Chicago Sun -Times lays off entire photo department is a sad day . It only proves that everyone is expendable . Companies are looping of parts of themselves , contracting out other parts , and selling the vary real estate they occupy. Withdrawing , becoming smaller, weaker ,loosing more and more control and thinking all the time they are saving is very short sighted.Time is also short , the time for smart change is coming. This is a business that constantly thinks it is dying since the invention of radio.This permanent state of change has created hypochondriacs of commerce . Eventually they find people who think otherwise and go on the offensive .
The business manager would say they are trying to stop the hemorrhage of money , the cost per person is too high . Another manager will say the department is too old and new blood is needed. News is fluid ," just send a photographer ",is a core response , defence and offence at the same time. Get rid of the ones who care the most and have brought the only true innovation to the news story , the picture.
Blame the photographers , blame the union , blame the company , blame the internet.
If the photographers are too old then it is likely there are lot of old reporters too. New blood is code for new ideas , but old reporters are very likely to supply a never ending cycle of old ideas .New reporters are trained in the old ways . The students just shake their heads and start getting OLD fast. Many of these old ways were new ideas in 1920.
Photographers essentially are a service department for the old idea machine. We work for them and with their ideas.
Old ideas are the problem and the newspaper business has never been open to a new idea , just new blood repeating old cycles .We are seeing the endgame and there are many people inside our fort that can bring new ideas . But there is only one or two that can actually implement them. With the embrace of new technology , there is a feeling that enough has been done. Just put the same old words on a smartphone app and send them off . Job done . There are opportunities being offered within the subtlties of new technology , and they are not being seen .Wikipedia ,Facebook , Pinterest , Instagram , these are all heady innovations created while the newspaper business was trying to shake the last quarter from , beaten , rusty and broken newspaper boxes.
I am not sure anyone can say they are doing anything different than was ever done before . Breaking news is still king , politics , crime and spin off product courts , sports and life style are very traditional and still segregated . Our business speaks a language that can only be spoken back to us by professional communication specialists . Access to information and privacy laws are limiting reporting in ways that have never been encountered before . Much of the public doesn't support the ideals we say we support . Correctness only exists in theory . It is becoming clear the newspapers are best thought of in theory than practice . Some changes are needed and freelancing everything is not the answer.
WE know our paid readers are older and with retirement they no longer have money to support home delivery and other information services .The internet , smartphone , TV are all pumping out cloned news and there are costs involved , taxation is crushing everyone.
We have been giving away our product .... blah blah , blah .
If this was a car company we would be coming out with new models , if we were a fast food company we would be putting jalapeno on it , if were were general foods we would be adding fibre , if we were a TV show we would be sexing it up , a fashion company we would change the colours , shorten or lengthen , do anything so it wasn't sooo last year. More sugar , more salt , throw in some gluten , what ever that is .
Just look at how other media are adapting . TV news , the presentation , the moving, flashing background design , but the arrangement of stories is very subtle .Even the most depressing story has a positive spin . Almost seems that it was better this bad stuff occurred that not. The messages are crafted in a very sophisticated way .Politics and corporate messages are genetically modelled in a way that segarated news cannot fathom in any practical way .Internet companies are using big data to deliver the exact message each subscriber want to hear.
And we know it is happening everyday in every story , and readers now know it to.
If a newspaper was a TV show it would cancelled , or be showing Friday or Saturday night at 9pm . ( with all the good TV journalism)
The newspaper business will not be bailed out like the high wage , middle quality car manufacturers , or government services .
Fix the product ,make it valuable enough for a customer to purchase.Embrace technology driven products.
Abandon low average , open up the range of thinking .Correctness and left leaning are narrow , predictable and constantly shrinking points of view. And they are holding us back from a global tide.
The newspaper has a place for all types of thinking . Stories sidebars could reflect a debate because there are many solutions to any problem .
Newspapers for the first time are confronted with “comments” from all types of readers . Yes , the ones that we choose to ignore or pretend not to exist , or dismiss as racist because they conflict with our very narrow point of view .Racism and hate exist and when it is acknowledged much of the news begins to make sense . Low risk reporting shrinks and we are in the position we are in. The comments show that many ,many people , excluding the 3% worse , show great dissatisfaction with how stories are constructed.
If we think that newspaper reporting is important and it is at risk , surely something needs to be done .
IN the US there are two political parties , in Canada three , 30% of people are consistently poorly represented in newspaper stories . Fifty percent of Canadians have difficulty reading ( i am one of them) , how many more are simply bored as hell by stories they see in a newspaper .
Yes it is easier to chase a big slow moving mayor around and around for two weeks , it is much harder to connect the lack of taxpayers to almost every other story in every section . Take on hate and the misinformed directly poses challenges .
Our business has to do more than HOPE our work leads to positive results and relevance . Laying off the people who simply carry out the aspirations of editors will just extend the next layoff to a wider net. Just a personal opinion .
I think smaller papers can bring change , try out new ideas easier . Innovation often comes because the distance from idea to implementation is shorter . People at the top can actually hear people at the bottom in the experimnetal lakes of smallness .
Change is simpler that it might sound . Fixed costs , not forced saving . The staff photographer and the staff car are still the most cost freindly and practical rapid response method for getting local news.
Topic: Future of newspapers - no photographers? (Read 4167 times)