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Chicago Sun-Times lays off all photographers
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The newspapers which are still going strong here in New Hampshire are the ones who have realized that it’s no longer possible to be just a newspaper. One must be a media outlet – and that means video, on the web, and tie-ins with the local/regional television stations to cross promote and help pay for, their content. There was never much here in NH in terms of dailies, and several of the smaller ones have gone under (these were a step above penny-savers), or been swallowed by the larger ones, but there’s still a relatively healthy market for newsprint.
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com -
The business is constantly changing, thats the market of supply and demand. Change with it or perish.
http://www.MediaCircus.TV
Media Production Services
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada -
This is a long way from being a trend. As the Chicago boys have also noted, they’re much more indicative of macro economic trends (eg, we can’t make more than we spend) that have nothing to do with iPhones.
[Scott Carnegie] “The business is constantly changing”
The WORLD is changing, and focusing on just part of it misses the point.
To Ned’s earlier point, I’d been thinking recently that one irony of the mobile web is that it favors words over pictures. Look at how many mobile versions of stories don’t have pictures at ALL.
Even when they do, the value of photos on the mobile web is inversely proportional to their value on the tethered web. On the tethered web, give me as many pictures as you can. Make ’em as big as you can. Click to enlarge, baby. Otherwise, all those words are too hard to read. It’s just not fun without pictures.
On the mobile web, maybe one, as small as possible. Otherwise, they get in the way of the words. Anything longer than a Facebook post, CERTAINLY for a news article, I’d rather have no pictures at all, thanks. (Hey, and thank YOU Instapaper.)
Not that I don’t love pictures. Saying that this is in my blood is an understatement. I started as a photojournalist, and was only one of many in my family. I also had a great-uncle who taught it, one who was a lifer with the AP on Capitol Hill, another whose work as a war photographer was featured in a special exhibition at the Smithsonian when he passed. A cousin spent his career at Newsday. These relatives cover both sides of my family, btw, and I’m leaving some out.) My sister has a degree in photography, as does her daughter who has been a professional photographer for quite a few years now. And while not a photographer, my father was an award-winning publisher of 7 newspapers.
And, true confession, my current online addiction is tumblr, a social media platform that’s pretty much ONLY pictures. The mobile version is amazing.
And I’d rather not have a picture in a story I read on my phone.
Ned also mentioned that, at its broadest, this is a generational thing. I remember hearing my great uncles lament that 35mm SLRs marked the end of photojournalism as they knew it — but it was inevitable, they admitted. The pictures weren’t as good, but the cameras were dang near foolproof and bulletproof, definitely smaller and cheaper. Not that you couldn’t still do good work with one. In many ways, it was HARDER to do good work with them — but boy did they love their Nikon system cameras! How did we ever live without these?
Any of this sounding familiar? Pros lamenting the end of “real” work, while buying much of the same gear they’re lamenting?
It’s hard to think of any job that’s not going away. Even here in what’s functionally becoming the COW’s Geezer Lounge LOL, almost every one of us benefited from the same dynamic on our way in. Doesn’t make it any less noteworthy of course…
…but it doesn’t make it an easily described trend, either. It’s not a trend at ALL yet, and there are no broad conclusions to be drawn. It’s enough for now to say that it’s a shame the Sun-Times can’t find its way anymore and leave it at that.
PS. You want to talk about a grim sign for their future online? I just did a quick check, and 5 of their top 9 search terms, including the top 3, all have Roger Ebert’s name somewhere in them. Despite a huge spike in traffic in April (guess why?), their web traffic is down by over 50% in the past 6 months. The next round of job cuts will be more than dudes with cameras.
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More examples of Trib fail:
https://extranews.net/blog-outsourcing-journalism-wheres-the-integrity.html
or
The WBEZ/ This American Life feature on Journatic should be required listening for any media person.
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Tim –
This Russian poem – anonymous – puts it all in perspective:
GOING TO THE DOGS
My granddad, viewing earth’s worn cogs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his house of logs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in the Flemish bogs.
Said things were going to the dogs;
His granddad in his old skin togs,
Said things were going to the dogs;
There’s one thing that I have to state –
The dogs have had a good long wait.(Anon.)
Joe Bourke
Owner/Creative Director
Bourke Media
http://www.bourkemedia.com
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