The proposed cull of staff photographers at the former Local World newspaper titles has widened with nearly 20 posts expected to go at its South East division.
As reported on HTFP earlier today, both the Nottingham Post and Leicester Mercury are restructuring their picture-gathering operation with greater use to be made of user-submitted photos and copyright-free images.
Now it has emerged that it is part of a wider reorganisation of photographic teams across the group, which is now part of Trinity Mirror.
According to an internal memo which has been seen by HTFP, the equivalent of 19.45 full-time photographic posts are at risk across the region, along with 17 newspaper sales roles.
Titles affected by the proposed photographic changes include the Essex Chronicle, Whitstable Times, Herne Bay Times, Canterbury Times, Faversham Times, Isle of Thanet Gazette, Dover Express, Folkestone Herald and Crawley News.
The National Union of Journalists is calling for the proposals to be ditched.
National organiser Laura Davison said: “These cuts are a kick in the teeth for committed photographers at Local World. They’ve stuck with the company through two changes of ownership in three years only to be told their skills are no longer needed within a few short months of Trinity Mirror’s takeover.
“It smacks of opportunistic budget cutting without a care for the quality of the content or the fact that local communities will be robbed of their photographers to record events such as Remembrance Sunday, sports days and news events. Do we really want the mourners at the local war memorial to be captured by selfies?
“This is an extremely short-sighted policy from a company which is attempting to drive-up digital consumption. Free photographs from readers cannot compensate for the work of professionals. Advertisers will be as unimpressed as the readers.
“These proposals need to be ditched.”
The NUJ has also claimed that in addition to the proposed photographic redundancies in Leicester and Nottingham, two photographer jobs will be lost at the Derby Telegraph, one at the Uttoxeter Advertiser and one at the Burton Mail.
According to the union, two new roles will be created covering all three papers, but the Mail will no longer have any dedicated photographers.
A spokeswoman for Local World said: “With more sources of copyright-free material becoming available and our journalists having technology that allows them to take photos and video, some centres are moving to models that gives them the flexibility to cope better with changing and varying demand.”
Trinity Mirror says the photographic plans are is not a result of the merger – but something Local World was already planning.
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“Some centres are moving to models that gives them the flexibility to cope better with changing and varying demand.” Disingenuous tripe! This is purely and simply about doing it on the cheap. The papers and their websites are on their last legs if they are to be filled with rubbishy images from people with no photographic skills. Giving me a paintbrush doesn’t make me Rembrandt; same principle here.
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‘….With more sources of copyright-free material becoming available and our journalists having technology that allows them to take photos and video….”
In other words they’re saying we can get pictures on the cheap, we couldn’t care less about giving readers the quality pictures they deserve so we’re happy to run with reader supplied camera phone pictures, snaps taken by gullible juniors keen to ingratiate themselves and stock free imaging as long as it saves us a few quid and we can bank the 20 salaries we now no longer need.
And when they say newspaper sakes jobs, do they mean ad reps or those responsible for copy sales?
This all shows us the true value regional press companies like LW put on the quality of the products papers and web sites they’re desperate to sell ads into.
With Archant and their laughable cinema tickets for stories and even having their own reader supplied Twitter site this is just another sign of an industry on the brink of collapse.
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So what they are saying is don’t send a photographer out unnecessarily? If you’re out at an event (as a reporter) grab some pictures while you are there? Not quite sure what the issue is here…What I’m reading is that if someone sense in pictures of something, for example an accident, then use them. Don’t send a photographer out if the accident has been cleared. Most places I know don’t have staff photographers, they have freelancers. Papers are businesses too. So like every other business, you have to be mindful of certain expenditures.
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Plus “gives” relates to the plural noun “models”, so it should be “give”. That just about sums up this woeful charade.
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B Realistic: the issue here is that many of the newly acquired LW titles boasted superb photography that enhanced the quality of their offering, on paper and online. Take the Essex Chronicle’s coverage of V Festival, for example, double-page spreads packed with excellent work, in stark contrast to the few submitted snaps, which are mostly dismal. The same title also covered other music festivals, agricultural shows, school events, artistic productions and so on, all illustrated with top-notch photo work. To say that suddenly none of this is necessary or desirable is to deny the validity of photo-journalism for more than a century. Why not cull some of the useless middle-management positions (i.e. those with no specific skills) rather than talented, qualified and front-line staff who give the products value? Shameful.
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“With more sources of copyright-free material becoming available..”
Hence the rise (including across the BBC News website) of Google Street View shots of the scene of a night time stabbing, fire or serious accident in February. Shame then that the Google shot was taken at midday in the summer and of course there are no police cars, wrecked vehicles, firefighters or bystanders to see – and no, the road names are not really painted down the middle of the road!
And don’t get me on the use of Alamy and others’ shots of, for example, coiffured laughing and probably American silver foxes in designer clothing used to illustrate ‘Oxdown pensioners happiest in Midlands says a survey’.
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I like the .45 bit, you see it everywhere nowadays. We’re no longer human beings, we are all just economic digits.
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My local paper used to cover Remembrance Day parades in respect to those who died and carried some excellent pictures. Now if pix are not sent in by the public there is no coverage. Tell me if this is an improvement.
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It doesn’t have to be like this. Whilst newspapers are not being read in the numbers they used to, they still make money otherwise these conglomerates wouldn’t want them! A newspaper can still be profitable with quality journalism and professionally taken pictures. Is the answer a management buyout by bosses that genuinely care about the product and their colleagues? A cooperative of workers? I would gladly work for a paper run on these lines, even putting my hand in my pocket to own a tiny bit of something I care about.
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Why do photographers always get targeted in cost cutting. Photographers are just as capable of writing, so why reporters with camera phones, lets have a change and have photographers with notebooks. Most staff photographers I know are very good at getting off diary stories and they are more likely to meet people with tipoffs.
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@Disgruntled
I don’t think the answer is a management buy out as most on the management side are clueless as to how to run a business.
Locally there are a wealth of quality independent papers and magazines who work to the principals and ethics long gone from the bigger regionals and all are thriving
These independants are always looking for good staff
Forget the regionals they’re a dying medium being milked for the last penny with no eye on the future
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I don’t understand what they mean by ‘copyright-free’. Even (actually, especially) Google street view and maps images are copyrighted and subject to licensing agreements. Google actively pursues commercial offenders on that front. Meanwhile, do they mean that user-generated crap is copyright free, because it certainly isn’t unless an explicit rights-grab (a la BBC) is made on submission.
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Rushphoto – nice idea, and full-trained all-round photojournalists would be a great idea. But I’ve never met a photographer who can write a caption without several mistakes, let alone stories, and to a man all those I’ve worked with have been congenitally allergic to any kind of change, let alone diversification.
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@adrian I think they mean (c) Social Media like a lot of the tabloids do….
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As one of the first to voluntarily scramble through the Local World window of opportunity that is voluntary redundancy, may I say that I don’t regret it one bit. Good luck to anybody affected by this latest hatchet job. A whole new life beckons outside the regional press.
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Axe Lady, I can write a self contained caption without mistakes and I know lots of photographers who can do the same. I am NCTJ (Sheffield) qualified, part of the qualification was “Caption Writing”. I am willing to learn to write stories, I already bring in page lead and front page stories on a regular basis. I have been a photographer for thirty five years and I know over a hundred photographers and many are NOT as described by you. I am clinging on to the profession I love by my fingertips. Maybe if reporters had been opposed to diversification by not taking pictures more photographers maybe in work now!
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Another nail in the coffin. I refuse to believe these managers are blind – they must know full well that user-generated images aren’t anywhere near as good. My guess is they’re just trying to squeeze the last few drops of profit out of the industry before they cash in their chips.
I know they’re not the most technically savvy types, but the difference between pro-shot images and stuff taken by Joe Public is night and day. You’re not going to sell more copies or attract more eyeballs with shots that are blurry, out of focus or have half the subjects looking away or blinking.
That isn’t to say there aren’t some very skilled amateurs out there, of course, but they’re few and far between. Besides which, if the industry starts relying on them too heavily, it shouldn’t be surprised if they turn around and demand to be paid.
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Disgruntled Toggy – with respect, I gave up counting when I got to the eighth error in your copy… sorry, comment. As with photography, there’s a lot more to writing print-ready copy than meets the eye. And I must have worked with 100-plus regional press photographers myself – mostly great people, if wonderfully grumpy, but culturally stuck in the 1970s. I’m amazed it’s taken this long for the new world to really start to catch up with them.
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Quite a few of us photographers not great caption writers, but always remember the Who, where, why, what and when. Guess we helped keep the subs in jobs…
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Axe Lady – does it matter? The fact remains that great photographers, irrespective of whether they’re stuck in the 70s or not, and irrespective of whether they can write good copy or not, can bring a valuable skill to the table which many reporters don’t possess.
That’s not to say it isn’t possible to be good at both, of course. A hugely talented snapper at one of my previous papers would often bring in off-diary stories with quotes as she also had shorthand, initiative and a great way with people.
In any case, it’s silly arguing over whether writers or photographers are more important – done properly, they’re both vital elements of the equation.
(Ultimately, this is all irrelevant as in 30 years’ time every job in the world will be carried out by machines. I, for one, am preparing to welcome our new robot overlords.)
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Another cost cutting measure which will drop the quality of newspapers. Sure there are some people who can take a good picture to send in but those people are rare. I’ve seen reader taken photographs and there are generally really bad and have to be fixed in photoshop.
Asking a reporter to use their smart phone (or even worse a company provided smart phone) is no way going to be as good as an professional taken picture.
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Good luck in your ‘New World’ Axe Lady. Advertisers and readers are leaving in droves already – add your awful phone camera created pictures to the mix and you’ll soon be wielding that axe on yourself
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A picture is worth a thousand words.
Not any more.
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How unfortunate for you Axe Lady. I’ve had the benefit of working with some great photographers over the years. Most were decent caption writers, almost all brought in off- diary stories, some were excellent negotiators and none were stuck in the 70s. Come to think of it, a fair few of them had better literacy skills than some of the reporters I’ve worked with in more recent years. Being able to illustrate a news story is a skill, especially when it isn’t something that’s happening in front of you. That’s why real press photographers are important.
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Axe lady, or should I say Sad lady…no doubt you are the type of wordsmith who would ask someone their name…not what they are called………….
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Over the last three years or so I have seen the quality of the Times series of papers (Canterbury Times, Faversham Times, Herne Bay Times, Whitstable Times) plummet like a photocopier being pushed off the end of Herne Bay pier at high tide.
These newspapers once represented their respective communities and, please note, produced some great journalism and excellent photography.
Getting rid of staff snappers is pretty much the final nail in the coffin.
If I was one of the few journalists left on the former LW papers (and it appears that most of the papers are ‘written’ by people of work experience these days) I would ask HR if there was any money on the table. If there is, grab it with both hands and get the hell out.
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You don’t need to be a ‘photographer’ to take a run-of the-mill but publishable picture of an inanimate object or someone posing for a picture.
You do need to be a photographer to take outstanding pictures.
There is room for perfectly passable civilian pics – USG – and journalist snapshots but with some professionals for the more important stuff.
Sadly, we are reaching the point when there will be no staff photographers.
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