Washington Times Slashes Newsroom Staff, Wipes Out Photo Department

bmattock

bmattock

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http://nppa.org/news_and_events/news/2009/12/times.html

Washington Times Slashes Newsroom Staff, Wipes Out Photo Department

WASHINGTON, DC (December 31, 2009) – When owners of The Washington Times cut their 170-member newsroom staff yesterday, the entire photography department – with the exception of photography director Joseph M. Eddins Jr. and imaging tech Melissa Cannarozzi – lost their jobs.
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Big loss of talent, they think they can replace the human touch with the web based news. They now join the ranks of the unemployed, America as we once new it is gone forever. These jobs will never come back.
 
I just spent an hour reading the thread about "career advice", and now this.

Tough times for certain.

(I'm in a corporate office, telecommunications/software, over the past years, we've been cut back from a high of more than 8,500 employees within many locations, down to less than 2,600.)
- Good Luck to all, on both sides of the fence. "Out looking for work", and the "Few remaining who have to pick up the slack").
 
Unfortunately, not surprising. Why employ a full-time photo staff when you can buy pics from some bloke carrying an iphone who happens to be at the right place at the right time?

Jim B.
 
Mackinaw said:
Unfortunately, not surprising. Why employ a full-time photo staff when you can buy pics from some bloke carrying an iphone who happens to be at the right place at the right time?

Jim B.
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Dear Jim,

Exactly. It's not like there's any skill involved, after all.

Cheers,

R.
 
The Washington Post and Washington Times are opposite extremes, you can't believe anything in either one of them.
 
Vic said:
The Washington Times is not a major newspaper. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they were owned by the Reverend Moon, and now are glorified stenographers for the extreme right wing of the Republican party. Is this really a loss or a gain for the country?
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One would suspect that newspapers shrinking and laying off photographers is a bad thing for photographers, in the sense that one often works where one can get work. This being one less place to get work, it is a bad thing for photographers.

I have no intentions of debating politics.
 
What's probably going to happen is that the writers are going to be expected to take their own photos - and probably without any additional pay.
 
Big Corps have some idea that you can replace long time talent with some kid off the street...you can't...
When I was let go (or should I say my job was eliminated) there were four of us who got the axe...I was the one with the least amount of years (17) others had over 35 years with this company...a lot of talent/knowledge/experience walked out the door that day...
Too bad that this is going to happen to a lot more people...
 
Even the very worst photographers can produce a brilliant shot at times. If there's enough quantity, there's no need to pay for quality.

With the current developments in photography with regards to oversharpened and oversaturated color, HDR, photoshop etc (and the accompaniyng developments in HD television), people will soon consider all photography to be manipulated, unless it is cell phone quality. The development will strenghten itself.

Only when shooting a cell phone or film can you claim credibility for the truthfulness of your work.

My prediction for 2010: film will become a new medium in reporting photography.
 
Also in today's news: Washington Times Cuts Sports Section, Others (posted 12/31/2009 at 10:06 AM)
The Washington Times will publish its final sports section on New Year's Day after the newspaper slashed its newsroom staff with plans to refocus on politics, business and investigative reporting.

IMNSHO- The Times had the best sports news and pix of any daily I've ever seen... and for over 40 years, I worked for a lot of them.
 
Mackinaw said:
Here's one of the first pics of Flight 1549 that crashed in the Hudson River last January. The guy who took it, Janis Krums, used an iphone and posted it on Twitter as it was happening.

These are indeed interesting times.

Jim B.
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I agree completely.

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowl...ournalism_heralds_next_years_trend_147495.asp

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowl...nalism_takes_on_investigative_work_147624.asp

http://mashable.com/2009/12/18/myspace-wsj-citizen-journalist/
 
Vince Lupo said:
What's probably going to happen is that the writers are going to be expected to take their own photos - and probably without any additional pay.
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Which is how it always was for a lot of us in the community newspaper field. Some (like myself) considered ourselves photographers first, reporters second. Most were reporters who were annoyed at the extra burden of having to produce a publishable snapshot.
 
photogdave said:
Which is how it always was for a lot of us in the community newspaper field. Some (like myself) considered ourselves photographers first, reporters second. Most were reporters who were annoyed at the extra burden of having to produce a publishable snapshot.
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Add to that the videos that they now have to do to upload to the paper's website, blog, etc.
 
Unfortunately, digital media will continue to grow infinitely further then the small mindedness of individuals who think that analogue ways will continue. There will always be people on the fringes that fight the machine. Only when the machine wins and destroys us all will we see a huge return to grassroots ways. Man's destiny is greed. Those that have will always want more. The financial mess we're in started years ago, and even after the bailout, there are those that push to continue as it was.

It's sad. I don't like it. It's reality.
 
Unfortunately, it is not just photographers in the media (print & tv) it is also reporters. For the past 20 years the major networks as well as newpapers have been cutting staff and replacing them with "political" talking heads who for the most part never visited the areas under discussion.
 
It's a worthless paper anyway. Would be better if the whole paper shut down. Some of the most biased and incorrect reporting you can find. Good riddance.

Now if some of the right wing papers that Robert Murdock owns (you'd be surprised who owns what in this age of propaganda reporting) would just please go away I'll be pleased.
 
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newspaperguy said:
Also in today's news: Washington Times Cuts Sports Section, Others (posted 12/31/2009 at 10:06 AM)
The Washington Times will publish its final sports section on New Year's Day after the newspaper slashed its newsroom staff with plans to refocus on politics, business and investigative reporting.

IMNSHO- The Times had the best sports news and pix of any daily I've ever seen... and for over 40 years, I worked for a lot of them.
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Thats cause you cant put a political spin on sports, might as well do it honestly and good. lol
 
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