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Chicago Sun Times lays off its entire photo staff

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by silvercharm, May 30, 2013.

  1. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    I understand the point, but I don't think they're close to similar. Reporters have all different directions they can go after a game or news event, in either the newsgathering or the writing. And they can craft, and they can rewrite, and there are so many different perspectives.

    Photojournalism is a different discipline where everything is in one moment and you either get it or you don't. I'm sure we've all been in the situation where the paper is staffing a game but the AP photographer had a better angle from his assigned spot and came up with the killer picture that the staff didn't have. And we've all also been in the situation where a reporter turned in a game story that completely whiffed on the angle or what should have been the gist of it. The difference is, you can rework the story. You can't create the staff photo.
     
  2. Drip

    Drip Active Member

    Stupid decision. That's all I can say.
     
  3. MileHigh

    MileHigh Moderator Staff Member

    Utterly insane.
     
  4. Mark2010

    Mark2010 Active Member

    One place I worked did this. Small shop, but the editor wanted an additional city side reporter and chose to use that budget slot on a reporter and get photographers to take their own photos.

    Well, some of the photos were borderline unprintable. It wasn't a big town to begin with and some days, true news was scarce, good photos even scarcer. But they wanted to run local art centerpiece whenever possible. As a desk editor, I hated that. Lost count of the number of times my pages were ruined by some giant out-of-focus blob in the middle of the page.

    Good photography is an art and should be respected as such.
     
  5. Cigar56

    Cigar56 Member

    There is no chance of a labor law violation. Sad as it is, the Sun-Times has the right to eliminate the photo department. Businesses shut down departments, divisions or even entire companies all the time.

    There is also nothing to prevent the Sun-Times from hiring freelancers to perform the duties once handled by employees. And there's no law saying the employees who were fired have to agree to come back as contractors.

    Also, to avoid any acrimony, it's highly likely that the Sun-Times will turn to other freelancers rather than the ex-employees. So then it becomes a moot point.
     
  6. Starman

    Starman Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
  7. silvercharm

    silvercharm Member

    What you can't do as a business -- though it doesn't apply in this case -- is layoff a high salaried employee and immediately replace with younger, cheaper help for equal job requirements. At least that's my understanding.
     
  8. LongTimeListener

    LongTimeListener Well-Known Member

    Say what? You can't hire cheaper?

    That is not even close to true. There may be some issues with independent contractor status for what used to be full-time work, but there is nothing wrong legally with a company finding cheaper labor.
     
  9. Batman

    Batman Well-Known Member

    Can't do it? That's been the newspaper industry's business model for the past decade!
     
  10. CarlSpackler

    CarlSpackler Active Member

    They already did the same thing in my shop. Hasn't burned us yet, but it is only a matter of time before something breaks and there's no freelancer on call. At least in a city Chicago's size there is less chance that scenario will pop up -- not that it makes this move any better.
     
  11. Cigar56

    Cigar56 Member

    What you can't do as a business -- though it doesn't apply in this case -- is layoff a high salaried employee and immediately replace with younger, cheaper help for equal job requirements. At least that's my understanding.
    [/quote]

    It's easy for companies to get around this without violating the law. So the company fires a senior graphic artist with 30 years experience and a $75K salary.

    They list the "senior graphic artist" position as eliminated. Later they create a new position for a "graphic" artist who has half the experience and gets half the salary.

    That's all completely legal. There is no one who would argue that a graphic artist with limited experience should come in and earn as much as a senior graphic artist with 30 years experience.

    Companies wade out the high-priced talent all the time and backfill as needed with younger talent with different titles and job descriptions.
     
  12. KYSportsWriter

    KYSportsWriter Well-Known Member

    [​IMG]

    ETA link with pic: http://gawker.com/a-sad-shot-of-sun-times-photojournalists-learning-they-510565175
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Dec 15, 2014
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