Chicago Sun Times lays off its entire photo staff

Moving on from my anger at how this move affects the photographers, the company line about "our changing readership wants online video" really rankles me, too.

If by online video they mean a shakily-filmed locker room interview or a reporter giving his/her postgame analysis while holding an iPhone in front of their face, count me out.

Unfortunately, that's what passes for online video at a lot of newspapers -- including major metros.

I would much rather skim over a gamer with a couple of good still photos. More information and quick and easy to understand what happened, unlike poorly shot, unedited video.

 

Photographs are kind of important for a tabloid, as the Sun-Times will soon learn.

 

I wonder if the Tribune thought about the irony of doing a video about the Sun-Times photographers being fired, with the excuse of the paper doing more video. http://www.chicagotribune.com/videogallery/76112703/Video-Laid-off-Sun-Times-photographers-reactions-from-Billy-Goat-

 

I wonder how long ago in the timeline of the Sun-Times' "digital plan" some exec said, during a closed-door session, " ... And at that point we can unload all the photographers."

I'm guessing that idea didn't just burst forth this week. Or last week.

 

Pretty much. When enough people start telling these blowhards to fuck off, business practices will start to change. Until then.... well, I can't blame management for getting the cheapest labor available.

 

Obviously this has nothing to do with a "digital plan." If so, who would be better than photographers to morph into videographers? This is simply union busting and cost-cutting.

 

High-grade dipshitery

 

Sadly, this was my publisher's logic. "Don't cover that (local team NBA or NFL game or major race). That's why we're PAYING the Associated Press.

Sounds like the Sun-Times is going to rely exclusively on stringers & freelancers to shoot the non-preps stuff. For sports, great. But what about that building fire? What about the spot news events that happen and you need a shooter on duty quickly. Who's going to edit the photos?

 

I suspect they will post some kind of announcement encouraging the man on the street to send in photos. And, frankly, sometimes the man on the street happens to be somewhere at the right time and can get that cool tornado or auto accident photo.

As for who will edit them . . . and make sure nothing was digitally manipulated . . . uh, well . . .

 

Citizen journalism takes a step forward.

One place where I worked, we had a couple of individuals who would occasionally shoot sporting events and send us photos. Usually it was events we couldn't get to because of scheduling conflicts. Most of the photos were quite good --- technically, often better than what our staff guys produced (more modern cameras). So, sometimes it works and sometimes not so much.

In that case, of course, the individuals retained ownership rights to the photos and could resell them or do with them as they wished.

 

It might. But not enough of them do that, though. Someone says no another person steps right up and takes the assignment without a second thought.

 

That's the thing about a city the size of Chicago. If all the decent photographers in a town my size boycotted and stuck together, they could make a little bit of an impact. In a city the size of Chicago, I'm sure the pool of qualified photographers who are looking for work is way too deep to band everyone together.