| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
AP reports: The Baltimore Sun lays off nearly 60
John Strohsacker, Photographer
|
Sean D. Elliot, Photographer, Photo Editor
 |
Norwich | CT | USA | Posted: 10:20 AM on 04.30.09 |
| ->> sickening ... |
|
Paul W Gillespie, Photographer
|
Annapolis | MD | USA | Posted: 10:40 AM on 04.30.09 |
->> A lot of good people lost their jobs this week. I will miss seeing the shooters who were let go on the assignments we would cover. While we work for competing papers it is always friendly between us shooters. I will say it again, who is going to collect this info that they want to distribute and who will put it on the page, be it paper of cyber?
From the Sun website "The Baltimore Sun's newsroom, said Renee Mutchnik, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Sun Media Group. "We're going to become a 24-hour, local news-gathering media company so we can more effectively gather content and distribute it among our different platforms: print, online and mobile," Well how can you effectively gather this news in a 24 hour news cycle if you have less people on the street? Idiots!
Good luck to those affected. Those of us left, I am sure, are not far behind. |
|
John Strohsacker, Photographer
|
Bob Ford, Photographer
|
Lehighton | Pa | USA | Posted: 12:34 PM on 04.30.09 |
->> According to this story:
http://tinyurl.com/daa5xy
Three reporters and a photographer found out they were laid off in the middle of a baseball game that they were covering. |
|
Sean D. Elliot, Photographer, Photo Editor
|
Norwich | CT | USA | Posted: 1:35 PM on 04.30.09 |
| ->> It is absolutely laughable (if it weren't so awful) that these executives get up there and say this will make us stronger and better ... I've heard it so many times. It's tripe, it's a lie. It may make their jobs more secure and them stronger, but the practice of journalism is going down the drain and there is no way layoffs and buyouts should be construed as good. |
|
Hal Smith, Photographer
|
Sedalia | MO | USA | Posted: 4:21 PM on 04.30.09 |
| ->> Just two words.....Sam Zell |
|
Michael Fischer, Photographer
|
Spencer | Ia | USA | Posted: 8:01 PM on 04.30.09 |
->> Sean, they think it's perceived as "noble" and "fighting the good fight". They think someone else believes it; they don't even believe what they say.
Hal, Sam Zell is just one of a zillion executives that thought this business was like every other. They found out the hard way how really wrong they were. |
|
Erik Markov, Photographer
|
Kokomo | IN | | Posted: 8:33 PM on 04.30.09 |
->> I've been working my way thru "The Wire" the HBO series about Baltimore, for the past few months, which David Simon who used to work for the Sun had the idea for the show and wrote for. It's been discussed before here I know.
I got Season 5 this week and just started watching it. For those that don't know, each season introduces a different aspect of the city to the show. 1st the police, then the criminals, city hall etc. Season 5 intros the Baltimore Sun and the people who work there.
Since Simon worked there, the portrayal should be true to life, and having watched the first disc, it sends chills down my spine. Scrambling for stories at the last minute, the screw ups, the successes. He's pegged perfectly I think how journalism is, right down to how "Chicago" thinks they know it all, but for the people in the city those platitudes don't play real well. For those who haven't watched the show, it's worth just checking out Season 5 for the newspaper side of the show. |
|
Steve Ueckert, Photographer
|
Houston | TX | | Posted: 10:37 PM on 04.30.09 |
->> Paul--
You wrote: "I will say it again, who is going to collect this info that they want to distribute and who will put it on the page, be it paper of cyber?"
Over the recent home stand, the Houston Chronicle (Houston is the 4th largest city in the USA and the largest in Texas) let the AP provide the sole photo coverage of the Houston Astros in their home ball park for a pair of games. The so called paper of record for the 4th largest city in the USA wouldn't/couldn't send a photographer to a MLB game in its own city.
The Houston Chronicle has closed four photographer positions since September, 2008.
It isn't just Baltimore, it is coast to coast.
Go figure....
--Steve Ueckert (early-retired 12/31/2008, position closed) |
|
Paul W Gillespie, Photographer
|
Annapolis | MD | USA | Posted: 11:57 PM on 04.30.09 |
->> I hear what you are saying Steve. I think it sucks for the a paper that size to use wire images of a home town game, but they can probably get away with it. Not sure if it was last year or the one before, but AP stopped sending shooters to cover Navy Football here in Annapolis.
I am talking more about the smaller papers, where local is their bread and butter. People buy my paper for one reason only and that is local coverage. It is an afternoon daily and by the time we hit the streets the World/National news is real old, that is unless it happens early that morning. I don't even know why we have a world/nation wire page. Actually I do, less copy for us to have to produce.
My point has always been if you cut the people who cover the local news, as well as the size of the paper, they will stop buying it. That and they can read it for free online.
AP is not staffing the local festivals I will be shooting this weekend. |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|