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More photographic jobs to go at Johnston Press titles

More staff photographers at Johnston Press are set to lose their jobs after the publisher extended its content review to another of its regional divisions.

Over the past year, photographic departments have been axed across a number of JP divisions including Scotland, the North West and the Midlands following a review of how photographic content is generated.

Now the company has announced that the move is to be extended to its South division, which includes titles in Sussex and Hampshire.

It is understood that around ten roles are affected, including three staff photographers and the picture editor at flagship daily The News, Portsmouth.

A Johnston Press spokeswoman said:  “A number of photographic roles have been placed at risk at in the South Publishing Unit of Johnston Press following a proposal to change the way photographic content is generated.

“Local managers are making these difficult decisions to help ensure a sustainable, multi-platform future for local journalism.

“The company is committed to being as supportive as possible in making this transition to a successful digital future.

“Consultation is now under way with affected staff.”

Other titles affected by the proposals include the Chichester Observer and West Sussex County Times.

In other regions where the review has been carried out, most staff photographers left with an enhanced voluntary redundancy package, although a small number were made compulsorily redundant.

The first region to be affected by the changes, in November last year, was Scotland, where 24 photographic roles were placed at risk.

It was followed in January this year by the Midlands division and shortly afterwards by the North West titles, where around six staff photographers were kept on to cover the whole region under a pool arrangement.

20 comments

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  • October 13, 2014 at 9:08 am
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    Really sorry to hear that. Have worked with snappers at the Chi Obs and at The News – really good, undervalued people.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 9:13 am
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    Photographers,subs,and UGC,you can see where this is going….newspapers for the people..produced by the people.
    Who needs reporters ?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 9:20 am
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    Another week, another Johnston Press debacle.
    If JP thinks the future is some sort of amateur, ‘UGC’ inspired photographic lowest common denominator, why don’t they just get on with it ?
    This ponderous, slow roll out is cruel and must be tortuous for those photographers left in other parts of the JP kingdom. JP’s misguided strategic thinking is only surpassed by their inability to treat people properly. A JP photographer waking up in Yorkshire today is going to feel really motivated and positive about what they are doing.
    Does anyone think that other parts of JP are going to keep their photographers ?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 10:19 am
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    Inevitable announcement, given what’s happened in other JP areas and understandable that snappers elsewhere fear for their jobs. My local paper is full of ugc and it looks packed and newsy but inside there is a lot of content that is not relevant to me, pages and pages of it. There are also pictures with misspelled names in captions and stories that are doubles, apparently submitted by local council/police press officers with too much time on their hands and an invitation to fill all the white space. A lot of the rest is charity fodder from places I’ve never heard of. Regrettably, it takes me less time than ever to read and it pains me to say so, but if more of the content was online I wouldn’t bother to buy a copy at all.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 10:21 am
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    Its Autumn. Cull time in JP. Remember last year when some of the best quit? Some weeklies have only one proper photographer and weekend and evening cover is pathetic ( Can you send us a picture please? Don’t worry about the quality too much.)
    A share price of 3p tells the story of how JP has gradually stripped once-respected papers to rags. A tragedy.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 10:23 am
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    Sadly this will soon be the case in all media I fear. I work for an independent magazine publisher and they’ve decided to do away with all professional photography here too and have us journos take all the photos for the magazine. With no training whatsoever. The bosses literally gave us cameras and told us to get on with it then had the cheek to criticise the photos we took. A national magazine with barely passable photos taken by untrained journalists wont have a long shelf life I tell thee.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 10:40 am
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    Where is that axe going to swing next?

    Reporters, editors, features, sport? Who knows?

    It’s troubling, worrying and creating an awful place to work.

    Three rounds of voluntary redundancy in two years and now we are on to compulsory redundancy.

    Is it ever going to stop? I feel sick… Where’s the door?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 10:49 am
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    “Consultation is now under way with affected staff.”
    Don’t they really mean, we don’t care about our staff, all they really are, are numbers that affect our bottom line profit, and knowing how stupid the British people are, we will continue to strip Twitter, facebook and Instagram of all the pictures that we want and need, even though the vast majority of them are of such low quality, as we don’t have to pay for their usage as the owners of this content are quite happy to see their name in the paper, if we can even be bothered to credit the pictures to them….. Hang your heads in shame JP as you are no longer fit to be called a decent company…….

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  • October 13, 2014 at 11:38 am
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    Just think back to a couple of years ago when JP outlined their intentions to do exactly what they are doing now, so this round of redundancies shouldn’t come as any surprise. They made it perfectly clear that well trained professional staff photographers would at some point be surplus to requirements and the same would apply eventually to journalists. The papers we all once took enormous pride in producing will become nothing more than community information sheets full of contributed material and professional standards will be a thing of the past. JP should credit their readers with a modicum of taste and intelligence and realise that the local paper is a valued source of information and they want more than just a hotch potch of badly taken pictures and dull press releases. The downward spiral of circulation will be accelerated as the staff cuts continue but it seems that this is their overall intention, in favour of digital. Sad times indeed and all I can say is I am glad to be well out of it.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 12:00 pm
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    In agreement with all comments thus far, but could I point out that pre-press and creative staff redundancies were also compulsory: not all staff get to volunteer. Only last week, JP was advertising the fact that a staff photographer in Leeds was celebrating 45 years with Yorkshire Post Newspapers; using his images as spreads for the week and a video online. Will snappers only be retained if they can become a feature/page filler, and not for a good photograph on a daily basis?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 12:54 pm
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    They’re doomed, I tell ye – doomed! And there will not be anyone to take a picture.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 1:03 pm
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    The demise of JPs papers was never inevitable. It is true sales had fallen last decade, but many papers were very profitable and had excellent reputations.
    The greed of chasing the elusive crock of gold digital publishing is the main reason the company is in the more. I still think a well produced well staffed weekly can survive and do well, without a website too! But it is not going to happen.
    The boys in the boardroom dropped a digital clanger and the bridges have been burned. Good luck to all those hard working people still with JP.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 1:10 pm
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    Predictive text turned mire into more. Mire it is. Indeed.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 2:25 pm
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    Wonder how that will affect Lewes. The county town of East Sussex lost the base of its very old local paper, the Sussex Express, at start of year and its few remaining staff are still marooned miles away at neighbouring Haywards Heath. Would hardly be a surprise if the JP bean counters looking to save thousands a year might and just keep them there. Life is local, eh?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 4:17 pm
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    I know a few people who have worked for The News, both before and during the JP era. The paper is junk now apart from the output of the sports team and the local politics reporter. The iPad edition is regularly unusable because JP can’t set it up properly.

    A local businessman was recently looking at buying The News but he was put off because basically all he’d be buying is the name and about 10000 readers. The infrastructure of the paper, like everything else at JP, is non-existent.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 4:21 pm
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    Arguably photographers are at risk because of the way the job’s changed over the years – just as tech advances affected other newspaper jobs (remember the NGA?). But JP is on a sure road to the bottom. The board have effectively taken a decision that newspapers are on the way out and the management are showing them the door in quite spectacular fashion. Meantime there’s the half-baked approach to the websites – which need 24/7 breaking news cover in bigger patches – and of course the continuing problem of monetising the online readership. The tragedy is that great titles which could have carried on profitably for many more years are being sacrificed, as well as the jobs of good people who have given years of services to papers they loved.

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  • October 13, 2014 at 4:48 pm
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    If JP hate being newspaper publishers so much, why don’t they get out of the business and leave it to someone with the vision, passion and ideas to make it work? First they blamed TV, then they blamed the internet. When will they realise this is all their own fault?

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  • October 13, 2014 at 8:08 pm
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    JP relieves reporters of any will they have to do their job properly after a while. Standards are slipping without this – another hit to morale in editorial.
    Who’s next? Not the highly paid, poorly qualified newspaper bosses, that’s for sure.

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  • October 14, 2014 at 11:43 pm
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    One of the best drivers to a website is unique, interesting and beautiful photos taken by professionals and featuring readers, their friends and family and the places they live.
    If used properly, photographers could hold a vital part of the digital jigsaw puzzle and be a unique selling point.
    Yes JP wants to go digital, yes digital is the future but it’s quality that cuts the wheat from the chaff.
    Oh the irony! Open your eyes JP bosses!

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  • October 16, 2014 at 2:15 pm
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    My local sports club was told to send in its own report and pictures as paper could not hire freelance and sole staffer on day off. Oh yes, and no sports Ed.

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