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Chicago Sun-Times lays off all photographers
Woke up this morning to hear this depressing news and thought back to how much this parallels the situation in many local TV stations were reporters are sent out alone with a low cost camera and tripod. The result? All too often poorly framed, soft focused, un-imaginative crap — and my favorite: the on camera talent is out of focus yet the background is sharp as a tack. Sad when organizations lean themselves out to the extent that they’re no longer able to effectively perform their intended function.
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15 Replies
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Yeah, I saw that too. The paper will expect reporters to provide their own images or video, or the paper will buy clips submitted by readers. This continues a sad trend where management keeps dumping the content generation component to balance their books, and then wonder why readership keeps going down.
And without readership, ad revenue goes down.People subscribe to and buy physical newspapers to get the CONTENT. If you cut reportage, if you cheapen the coverage, you lose readers.
Apparently this is no longer taught at Medill.
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What I imagine the future of newspapers to be is that they will fire everyone but the editorial staff and the sales deparment, and simply become aggregators of work submitted by freelancers, something like Huffington post.
Those content creators will be independent contractors who license their works to the aggregator, getting a byline and an up-front fee per story, plus a percentage bonus for every extra thousand clicks or whatever the story gets, but can try to get different aggregators to bid for the story if it’s hot enough. The best reporters will gain a following and add to the aggregators’ “branding”. At around $250 per story as a base, a reporter could make around 1800 bucks a week, minus all their expenses, if they file one story a day. The reporters however would have significantly more control over the content, so, they could break up a bigger story into a series over several days, and thus give much more detail and even analysis than a traditional newspaper story.
Reporters or columnists will make their own assignments. Editorial department is responsible for fact checking and placement of the stories.
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[Mark Suszko] “Those content creators will be independent contractors who license their works to the aggregator, getting a byline and an up-front fee per story, plus a percentage bonus for every extra thousand clicks or whatever the story gets…”
Always the optimist, Mark. Great ideas but let’s see what reality brings. And if the Koch Brothers succeed in acquiring “The Trib” and slanting it to their way of thinking it may be time to give up on newspapers altogether — at least in and around Chicagoland.
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Nick, the Trib was so attractive to the Kochs because for a long time, it was ALREADY slanted to their way of thinking:-) Editorially-wise at least, it’s been a hard-right, conservative pro-buziness paper since the Colonel himself owned it. I’m sadder about the Sun-Times losing it’s way.
As far as me being “optimistic” in my musings, I actually find the whole thing rather dystopian, but I’m trying to figure out a model where a paper can make a profit AND actually commit real Journalism in the process. The Trib seems to think the path forward is to fire all the staff and make them contractors to eliminate HR costs.
The costs for printing and distribution are a harder problem, and I think the answer there might be to de-centralize the printing and have local vendors bid to print and distribute a smaller but denser paper on-demand, based on a close reading of customer interest. Theoretically you could even print a small paper at the local Kinko’s. With only seven pages of news and ads, and one page of local sports… and it might be customized for each neighborhood or region. Well, it’s all just an intellectual exercise anyway…
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And of course we are in a world now where everyone is a professional photographer/videographer/cinematographer. I live in a small town in New Hampshire, and there are actually several people who have set up websites, shot incredibly long, barely edited videos, and are calling themselves Cinematographers. It’s a sad new world…any cub scout with a phone camera is a pro…
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
Shoot me now.
“Chicago Sun-Times will train reporters on ‘iPhone photography basics”https://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/214954/sun-times-will-train-reporters-on-iphone-photography-basics/(Oh… wait a minute. This is Chicago we’re talking about. Just kidding about the “Shoot me now” part.)
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Can you imagine the dork factor of a “pro” photog lining up a shot in the street with an iPad? He’ll get laughed out of the neighborhood! Maybe they’ll outfit him with a felt hat with a “Press” tag on it, just so people will know that he’s a “pro”.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
I don’t have to imagine it, I’ve already seen small market local reporters using an ipad as a handheld video camera at press events. Yes, it looks as unwieldy and awkward as it sounds. Especially walk-and-talks. The amusing part is when they hold the thing over their head to get a high angle shot, but they can’t actually see the framing unless they angle upward, thus losing the framing…. and the audio has GOT to be AWESOME coming off that thing,…
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No one on this thread has any right to complain unless they have a yearly subscription to their local paper for seven days a week. THAT’S why they fired the photogs. No one wants the print edition anymore and advertising revenue won’t sustain them. Simple Economics 101. Ask anyone under 40 if they have a paper subscription. This is a generational divide.
Ned Miller
Chicago Videographer
http://www.nedmiller.com
www,bizvideo.com -
So, the photos mysteriously manifest in the online version of the paper from where exactly, Ned?:-)
It’s the same telescope, we’re looking thru opposite ends. Nobody subscribes unless there is content worth subscribing for. Down here in SPringfield, your lovely capitol, the weekly Illinois Times is kicking the State Journal-Register’s butt in terms of profit ratios, while Gatehose keeps cutting more and more reporters and outsourcing it’s printing from in-town to a share, non-union print house in Peoria.
The other issue as to why so many papers are failing is plain and simple mis-management: Gatehouse for example is bleeding red these days because it bought up a while bunch of local papers and their debts as some kind of crazy investment at the worst possible time, over-extending the company’s credit too far to be safe. Instead of divesting, they are slashing and burning what they still own.
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