[Leica] In defence of the newspapers

[kargue at sympatico.ca (Kevin Argue)]

Tina,
         Interesting article and personal comments about the state of  
the business. However,
this is not new. It has been happening for a while. In my area of  
Ontario, Canada, 9 staff
photogs have lost their jobs. Worse some papers have replaced working  
shooters with
reporters with point and shoot cameras. Some papers are adding video  
clip elements to
their web sites. Their video sucks as bad as their photos. The local  
college teaching journalism
to feature weekly newspaper reporters has just phased out year 2  
photography as well as the
photo shop lecture once a week. No more picture stories. In our area  
"drive by shooting" refers
to a reporter with a camera driving , taking a snap and get out of  
there. Some lazy bastards
don't even get out of the car. Out local paper had an 'A' section  
that was 24 pages long-- now
6 pages!  Even studio style photographers are having problems.  
Digital, free down loads, etc,
have added to the demise of commercial photography. No one wants to  
spend money. I used to
shoot for the PR department of our national railroad. Not only do  
they not take photos but the
guy I dealt with-- they fired him and his assistant!. This is  
depressing.

Cheers,
Kevin Argue
Canada


On 10-Apr-08, at 10:42 AM, Tina Manley wrote:

> At 12:57 AM 4/10/2008, Nathan wrote:
>
>> Before we all jump on the newspapers for cutting back on their photo
>> staff and using free images from readers, consider the double of
>> triple whammy they have been hit with:
>>
>
> An interesting article in the NY Times about the life and death of  
> the American newspaper:
>
> http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/ 
> 2008/03/31/080331fa_fact_alterman?currentPage=all
>
> It's still very depressing to me.  We used to subscribe to three  
> daily newspapers and are down to one now.  It takes about 10  
> minutes to read the whole thing.  Most of the very brief articles  
> end with a web address to go to for more information.  The grammar  
> is atrocious because spell-check doesn't check grammar.  The photos  
> are snapshots.  There are no professionals because the newspapers  
> can't pay enough for professionals to make a living.  Who is going  
> to do the investigative journalism that makes a difference in the  
> world?  True, there ares some web-blogs by journalists but how can  
> anybody make a living doing web-blogs?  Bah-humbug!
>
> Tina
>
> Tina Manley
> http://leicatraveler.blogspot.com/
> www.tinamanley.com
>
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