Staff photographers across the North of England are set to be made redundant in the latest round of Johnston Press cutbacks.
The regional publisher has told photographic staff at a series of titles in Lancashire and Yorkshire that there will be job cuts before Christmas, although it has yet to confirm how many will be affected.
It is understood six out of the nine photographers working at Johnston Press North West titles The Gazette, in Blackpool, Preston’s Lancashire Evening Post and the Wigan Evening Post will face redundancy.
And across the Pennines, all weekly staff photographers based at JP’s Wakefield and Dewsbury centres are set to lose their jobs, along with those working for Scarborough-based Yorkshire Regional Newspapers division.
The announcements follow JP’s decision last week to merge its three flagship Scottish titles – The Scotsman, Scotland on Sunday and the Edinburgh Evening News – with the loss of up to 45 jobs, following its promise of “further efficiency savings” in an interim management statement.
The North West and Yorkshire are the latest of JP’s regional divisions to be affected by cutbacks in photographic staff, following similar reductions in Scotland, the Midlands and the company’s Southern division.
Following the latest announcement, three photographers will be retained in the North West alongside the present picture editor and deputy picture editor, who will continue to co-ordinate the operation from Preston.
One photographer will be kept based at each of the three centres and any remaining photographic work will be freelanced.
Staff were told of the move on Tuesday and will have to apply for the three posts, but have been informed there will be a budget for freelancers and opportunities to do freelance work.
A consultation period will run until 3 December.
A JP spokeswoman said: “We are currently looking at reorganising our photographic services in the North West and Yorkshire and discussions are now taking place with the teams involved in those regions.
“New ways of working – which have resulted in a reduction in photographic roles – have been successfully implemented in some of JP’s other regions and our teams in Yorkshire and the North West are now working with the editorial teams to establish whether similar approaches are to be adopted.
“I can’t confirm numbers as the discussions are still ongoing – but we are working hard to support staff who may be affected.”
A spokeswoman for the NUJ’s JP group chapel said: “Morale is at rock bottom in Johnston Press, yet further cuts have been announced.
“Our members are shocked by further photographic redundancies, a move which is likely to hit the quality of newspapers and websites we produce, lead to further declining readership and harm the long-term prospects of the company.
“Alarmingly, Johnston Press management believes that more ‘user generated content’ is the way forward.
“They ignore the fact that this requires more work from editorial teams in processing submitted material, which is often of a sub-standard quality and not suitable for publication.
“Serious questions also need to be answered over whether this is a genuine redundancy process, given that the company has a track record of re-engaging photographers on a freelance basis with lower pay and worse terms and conditions.”
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Does “working hard to support affected staff” mean giving out maps to the Job Centre? Looks like another raft of papers full of UGC – folks cut off at the feet, trees growing out of heads, and so on. Shame.
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So Sad Guys.
Surpised they still need picture desk staff these days,seems to be done by young reporters where i used to work..
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Here we go again. Another Merry Christmas from your generous employers.
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Awful but not unexpected and Ashley wonders why morale is zero! Any new on Leeds snappers who are the best of the best?
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I find this culling of staff photographers so depressing. This week the Press in York had a cropped pic leaving just a drainpipe visible of an apparently RTA into one of the City Bars, caption kicker…’Stuck’
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we are no longer shocked at this sort of news, but still dismayed and sad that so many good, honest, hard-working people lose their job. If there are slackers out there good riddance, but there really cannot be many in today’s slimmed down “just get the paper on the street” culture.
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What the report does not make clear is that the ‘one photographer at each base’ will not actually be taking pictures.
It is a desk job managing freelancers so is not actually guaranteed to be a photographer. All they will do is manage a diary.
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The madness continues. Newsquest and Johnston Press seem to be vying with each other as to how far down they can drive editorial standards, and along with them sales.
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To be honest, the East Yorks papers send snappers to events and barely use a picture. Someone may be at a football match for 90 mins to get only a couple of pics published, and small ones at that. If this is all they use, they can get anyone with a DSLR to go and take pics.
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Apart from brutal job losses, the saddest aspect of the industry’s photographic purge is that experienced snappers used to be the unsung on-the-job mentors of tens of thousands of raw trainee reporters.
Feeding press releases into a template can’t replicate what snappers cheerfully taught kids about talking with ordinary people – or provide the quiet nudge to ask a key question in a stumbling interview.
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I’ve also heard a number of the production staff in Preston are set to go (Ad Creation). Can anyone confirm this?
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Snapper cull has apparently hit the North-East as well.
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My local weekly is a JP Yorkshire title. Quite frankly, if they’re thinking of replacing their photographers’ images with UGC, they can only have completely lost their minds. The photos are the only decent thing left in the paper. The copy is just so appalling it makes me want to cry – upwards of 10 obvious errors in stories of about 200 words, reporters who clearly haven’t grasped the basics of spelling and grammar, and a complete disregard of the concept of a news story. Chuck out the professional photos or local people and you might as well just pack the whole thing in now. It’s heartbreaking.
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Hi, Guys.
I was devastated when redundancy happened to me (in my mid-fifties!)
Best thing that ever happened! Forced me to set up as self employed/freelance. I honestly wish I had done it decades ago.
Chins up and good luck!
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“New ways of working – which have resulted in a reduction in photographic roles – have been successfully implemented in some of JP’s other regions”
Really? I’m guessing by “successfully implemented” they mean the remaining staff (ie journalists already having to cover vast news patches on less than minimum staff numbers, having to hit video targets, and managing their own websites and social media accounts alongside somehow finding the time to source, investigate and write stories) have now added the role of photographer and photographic editor to their daily tasks, taking grainy photos on mobile phones, relying on archive pictures to fill templated pages, and sourcing freelancers for jobs.
JP is a disgrace to the industry. Bosses don’t seem to grasp what their core product is – NEWS. Either in print or online pictures are such a huge part of news, and high quality pictures give news sources credibility and appeal.
JP bosses are so focussed on ad revenues, but don’t seem to realise that businesses won’t want to advertise in a product that no one reads, which is what will ultimately be the case if they continue driving down the standards of their products by over cutting editorial staff.
My thoughts are with all those affected, and I hope this will open the door for them to find something new, where they will actually get the respect they deserve for their talents.
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Another very sad but inevitable step in the wrong direction for newspapers, the community & hard working staff. From a former JP photographer.
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The North East is getting culled too
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similar stuff happening in Sussex. Its a rash. Papers supposed to be relying on freelances, but will JP be able to afford them. “Can you send us a picture please?” will soon be an even more common plea from a desperate reporter.
Still, remember that’s empowering the reader!!!
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Muker Boy makes a very good point here; it’s not just about taking pictures. Some photographers are often a big help to reporters, not just the raw trainees, in keeping a conversation going with an interviewee.
But I well remember those dim and distant days, as one of those raw trainee reporters, being nudged through the first couple of jobs when it was the photographer who asked the questions I forgot to ask…
Sadly these days the trainees rarely get out of the office anyway.
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Newspapers are the only industry I can think of where they express surprise that people are not willing to pay for a deteriorating product.
It’s like Jaguar Land Rover putting the price of its latest car up but replacing the bloke that paints them with a primary school kid. You get your new shiny land rover and it looks like it’s been sneezed on and say you’re not buying one again, and Land Rover’s Mr Big blames it on the internet.
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Lord Humungous … there are several going from a section that did Easy Online (I think, don’t quote me). I hear there are very few production staff left.
Studio based at Preston have not heard anything on their future, which is apparently quite unusual to get to November without a cull. Maybe this new Chief Creative Officer will be given the task of thinning out these departments. Who knows what will happen in the wonderful world of JP.
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And the effect of all these ‘further efficiency savings’ is that the share price will still be bumping around 3.5p as the average for this week.
Ashley – I am beginning to think morale among your City friends is at rock bottom too.
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I know of one or two Johnston offices that are not fit for human habitation. They are filthy with rotting carpets and paintwork that has not seen a brush for a hundred years. I truly do not know how people work in them. I would not keep a dog in there!
I have known Johnstons for many years and they have always bought the cheapest furniture they can, and everything was tacky. This happened even when they making zillions.
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Works out well for some photographers though. The office I was made redundant from (admin) the photographers (and sports editor) got big redundancy packages and now they work for them freelance…….result!!!!!
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So very sad but, of course, inevitable as the JP lemming races ever closer to the cliff edge. It doesn’t matter how many people comment here, the chiefs will not heed the warnings. To those being forced out of the door, please don’t worry! JP says it doesn’t need you – in time, you will com to realise that YOU don’t need the hassle and stress this penny-pinching (yet still able to recruit in management roles) monster has inflicted on you and your colleagues. Good luck!
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Couldn’t agree more with the comments posted in relation to this story.
New reporters on the Sheffield Star used to take their first trip out of the office (remember them?) with chief photographer Ernie Catley, so he could run the rule over them.
“User-generated” pictures, as well as being of poorer quality than staff pix, lead to factual errors, typified by those which prompted me to write to the Derbyshire Times this week, as follows:
“A couple of weeks ago you published a reader’s photograph purporting to show “Bakewell Canal”.
Last week, side by side on page 46, you reproduced pictures of “…the River Derwent in Bakewell” and “…the River Wye in Bakewell”.
Last time I looked, unless there has been a recent Biblical-scale flood, Bakewell has never had a canal and has only one river, the Wye, which flows into the Derwent a couple of miles downstream from Bakewell in Rowsley.”
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Newspaper sales staff are also being made redundant.
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Thou cutt’st my head off with a golden axe,
And smilest upon the stroke that murders me.
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In agreement with comments made here re: Yorkshire titles. Yesterday’s YEP was free and came with a wrap (the only reason I saw it) and contained a coupon for 30p off a future purchase. (There are also ‘Early Bird’ offers for Christmas advertising, so can we assume things are going from bad to worse regarding advertising spend?) In particular, the Classifieds section was abysmal: the unbranded house ads instruct the reader to call their local newspaper, so any idiot knows they are generic, not created for the YEP. Consequently they look out of place, on top of looking appalling. Worst of all were the two atrocious ‘Remember Them’ In Memoriam ads which appeared side by side on one page; the first was about 20cms deep and stretched to fill 4 columns, the second 35cms deep but squashed to fill 3. Cannot stress enough how bad this looked. It’s almost impossible to believe that these pages were designed, at great cost, only a couple of years or so ago. Does management at JP honestly think that outsourcing Studio work has been a success in terms of design? And yet JP is now intent on making even more pages look dire, without even a striking, quality photo to get attention. Regarding Preston Studio still hanging on: if the standard from India is deemed acceptable, I don’t understand why any Studio/Ad creation staff remain. By the way, any news on the new Chief Creative Officer? My sympathy to the photographers involved, especially at this time of year, but also to the remaining reporters: now jack-of-all-trades, not masters of one.
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as a young reporter in the South I learned a lot about how to deal with people from the two snappers I worked with. Now that office has only one, and very soon it will have none. Since all its experienced reporters quit in disgust some time ago and the paper has no other editorial staff, who do the two greenhorns left on the burning deck learn from?
JP directors appear very stupid or just plain desperate. Perhaps both.
Send in the Clowns? Don’t bother, they’re here.
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Local newspapers have been so cut back of late, that the only people the paying public see is the Press Photographer. We are the face of the publication, the contact who arrives with a smile and years of exercise and local knowledge. We look after the young trainees while they find their feet, enabling them to build contacts and confidence In their chosen field of Journalism.
But I’m also a paying member of a dwindling readership of local newspapers online and in print. I want to see strong stories with bold and creative pictures. I don’t want to view mediocre images sent from a iPhone taken by an overworked reporter struggling to get both the story and a picture.
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New ways of working = sending reporters out to take their own photos
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And finally … while editor-in-chief at the late lamented and now lamentable Reporter Series in 1997 I was being ‘trained in change management’ (sacking people) by a company HR stooge. After several valiant attempts at “but what if we have great new PROFITABLE ideas, initiatives, launches etc…” she replied, to the merriment of my fellow (now long gone) managers: “Danny, when one man decides to take on the world, it’s pretty safe to bet your money on the world.” Hey, I’m still betting on the ‘ideas’ men! Fancy totting up chips and going all in?
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A sad state of affairs
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JP Cost Cut Victim – can I ask what part of JP you previously worked in?
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I launched The Press in Dewsbury in 2002. Six of our first year staff are still here, and most have had a 5%+ salary increase in 2014. There is still a world out there.
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Nobody ever seems to mention that Johnston Press wiped out the photographic departments as well in Northern Ireland earlier in the year; user generated content is simply a fancy way of describing a fanciful initiative whereby they get the readers to provide the copy and pictures free of charge and then pay fir the paper so they can see what they handed in. It will work for a while, but the clowns will soon cotton on to the scam and keep their money in their pockets.
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In the south they were offered 2x their weekly wage capped at £30k. Has anyone been offered more from the outset?
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LJS – Yes, you may ask: Creative Services.
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It will be difficult enough for the trainee reporters in North and East Yorkshire to source, investigate and write stories, meet their video quota, run their social media accounts and continually update the website (24/7 without extra pay, as remember, news never sleeps).
But sending them out to take their own pictures is just cruel, considering the one centre left open in YRN is in Scarborough.
The patch their papers cover stretches from the villages north of Whitby down 60 odd miles to Beverley – and east to west, the 40 miles from coastal towns like Bridlington to villages the other side of Pocklington near York.
Laughably, the number of staff togs covering this patch were cut from five (and a part timer) to two last year. In every town and village south of Scarborough, the only face people know from the papers is the remaining photographer who has unrivalled local knowledge and an incredible list of contacts. People will be furious when he goes.
And to be honest Scoop – the only thing keeping East Yorks papers afloat is the football and sport coverage. There used to be a few old timers who’d send togs out to the opening of an envelope, but surely they’re not still hanging about.
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Getting rid of photographers leads to a sharp reduction in quality.
A sharp reduction in quality leads to readers walking away.
Readers walking away leads to a sharp drop in advertising.
A sharp drop in advertising leads to the company falling apart!
Take this road if you want but don’t whinge when you’re de-listed from the stock exchange!
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Bloodsucker – good point. There’s a lot going on that seems to go under the radar. For example, while all these redundancies are announced for the North, there’s a group of five JP papers based in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, which has not had staff photographers since the beginning of the year.
About four years ago, they had three staff photographers, one regular freelance and support from another over weekends. Now, they only have the freelance – and he does two days a week. Two days to cover five newspaper patches. It’s laughable.
Support was supposed to be on offer from the neighbouring Yorkshire Post offices in Leeds, but that never emerged. They’ve got their own problems to worry about, no doubt.
Meanwhile, the hefty supplement of school starters which has been a staple of the weekly papers for many years was this year a) made entirely of UGC line-ups of pupils, many of whom were falling off the edges of the image or completely out of focus, and b) published at the end of October. That first day of school truly is something parents want to remember forever – so let’s just hope they weren’t relying on the paper to help them do so.
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Totally agree with Mr Angry2. Damn shame he isn’t on the JP board!
The culture within JP for a number of years has been the total disregard for quality, something that this latest move proves beyond any doubt.
So let’s put a few things straight regarding the JP statement:
“successfully implemented in some of JP’s other regions and our teams in Yorkshire and the North West are now working with the editorial teams to establish whether similar approaches are to be adopted.”
“I can’t confirm numbers as the discussions are still on going – but we are working hard to support staff who may be affected.”
We’ll start with “successfully implemented” … this does not mean that it has actually been a successful move/change for the better, simply that they (JP) have successfully cut the numbers of very talented creative professionals.
Now let’s pick up on the bit that says “now working with the editorial teams to establish whether similar approaches are to be adopted.” .. This is interesting, because the first the editorial teams knew anything about this, was when they were told the ‘snappers’ were being made redundant, which is a far cry away from trying to establish if a similar approach should be adopted!
Finally: “we are working hard to support staff who may be affected” … Are they? I have it on good authority that the staff affected by this (Yorkshire) have, to date, had no support whatsoever, very little communication from the powers that be, and received a consultation pack only after asking for it.
JP are very quickly becoming (if not already) the laughing stock of the media world, and not the world leaders that they pretend to be. Fine, Highfield effectively gave us all the BBC iPlayer which is great (especially for the non TV License holders) but if he, or the rest of JP seriously think that qualifies him to be the head of a media company, I’ll take my money and run ……
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What all these comments sum up is a milestone in newspaper history. The demise of the professional photographer and the rise of the amateur.
Crap pictures are already acceptable to management (take a look at your local weekly for living proof).
Remains to be seen if they are acceptable to the mugs still paying for their local rag. Probably not.
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My local paper, a JP rag, has an out of focus dreadfully composed pic of a leering man, obviously sent in by a twit with a phone camera. Blown up big on the FRONT page. The game is up.
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Out of focus messy pic of grinning bloke blown up big and adorning most of front page of my rapidly declining local paper. Must be a freebie sent- in snap. Remembrance coverage look like all sent in snaps, worst for years says my dad. The end is here.
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