Dayton Daily News photo chief quits rather than layoff people

[kimronspringle]

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/blog/2011/08/pulitzer-photojournalist-takes-a-stand.html?page=all

I admire his desire to see newspapers survive, but I don't think I would lionize a guy who is quitting.

 

[TheHacker]

The opinion of one guy who has been in a similar situation ... for what it's worth:

I think Larry Price did what all of us who are asked to cut staffers would like to do. I wish that I had felt like I had the ability to say "eff you," and just leave. It's what I wanted to do.

There's part of me that feels guilty about having been able to stay employed while I made a choice about which staffers were going to have their lives turned upside down. And sitting on that knowledge for days before management was finally ready to go through with it was agonizing beyond words. I'm reminded of the scene in Broadcast News, where the network has laid off a bunch of people and Holly Hunter's character says to William Hurt's character, "It hurts -- physically -- doesn't it?"

Yeah, it did.

If you've never been in that position, I hope you never have to experience it. Because it changes you. Every time you have to do it, it claims a little piece of your soul. I apologize for sounding melodramatic, but being forced to cut staff had a profound impact on me. I've found it hard to muster the same sense of enthusiasm for what we do that I had before. Eventually I recovered and moved on the best I could, I managed the people I had left. But mentally, emotionally nothing has been quite the same. Because every day I come in wondering if this is the day it's gong to happen again.

I'm with you in spirit, Larry Price.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This man should be congratulated by everyone in journalism, and congratulated twice as much by newspaper readers.

 

[steveu]

Did you see this little gem down in the story?

The seminal moment for him occurred earlier this year after he shot a photograph of a girl with tears in her eyes at a candlelight vigil in west Dayton. The photo, he was told, was too emotional.

“The new prerogative, as it was explained to me, was to dumb down the photo report, to pull back and show crowd photographs,” Price said.

TOO EMOTIONAL? Jesus. People are ****ing clueless.

 

[kimronspringle]

Did you see this little gem down in the story?

The seminal moment for him occurred earlier this year after he shot a photograph of a girl with tears in her eyes at a candlelight vigil in west Dayton. The photo, he was told, was too emotional.

“The new prerogative, as it was explained to me, was to dumb down the photo report, to pull back and show crowd photographs,” Price said.

TOO EMOTIONAL? Jesus. People are ****ing clueless.

That really jumped out at me, too.

We had a similiar situation when corporate denied one of our reporters a chance to be imbedded in the Middle East with the National Guard unit from our area.

A corporate boss, who incidentally was supposed to be a 'newspaper guy who gets it,' said what are we going to get from that that we can't get from the AP.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

What's the least we can do and get away with? That's the formula for growth!!!

 

[steveu]

We had a situation last month at our paper. Guy goes nuts and kills several people and eventually takes hostages (made the national news). One of our excellent photogs took a picture of the father grieving in the street and being consoled by someone. We got a few letters, but most everyone agreed the pics were a powerful part of the story.

When are people going to wake up and realize the power of print/photo?

 

[FileNotFound]

Display of photography is the last thing that print newspapers do better than online. It's a shame that any newspaper would do anything to compromise that.

Good for Price to take a stand, but those people are going to get laid off anyway. I'm not sure what he accomplishes other than giving himself the ability to get on with his next career.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

Price accomplished this: He can think of himself as a person willing to live by his principles, and with the guts to take what comes with that, which is almost never materially good. Principles, pride, those things used to be considered pretty important -- even more important than "accomplishments."

 

[FileNotFound]

Price accomplished this: He can think of himself as a person willing to live by his principles, and with the guts to take what comes with that, which is almost never materially good. Principles, pride, those things used to be considered pretty important -- even more important than "accomplishments."

As long as you can still buy groceries and pay the bills after standing on your principles, absolutely. It's a tough spot to be in. I empathized with TheHacker's post above.

 

[BrianGriffin]

I had an EE who did the same thing, basically (after I had already left that particular shop). Good for both of them.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I respect him taking a stance.

But, if it means he can't collect unemployment and has trouble finding a job, then he made a big mistake.

 

[dreunc1542]

I respect him taking a stance.

But, if it means he can't collect unemployment and has trouble finding a job, then he made a big mistake.

Did you read the story about it? He already has side work and he basically said that really won't be an issue for him.

 

[Mizzougrad96]

I respect him taking a stance.

But, if it means he can't collect unemployment and has trouble finding a job, then he made a big mistake.

Did you read the story about it? He already has side work and he basically said that really won't be an issue for him.

Well that's good then.

 

[DanOregon]

I've got to think if you are a professional photographer and committed to producing a better product - getting the word that you have to cut staff makes you realize that you and your employer and have different agendas.
It's easy to say, harder to do - just walk away from the only job many of us have ever wanted - but I imagine going through with the cuts would make it tougher to look yourself in the mirror or your colleagues in the eyes. Not to mention the ghosts that lurk around a newsroom.
If we were just making widgets I think it might be different. But people don't go into newspapers for the cash, it's a pretty personal job and an emotional commitment - you lose that, what makes this job special, and you might as well leave.

 

[I Should Coco]

Good for Price -- I salute him for taking a stand. And not just on the layoffs.

The Dayton paper's "dumbing down" and de-emphasis of good photos for infographics made me feel ill.

Pretty soon "newsrooms" will consist of executive editors, graphic designers (not page designers) and maybe one wrangler of unpaid bloggers. Ugh.

 

[playthrough]

Display of photography is the last thing that print newspapers do better than online. It's a shame that any newspaper would do anything to compromise that.

x100.

I was appalled by that. Do they tell their sports shooters to not zero in on specific players but instead to get the entire field?

 

[crimsonace]

A corporate boss, who incidentally was supposed to be a 'newspaper guy who gets it,' said what are we going to get from that that we can't get from the AP.

On a smaller scale, I had a publisher on my hind end about that for years at our suburban daily.

"So, why are you covering the Indianapolis 500 when I'm PAYING the Associated Press to cover it? I'm PAYING you to cover local sports."

"Uh, because there's a local driver in the Indianapolis 500 and local crew members and local people the AP won't really care about?"

(or, the variant, "why do you cover the Colts when we pay the AP?" Me: "Because they give us one story that every other paper in America runs. We write PM second-day ledes on the game, combine our coverage with the other papers in the chain that don't have a problem sending reporters, and do huge numbers of web hits.")

 

[onceuponaX]

Price accomplished this: He can think of himself as a person willing to live by his principles, and with the guts to take what comes with that, which is almost never materially good. Principles, pride, those things used to be considered pretty important -- even more important than "accomplishments."

Amen to this.

 

[DanOregon]

If Price worked for another company, the Dayton paper would put him on A1 and write an editorial lauding him for standing up for the little guy.