It was a rough morning on Monday for the 29 photo contributors to the Chicago Sun-Times: during a company presentation, they were casually fired, their employment terminated with immediate effect. The rationale?
The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news. We have made great progress in meeting this demand and are focused on bolstering our reporting capabilities with video and other multimedia elements. The Chicago Sun-Times continues to evolve with our digitally savvy customers, and as a result, we have had to restructure the way we manage multimedia, including photography, across the network.
So, to simplify the legalese, they had to trim down their staff to accommodate for changing user demand. Which is unfortunate, and ultimately a by-product of the news-consuming nation's shifting attention span. Some have gone as far to suggest that the motive may have been union-driven, as many of the terminated employees were unionized. On the other end of the spectrum, people simply say it's down to the "tyrannical" grip iPhone cameras have on news media, being readily available and easy to upload images with.
John White was one of the Pulitzer Prize winning photographers who lost his job (Image credit: Scott Strazzante)
Whatever stance you may take on the matter, it's just unfortunate. Here we have a group of people who have won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize on two occasions, and have been simply discarded by the wayside for changing demand. That brings up another strange inconsistency; with the meteoric rise of DSLR video, couldn't some of these employees been shifted into video production?
There's lots of speculation, and a lot of conjecture, but 27 photojournalists are ultimately out of a job. Let's hope they can get back on their feet soon.