RIP, Sports Illustrated photo department

The SI Cover next week:

SPORTS ILLUSTRATED


# 3 FOR TOM






JANUARY 29, 2015

 

When the Rams won the Super Bowl, it was a freelancer who shot the full-spread picture of Mike Jones making the game-saving tackle.

 

It's not just photogs. Two senior writers as well.

 

Oh boy.

 

Here's the who's who:
Sports Illustrated lays off all staff photographers - LA Observed

 

Was Hot Clicks affected?

 

thank goodness no.Here is a link for today's . Nsfw
Jess Impiazzi: Lovely Lady of the Day - Extra Mustard - SI.com

 

Or "This Week's Sign of the Apocalypse" in, appropriately enough, SI.

 

And yet we hear that Stephen A. Smith inks a deal worth $3M a year or some ridiculous amount.
Says a lot about the business. Says a lot about the audience.

 

Time-Life invented the modern publishing bureaucracy, SI perfected it. I remember when there were what seemed hundreds of names on the masthead. I'm more surprised every newspaper and magazine hasn't gone to the all-freelance model. The infrastructure built up over years of monopoly has been unsustainable for a generation.

 

IIRC, Bill Frakes freelanced for years for SI while working full-time for the Miami Herald.

I'd be curious what their ratio over the years has been to freelance photos:full-time staffer photos

 

Evidently this is the corporate equivalent of musical chairs. The publishing company is going to move out of the Time-Warner building to a cheaper location. There is also less space so people who seeing who will not have a cubicle in the new offices.

Which leads to my question. Why would any publisher keep editorial headquarters in Manhattan? Rents are expensive and you have to pay staff more money to partially offset the higher cost of living.