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Archive 2013 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Here a link to the story. It's on the site Apple Insider.

http://forums.appleinsider.com/t/157800/chicago-sun-times-axes-all-staff-photographers-offers-reporters-iphoneography-training

There's lots of ways to look at this. One small thought I had is: Fire the Photographers first and train the reporters later?

Jun 01, 2013 at 01:20 AM

maljo
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

It's hilarious! Replace a professional photographer with an amateur with an iPhone? There is a lack of understanding and respect, and a lack of appreciation for quality.

Jun 03, 2013 at 08:16 AM

mbellot
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

maljo wrote:
There is a lack of understanding and respect, and a lack of appreciation for quality.

It's not just happening to pro photographers.

Jun 03, 2013 at 08:21 AM

Squirrely Eyed
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Face it, so-called "news" these days is just entertainment. It is not informative, investigative, nor impartial. This is a fitting change in their business, to further trivialize the "news" industry and perpetuate the entertainment aspect.

Consider who would do better a better job in the reverse. Photogs writing news with no additional training, or so-called journalists taking pictures with additional training? If I were a betting man, I'd put my money on the photogs doing better overall work.

Jun 03, 2013 at 09:30 AM

jeremy_clay
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Why not? There's so little money in newspapers now anyways, not to mention a) the majority don't care about photo quality b) most breaking news stories today are accompanied by images shot by bystanders/witnesses who shot video/pics and submitted them for free and are of 'good enough' quality, especially for web. I can't blame them.

Jun 03, 2013 at 09:45 AM

acoll123
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

I shoot part-time for an on-line hyper local news publication. The bulk of what I shoot is high school sports with a few other "hard to photograph" things (concerts, evening activities . . .). The reporters take their own point and shoots for most everything else and it works out fine since most photos are posted at 600 x 600 at 72 dpi.

I am not saying I am happy about it, just resigned . . . Makes me wonder how long before iPhone cameras are good enough to shoot high school football equivalent to 400 mm, 1/750, f2.8 and 12,800 ISO.

I was in Best Buy yesterday and saw where Sony is selling a 42" 4K TV for around $3,500. I think that is where the next opportunity lies for most news photographers to differentiate themselves from iPhone users . . .

Jun 03, 2013 at 10:01 AM

friscoron
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

I think there's a lot of misinformation here, and a lot of assumptions going on. Not that I'm on the inside quite yet, but it's my understanding that the Sun-Times is going to rely heavily on free-lancers. That part I know to be certain.

As for the iPhones, it's possible that reporters will use it largely for video content, but also to get those stupid little headshots that photographers hated taking anyway. Like it or not, it works fine that way.

I think a lot of people are assuming the Sun-Times is no longer going to be using professional photo-journalism, and that's just not true. Trust me, I know it.

Jun 03, 2013 at 10:46 AM

Jim Rickards
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Reading further into the article, they mention that the photogs are in contract negotiations, so it my be some form of bargaining bluff.

Jun 03, 2013 at 11:33 AM

friscoron
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

No, they actually fired their entire staff. They may be contracting some of them as freelancers, but the story about firing their staff is true.

Jun 03, 2013 at 11:40 AM

Ed Peters
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Appears to be the same thing that outfits like CNN do; no more journalists, rely on private people to send them free reports on what is happening where they are.

Jun 03, 2013 at 01:23 PM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

I'm sure there will be plenty of freelancers out there who will be willing to fill the void. But for me, I'd feel pretty crappy knowing that I just filled the role of a full-time photographer who got fired as a cost-saving measure by the paper, just so I could have the emotional lift of seeing my work in print and maybe for a few coins. And if the former full-timers are reduced to competing for piecework, that's another shame. Next will be the reporters who will be paid only by the piece. The paper (and probably not just the Sun-Times) will be reduced to non-time-sensitive "features" packaged up by piece-workers, and reliance on wire services for daily time-critical news.

Jun 03, 2013 at 01:27 PM

friscoron
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

I dunno, Steve. I grew up in journalism. That's what I did for most of my early career. With the advent of online news and its immediate and free access, there was never a doubt what was going to happen to daily papers. I'm amazed more haven't fallen by the wayside.

If you're in a dying industry, if you don't have an exit plan, that's just not smart.

Jun 03, 2013 at 02:03 PM

Langran
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

At one of the recent jobs I did, the paper sent a pro out but he also had a company smartphone that he had to use for video. They wanted video and photos from the same guy and had equipped everyone that works for them with smartphones to achieve this.

Jun 03, 2013 at 05:03 PM

Sunny Sra
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p.1 #14 · p.1 #14 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Its the move to digital age...where do more young people read the news? on the news website? cnn? msn? NO

Most of the "young" get their news from facebook, Google+ hangouts..etc..so more people who are in-tune with their readers...this is what this is about.

Jun 03, 2013 at 06:41 PM

Ravitej
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p.1 #15 · p.1 #15 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Was watching CNN – news conference with the POTUS. When Obama walked to the podium there was a sea of iPhone lifted. No DSLRs. Started to think hard about that.

Video for any news gathering entity is important now. The Guardian UK has been doing it for awhile with success. 50-50 digital and print. Dan Chung of the Guardian changed the way photographers gather stills and video. But lots of long term newspaper people cannot seem to make the digital still/video transition. Can't seem to do both. It's a whole new learning curve to implement video when stills has been the only medium used for newspaper. Old guard and all that. It's unfortunate. Saw it when some working photographers didn't want to go digital. Saw it when film and striping was no longer used for printing. When everyone with a computer became a designer and typesetter. And the consumer has come to expect less and have it on a screen. The entire game has changed. And if anyone along the way cannot get on board this fast moving train, they get left at the station.

The film industry started talking about using DSLRs when the 5D MKII came out. And then everyone else jumped on board. Changed everything. A very expensive ARRI film camera came down to only $65,000 and the Canon 5D started to do commercials. And then the blend with the web. The motion picture industry just decided to go 100% digital. Wow. It's changing so fast. The train speeding up. Have to keep a sharp eye down the track or get stuck at the station faster than imaginable.

So a few photographers is nothing compared to so many more that were left behind. For the survival of the news gathering entities, have to change with the trends. And sometimes make radical changes. Like letting the entire photography team go.

The core reason for all this is that we all want more. More pixels. More entertainment. More news. More computer abilities. More from our gadgets. It's both a miracle and perhaps a curse. So many people put out of work because the technology just passed them by.

Jun 03, 2013 at 08:14 PM

Steve Wylie
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p.1 #16 · p.1 #16 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

The core reason for all this is that we all want more. More pixels. More entertainment. More news. More computer abilities. More from our gadgets. It's both a miracle and perhaps a curse. So many people put out of work because the technology just passed them by.

So true. And the result of this that we trade speed for quality, less thought, instant impact without critical thinking, and misinformation. It's tragic that the news business has to come to that.

Jun 03, 2013 at 09:26 PM

Access
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p.1 #17 · p.1 #17 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Not only video, but so many viewers today are used to the smartphone photo look by now (as this is all they use in their own lives). It's comforting to them. If they see a photo that looks noticeably different, or that actually follows decent composition, expression, etc. it looks off to them. As in "that looks like it's out of a movie, it can't be real." If you look at news publications there is awful lot of really bad photography out there, but the bad photography is just the new normal.

Jun 04, 2013 at 02:45 AM

ESeidle
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p.1 #18 · p.1 #18 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Some ppl are viewing it as a union busting move and are wondering what the IRS is going to make of using stringers as if they are "fulll time" or "staff" photographers. If you recall this was an issue a few years ago with another paper and the IRS came down hard on them. I think is was an LA based paper.

Jun 04, 2013 at 09:10 PM

bridow
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p.1 #19 · p.1 #19 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Don't blame the newspaper. Times are changing and nobody is supporting local newspapers. I'm sure the reporters will be the next on the list.

Jun 06, 2013 at 06:24 PM

amacal1
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p.1 #20 · p.1 #20 · Photogs fired - iPhone reporters to fill in

Access wrote:
Not only video, but so many viewers today are used to the smartphone photo look by now (as this is all they use in their own lives). It's comforting to them. If they see a photo that looks noticeably different, or that actually follows decent composition, expression, etc. it looks off to them. As in "that looks like it's out of a movie, it can't be real." If you look at news publications there is awful lot of really bad photography out there, but the bad photography is just the new normal.

This is a great point. Let me relate an observation of my own:

I've been receiving these spam emails, and the crux of it is that they are trying to convince me that this is a person I met once and now they are moving into town and want to meet up with me. It's a pretty convincing form of spam and it seems to be fairly well thought out, considering the level of detail and storytelling involved - think about the "nigerian prince" story-line. However, the grammar, punctuation, and spelling is completely awful. It sounds like the worst kind of facebook post drivel. It baffled me why someone would put so much effort into these emails but not bother to spell correctly.

That's when it hit me... They know that this is how a lot of people communicate. If the language were perfect, the average person would know that it was a trick. By dumbing it down, they're playing to what is familiar.

Jun 06, 2013 at 09:39 PM


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