro (which is an internationally released tabloid, I believe) and those generally bring 'news' that is only used to fill space between advertisements.

That Chicago Sun Times is pretty much that.

In the Netherlands the general population is dumbing down. They honestly think this is what 'news' looks like. Reports on Rihanna's boob job, new iPhones, man eaten by pet crocodile and similar cr*p.

The printing ink equivalent of fast food!
 
Stephen Colbert just had a nice spot on the mass layoff.

My favorite was the 'instagram Pulitzer prize filter' .

Randy
 
Chicago Sun Times: Penny wise but pound foolish

Chicago Sun Times: Penny wise but pound foolish

Food for thought on this nonsense. The old adage "Penny wise but pound foolish" comes to mind...


Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories...tographer-is-worth-a-thousand-iphones-690960/
Every good picture tells a story: One photographer is worth a thousand iPhones

The Chicago Sun-Times cut its entire photo staff. Now, reporters will take snaps with their phones.


By Sally Kalson / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I swear I actually had the dream I'm about to recount. In it I was trying to find Harry Coughanour, aka Topper, the late, great Post-Gazette photographer, somewhere in the afterlife. My assignment was to interview a South American dictator whose name I kept forgetting while Topper photographed him.

The air was thick with smoke and fog, making it hard to see. When I finally located my subject, Topper was nowhere to be found.
I noticed an arched gate and began walking toward it, asking people if they'd seen a photographer.

"He's over there," someone said, "wrestling an alligator."

An odd thing for a man in his 60s to be doing, but there he was, locked in a violent embrace with a gator as the two of them thrashed back and forth, Topper on his feet and the gator on his hind legs.

"Is that an alligator or a crocodile?" I asked a bystander, with my notebook at the ready.

"Who knows?" he answered.

I grabbed my iPhone, snapped a blurry picture of the action and forwarded it to ... someone ... with the caption: "Photographer wrestles giant lizard." Then I jolted awake, thinking "What the hell was THAT?"

It took two seconds for the answer to surface. Of course. It was all about Chicago, where the Sun-Times newspaper has firebombed its entire staff of full-time photojournalists with pink slips. Twenty-eight news photographers, including Pulitzer Prize-winner John H. White, learned that they were officially obsolete.

No more using skilled professionals with a trained eye who understand framing, light, perspective and composition, maneuvering through the scene to capture that one perfect moment that tells the story. Instead, the Sun-Times will focus on multimedia, relying on reporters with iPhones to point and click in between interviews, note-taking and wise-cracking. Oh, and they're supposed to make videos for the Web, too. For which jobs they will reportedly be trained for several days.

No wonder I had that dream. It was Topper turning over in his grave, causing a disturbance in the force. It was Topper standing at the gate, wrestling the green monster.

I'm not saying what the Sun-Times wants to do can't be done. I'm just wondering who'll want to look at it on a daily basis. I mean, I can put paint on a canvas, but who's going to hang it in their home? You can dance to "Swan Lake" or "We Own It," but who's going to pay to see you?

Technology can do a lot -- I've taken better pictures on my smartphone than I ever thought possible, and so-called "citizen-journalists" have been able to tell visual stories without training. But none of that can substitute for human talent, instinctive timing and artistic sensibilities that photojournalists hone over a lifetime. Especially during breaking news, when things are moving so fast it's hard to keep track.

Reporters are perfectly capable of snapping pictures, but there's a difference between the serviceable and the expert. The Sun-Times is telling readers they don't deserve the really good stuff. Anyone who saw the exhibit of Pulitzer Prize-winning photos at the Heinz History Center in 2007 or at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., will get this.

The American flag being raised by Marines at Iwo Jima (Joe Rosenthal, 1945). The tall police officer leaning over a little Chinese boy who looks up at him with pure innocence (William C. Beall, 1958). Jack Ruby gunning down Lee Harvey Oswald (Robert H. Jackson, 1964). The teen-age girl kneeling over a body at Kent State (student journalist John Paul Filo, 1970). The naked Vietnamese girl running down the road after being burned in a napalm attack (Nick Ut, 1972). An angry rioter thrusting a flag pole at a black man during anti-busing demonstrations in Boston (Stanley J. Forman, 1976). The fireman carrying a baby away from the Oklahoma City bombing (Charles Porter, 1996). Survivors of ethnic warfare in Rwanda and Burundi (the Post-Gazette's Martha Rial, 1998)...

Imagine any of these being shot on a smartphone by note-taking reporters. "Sorry Mr. Ruby, I was interviewing a cop, could you do that again?" "Hey refugees, my phone doesn't have a wide angle lens, would you squeeze in closer?" "Sergeant, I can't see my screen in the glare, how about turning around?"

Phil Rosenthal, formerly of the Sun-Times, learned about the mass firing and started a "Great iPhone News Photos In History" parody on Twitter, where you can see a fuzzy shot of the famous WWII victory kiss in Times Square minus the heads: https://twitter.com/phil_rosenthal/status/342338316940767232

Not every photo needs to be prize-winning. Yet great pictures can be made any time, anywhere -- but first the person with the camera has to see it and know what to do with it. And for every prize-winner, there are hundreds more that moved readers to laughter, tears or anger, transported them, made them think or spurred them to action.

Eliminating the entire photo department has to be the dumbest, most wrongheaded move any news organization has made in recent memory. Worse than when the Times-Picayune of New Orleans cut its print edition to three days a week, only to reverse course a year later due to ferocious backlash. Worse than The New York Times looking the other way while its anointed young "star" Jayson Blair falsified stories in 2002 and 2003. Worse, even, than the Chicago Daily Tribune's infamous 1948 headline handing the presidency to Thomas Dewey.

Luckily, we have the indelible image of Harry Truman's gleeful face as he waves the front-page gaffe in triumph. Guess who made that picture? It was W. Eugene Smith. He was a photographer.
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Here's hoping every last one of the recently purged Chicago S-T photographers will soon find a well paying, satisfying niche in his/her chosen profession of photojournalism, while the mutton heads who perpetuated this nonsense see the Chicago S-T lose its shirt and in turn, they their jobs. That would be your basic win-win. :D
 
I'm happy to see there has been so much attention brought to this. I was one of the 28 laid off on 5/30.

For the Chicago area members, if you want to participate, there is a rally tomorrow, Noon, Thursday, June 13, outside of the Thompson Center.

Information about the event:

"Good journalism has a lot of friends. How surprising that must be to the owners of the Chicago Sun-Times and its sister newspapers throughout the region’s suburbs. More than 1,500 of you have signed our online petition protesting the layoffs of 28 photographers at the newspapers, virtually the entire photo staff. These layoffs included 20 members of the Chicago Newspaper Guild.

We at the Guild thank you for your support and for your broad, eager participation in our picketing outside the Sun-Times building last week. You inspire us to continue our fight. You have spoken. The Guild has spoken. Now, let us join to speak A LITTLE LOUDER.

Come to our rally at noon Thursday, June 13 outside the Thompson Center at 100 W. Randolph.

We are planning a program with some special guests
.
Come show your support for the photographers so inhumanely let go. These layoffs are the latest in a series of unconscionable staff reductions that have compromised the reporting for the first news source of millions of people around Chicago. Publications affected include the Sun-Times, Pioneer Press, the Lake County News-Sun, the Courier-News of Elgin, the Beacon-News of Aurora, the Naperville Sun, the Herald-News of Joliet, the SouthtownStar and the Post-Tribune of Merrillville, Ind.
Come tell the powers that be that they can’t continue making cuts in the publications’ editorial content.

Tell themyou want fair, honest and fully staffed journalism.

Tell them that the rights of organized labor throughout the city must be respected. Help us in our campaign to get the photographers’ jobs restored. Stand with the Guild as we ask the owners to negotiate a fair contract, one that treats workers as partners and not as enemies. And stand with us as we defend the honor of journalism and community service."
 
@ andrewnelles,

I wish you the best of luck tomorrow and in your future endeavors - and in your job search.

I hope every photographer in the midwest will boycott the Chicago Sun-Times as well as cancel their subscription if they have one and demand a pro-rated refund.

Here's hoping that the streets of Chicago are clogged with protesters tomorrow at noon - and that the protest will be both successful and peaceful (since the latter is more dependent on the Chicago Police Department than on the photographers - everyone should EXERCISE EXTREME CAUTION tomorrow).

Godspeed, good sir.;)
 
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