Two picture desk roles are set to be axed at a regional daily newsroom – to be replaced by a user generated content editor.
The move by Newsquest Hampshire at the offices of the Southern Daily Echo, in Southampton, will affect all of the company’s titles in the county.
Under the proposal, revealed in an announcement to staff by editor in chief Ian Murray, left, the picture desk at the Echo’s Redbridge base would cease to exist in its present form with the emphasis for images shifting from staff photographers to freelancers, other staff members and user generated content.
As a result, the present picture editor and deputy picture editor roles are at risk of redundancy.
At the same time the post of user generated content editor would be created to oversee the “central content gathering” operation for Newsquest’s Hampshire titles.
The news comes less than a fortnight since it was revealed that three weekly editor roles at Newsquest titles in the county would be cut.
Keith Redbourn, editor of the Winchester-based Hampshire Chronicle and Romsey Advertiser chief Andrew Ross are set to be made redundant, while the vacant seat left by Mark Jones at the Basingstoke will not be replaced.
Ian will now have editorial responsibility for all three titles.
In the latest announcement, Ian said: “Due to the proposed advancement and investment of technology for the editorial department in Newsquest Hampshire at some point in the future there are expected to be changes to the manner in which the editorial department operates.
“It is proposed to create a central content gathering operation for all the Hampshire titles.
“As part of these proposals if they are accepted functions on the main news and content desk will change.
“It is proposed as part of these proposed changes that the picture desk will no longer exist in its present form and its functions will become part of the altered main news and content desk.
“If accepted the proposals would see the emphasis for images shift to less staff photographers and more use of freelances, user generated content and images provided by other staff members.
“If accepted these proposals will mean the roles of picture editor and deputy picture editor at the Newsquest Hampshire main newsroom at Redbridge will no longer be required.”
A consultation period with affected staff begins today with the outcome being announced on 20 March.
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When I was a minor Minim my little pals wanted to be airline pilots, nuclear scientists, brain surgeons and bus drivers. I, however, wanted to be a content-gatherer and that is what – many years later – I look like becoming, if I still have a job at all, which these poor pictures people have not. Anyone for submitted images of soccer matches minus the ball? People with lampposts growing out of their heads? It’s happening to a paper near you right now.
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Fewer staff photographers,editor Ian, not less (trainees please note).
Effect will be the same. Mostly crap sent-in pictures. See other local papers for examples.
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‘It is proposed’
‘As part of these proposals if they are accepted’
‘It is proposed as part of these proposed changes’
‘If accepted the proposals would see’
‘If accepted these proposals will mean’
‘A consultation period’
Why didn’t Mr Murray just end the announcement with ‘read my lips’ and leave us in absolutely no doubt that this is not a done deal!
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Well that’s bound to improve quality no end isn’t it?
A huge boost for the Echo’s drive to increase sales.
And we wonder why the regional press is going to hell in a handcart.
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Another ‘exciting’ development, then.
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Brighton Argus next then
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It is heartbreaking – as is the latest instance of hypocritical twaddle from a publisher, pretending that its cost-saving wheeze is up for genuine debate as to its merits and/or implementation.
I do wonder why ‘citizen journalism’ in all its forms doesn’t apply to publishers’ regional and national management structures.
Am sure lots of folk would love to have a nice car, healthcare, non-contributory pension, share options and a fat salary – without having the relevant skillset or experience.
Shouldn’t the concept of ‘user-generated input’ be introduced throughout the publishing pyramid?
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Just read it, and if it all fits together is there any need for an editor-in-chief?
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Surely all this weekly editor and picture desk/photographer culling is just a precursor to all these Newsquest daily titles becoming weekly. It will happen before the end of the year. Mark my words.
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‘User generated content editor’ ???? Beam me up Scottie. Who has unleashed these lunatics into newspapers and given them the power to make decisions? We are desperately trying to find decent pictures for the paper every week since some brightspark sacked all the photographers but we are reduced to using crap submitted images – and still we are being beaten by a big stick to improve newspaper sales. Alice in Wonderland or what?
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Hear, hear Ian Halstead – huge cost savings to be made throughout the industry by getting rid of the publishers – does anyone know what they do? Why do we need publishers and RMD’s – one of these salaries would pay for an entire newsroom of highly-skilled, intelligent, qualified people who know what they are doing and more to the point care about the industry and its future.
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I spent three years rewriting UGC. Full of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes and libellous claims.
Just because you can write or take a picture, doesn’t mean you should get published.
Idiots running the regional media further into the ground.
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I am looking at the user generated sports copy on my local paper. Paragraphs repeated, no scoreline, no mention of which competition, disgraceful sent-in pictures. Lots of we, we, we, in copy (yes I know, piss poor). Question to senior management: Is this what you think will get people to buy weekly papers? I hope the kids on the block do not think this is the right way to do things.
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Full of brilliant ideas and i totally respect them. I really do. Just another two years and all the papers will close. That’s another great idea, why don’t we close all the newspapers down and just have Twitter as the all seeing God of news?
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I spent nearly 40 years in the industry before redundancy. I have moments when I miss it. Then I hear of some more lunacy by managers and I am glad to leave it behind and savour the never perfect but so much better times.
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PJ ROBBO. No doubt someone will correct me if I goof , but I don’t think the Brighton Argus has had a picture editor for ages. It does still have one or two talented snappers who pick up the baton when they are on duty. Let’s hope they keep them,.
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Yet more depressing, but not surprising news. Management of the likes of Newsquest, JP etc. seem to think that these changes will not be noticed by readers, but of course they will. Quality will take a dive. People do not want to buy a paper stuffed with content from anywhere, but content produced by local professionals. I notice that this week sees the end of the always entertaining Oliver Cross column in the YEP, and yet the YP filled an entire quarter page on a few Morrissey quotes re: music awards, lifted from a website and padded out with a huge photo. Where is the journalism? How these papers hope to retain readers is beyond me: they certainly won’t be moving over to the digital offering.
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Good pictures sell papers.
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What a shame that the “proposed advancement and investment of technology for the editorial department” doesn’t include a camera, two lenses & a version of Photoshop – something which most Newsquest photographic departments were stripped of with the coming of ‘Knowledge’.
Come to think of it what does the “proposed advancement and investment of technology for the editorial department” include? Is it the iphones which Newsquest reporters are all being issued with?
NEWSFLASH: No-one pays to read tweets or look at poor quality, poorly composed photos on Facebook!
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Cuts have nothing to do with improving anything: they ‘create’ wealth out of funds meant for other purposes. The wealthy don’t pull their weight as taxpayers, want more profits, don’t care who is hurt or burned out. That’s NOT ‘how things are now': it’s what happens when elites stop acting responsibly. End result: poverty. Disenfranchisement. A poorly informed populace. Bad decisions at elections. People easily stripped of assets. That’s the only real story now, worldwide. Make the wealthy pay taxes, enforce responsible money-handling, and watch it change.
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To modify a scene from the film Brassed Off:
“Newspapers, you remember newspapers — reporters, photographers, same-day editions !”
Sadly, today’s younger generation can’t be bothered to buy a newspaper and use their GCSE brain cell to try and read what’s in it. And a picture’s not a real picture unless it’s a selfie.
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Complete lack of honesty in this announcement. Why don’t they just tell the truth: we need to save even more money so we’re sacking more people. Newspaper quality inevitably goes out of the window, people stop buying the paper, paper closes, everyone out of a job… the provincial press is on the slippery slope to oblivion..
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Newsquest is all about producing cheap and nasty little papers (little being the operative word in that for the past five years they trimmed the size of the paper to save a few pence). If you have any doubt about the future of Newquest newspapers look at the man who they put in charge of future development – a man whose vision was to feature double page spreads of photos of people going out on a Friday night in Dorset.
At the time Newsquest is dramatically increasing the price of its papers, claiming them to be a quality product. This brilliant double pronged strategy cheaper, nastier “user generated” (amateur) content coupled with large inflation-busting price rises spells nothing but a slow death for the regional press. And it will be a slow death… and when they eventually close in 10 years’ time no one will bother mourning them.
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I trust the ‘User Generated Content Editor’ or anyone else dealing with images after the culling of Newsquest Picture Desks, can tell the difference between a JPEG and a clothes peg; I know that when I was a regional newspaper Picture Editor in the ’80’-’00’s, many then thought it didn’t matter!
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Sadly and to my amazement,picture desk and staff photographers have been letting the unseen enemy in for years ( readers pics) if I had been on the desk they wouldn’t have got out of the email that they had been sent in with. Did nobody see this coming, photographic department thinking that’s saved them a journey or oh well let’s use this one, it’s crap but a least I will get home on time and I won’t get stuck in all that traffic getting to the incident, also it might be gone by the time I get there!!!!
Togs have seen this coming for years hence not a crumb of goodwill!
Thanks Newsquest, investor in people, I will move on and glad to see the back of Newsquest for all the wrong reasons!
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Why not make the Echo one big blog?….that should keep costs down. Ian Murray should be worried if he see’s a red sofa for sale in the classifieds.
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I think I missed the funeral of decent newspapers, suspect this is wake. I hope Ian Murray’s bosses don’t declare their “full support” for him soon, though I suspect his leaving “do” is not far off.
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Prediction: Gilson’s brand of strong journalism and tough love will be a triumph and turn the Brighton Argus round in a year. Or he will walk in a couple of weeks.
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The irony of this story is that the picture of Ian in this article is 20 years old and thus, the readership of his titles will soon be receiving similarly poor content. Pictures sell newspapers and also create great online content kids!
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Gilson is a bright lad, but I am not sure he knows the full story at Brighton. The big question is will he become a management toadie (not his nature I suspect) like so many in the industry or really fight for more staff, which the Argus cannot progress without.
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Writing news has always been about simple communication and avoiding clumsy phrases, terms and titles. When reporters are reduced to the status of robotic ‘content gatherers’ you know the industry is in a sorry state.
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Oh for Christ’s sake stop it already with this end is nigh crap every time. Newspapers don’t make as much money anymore because of the internet, so cost cutting is inevitable. Staff snappers have been on borrowed time ever since the first camera phone. If we need to fill the paper with a few dodgy reader pics to save a few quid so be it. Maybe readers can spell the names right on the caption.
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The point Barry, dear boy, is that pretty soon there won’t be any readers left to spell the names right on the caption.
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I was a picture editor for 14 years on evening, daily and sunday sheets. My dept looked after 5 other editorial areas, generated ideas and carried out pre production duties. It was called journalism then and run professionally. I had 9 photogs and three desk staff. all dedicated loyal and professional. Since then Newsquest has bought out the group and frankly I would not cross the road to buy my once beloved paper
If they think that another untrained executive level can run the graphic area we should really get the shovels out and start burying newspapers.
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The point, Dream on, dear boy, is that no amount of ‘quality’ pictures or stories are going to save paid-for daily or weekly local newspapers from drastic changes.
Barry is right. The end is not nigh, just inevitable in their current guise and this is just the next round of cost-cutting to eke out a few more years under the existing business model. Yes, some papers will even disappear sooner because of this process but, for those which survive, it will instead help to determine the shape of the future business model.
It’s not doom and gloom, it’s just change. I feel for those affected but it’s not like this is a shock. I moved away from print five years ago and, even then, there were publishers axing staff photographers and, instead, only using freelance snappers alongside the ‘dreaded’ UGC.
It all goes hand-in-hand with subbing hubs and content creators, I’m afraid. It’s not ideal, but needs must!
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A lively debate is fizzling out into the usual damp squibs and non-sequiturs (here is proof) but plenty of good points have been made. I’ll repeat what I said when we started: there is no mileage in trying to “save the industry” if you are deliberately downgrading your product quality – people literally won’t buy it, paper or online. Indeed, jettisoning pro photographers also entails the defiantly non-profit making websites will look even worse than most of them already do. Get rid of the people who can’t actually DO anything (pen-pushers and mouse-clickers) to save the money and then give it a go. It’s called going down fighting at worst and, who knows, it may even work for some. Now that’s what call positive.
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This is just the latest desperate move by Newsquest to manage the decline of their business. Like other groups around the country they have run out of ideas. It is now just a matter of “make as much money as we can before we shut the papers down for good”. More chiefs than Indians, a dwindling audience, social media platforms that barely bring in enough money to pay the electricity bill and papers so thin you can shoot peas through them and with the only real talking point being the cover price. The chiefs have even turned the knives on themselves: editors heads are rolling and so the likes of Andy Martin end up doing four jobs: head of news at the Soton Echo (news and features editor jobs combined), deputy editor of the Echo and now – in his tea breaks I presume – editor of the Bournemouth Echo. Why not axe him and a couple more “editors” too? Combine the Weymouth, Bournemouth, Southampton and Brighton papers into one weekly paper, the Southern Argus-Echo. Readers won’t spot the difference: loads of news – none of it from their patch and loads of blurred pictures from non-readers wanting to get a picture byline rather than be paid hard cash.
The mistakes were made two decades ago, when newspaper Boards failed to recognise the threats and opportunities of the internet. Now they use them in a desperate web-first offering to tell advertisers they have an audience of thousands to add to their newspaper readerships which are so low they can almost send a Christmas card to each and every one of them.
But aren’t we all missing the real point? The real threat to the next generation of professional reporters, photographers and sub-editors. Where is the need for properly trained journalists if the regional newspaper industry is to fill its newspapers and social media platforms with the free amateur scrawl and pictures from the general public?
Anyway, must go, got to apply via twitter for a job as a “user generated content editor”. Pip-pip!
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I’d be ashamed if I was still associated with Newsquest in any way. Luckily, some years ago now mind, they paid me a not inconsiderable sum of money to clear off so they could employ less experienced and talented people to do my job, and many others, for less money. With photographers they’re not even doing that. What other business thinks a poorer product that costs more is a viable business model? I despair, I really do.
Having said that, I think they’re sunk no matter what. The time to come up with an alternative is long gone. The seeds were sown when they started free news websites. We all said it wouldn’t work, and it doesn’t. The much vaunted “tipping point” isn’t happening any time soon. And never will as long as low wage bills are put ahead of skill, talent, experience and a product that’s worth reading, online or in print.
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Dreadful company. This is crisis management at its worst. Is there anyone left in the boardrooms who actually CARE about their newspapers’ communities and readers?
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Barry C. Nothing was ever inevitable. It was hastened by senior management who coasted in the lucrative good times but were useless confronted by a new challenge of internet. Many are still with us!
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Poor Mr Gilson is in for a huge shock, he might be one of the best Editors in the land, but running the paper on shoestring budget and all the other applauling restraints employed by Newsquest could find MrG ;
A. Taking over a daily and finding that he’s going to run a weekly.
B. Having NO budget to invest in a paper that has been run into the ground for the last 9 years.
I wish Mr G good luck, he will need it!!!!
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So, the readers provide the content and are then expected to buy the paper they’ve just written. Don’t they already know what’s in it?
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