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Editorial

Chicago Sun-Times just sacked every single staff photographer

The Chicago Sun-Times fired all their staff photographers and told their reporters to take photos with their iPhones. I think they’re fucking idiots.

Holy shit. 🙁

The Associated Press reports:

The Chicago Sun-Times laid off its entire full-time photography staff Thursday, including a Pulitzer Prize winner, in a move that the newspaper’s management said resulted from a need to shift toward more online video.

The union representing many of the laid-off photographers plans to file a bad-faith bargaining charge with the National Labor Relations Board, a union leader said.

The Sun-Times Media company didn’t immediately comment on how many jobs were affected, but the national Newspaper Guild issued a statement saying 28 employees lost their jobs. The layoffs included photographers and editors at the Sun-Times’ sister publications in the suburbs.

As someone in the comments suggests, you can put ads in front of video, and you can run photos taken by amateurs in the street on their phones (likely without paying for them), or get something from one of the big three agencies.

A sad sign of the times, especially for people like me who make money as photographers, albeit not for news. Personally I loathe video on news sites, except in some cases such as a natural disaster where pictures somehow can’t convey the ongoing chaos properly. I much prefer some well-chosen photos and some well-written text, both much quicker to read. I’m 37 – is my dislike of news video a sign of my age?

Source: The Guardian

By myglasseye

I'm a Glasgow-born stills photographer and camera operator living and working in London, UK. As well as cameras I'm into writing, gaming, general geekery and beers by Brew Dog.

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