One third of the The National Press Photographers Members To Lose Their Job This Year
That was the claim by Dirck Halstead, in May’s Letter From The Publisher of Digital Journalist, they claim:
2008 will go down as “The Year the Newspapers Died.” Publications are in free fall due to dropping circulation and falling advertising. Unfortunately, one of the first places the publisher turns to in order to cut costs is the photo department. We estimate that this year, as many as one third of the membership of The National Press Photographers Association will be out of a job.
While I didn’t see any back-up to that claim, there is some other doom and gloom for photojournalists in this issue.
Also, Terry Heaton for the Digital Journalist looks at the growth of the citizen journalist.
Photographers Rights
Yes, as a photographer you do have some rights.
For the sports photographer this might not be as big an issue as it is for others. But I can imagine that a photographer somewhere might be approached on school grounds while taking pictures of your own child participating in a sport.
Photographer’s rights is a hot topic right now on several blogs and podcasts. There is some good information and reference material that I wanted to share with all of you.
- Photographers rights for the, the United States.
- Street photographers rights for the, Australia.
- Photographers rights for the, the United Kingdom.
- This is a scary post regarding ads that are running in England, UK Declares War on Street Photographers
- Here is a link to a follow-up post about what is happening in the UK,Photographer’s Rights: One More Time.
One of my all-time favorite podcast, Tips From The Top Floor, also had a segment on the topic of photographer’s rights in a recent show entitled, “Attack of the Killer Cameras.” The show also This is a great podcast that is a fun to listen to and a resource on many photography topics. The host, Chris Marquardt is funny and engaging. It comes to you from the top floor of somewhere in Tubingen, southern Germany.
New York Times Writes About Sports Blogs
Or did they?
Earlier this week the New York Times ran a story, “Tension Over Blogging.” In the story, Tim Arango writes, “Tension over sports blogging is one of the strains between sports franchises, leagues and reporters to have emerged during the digital age.”
Funny, the story did little to talk about the sports bloggers that started blogging and the millions of people that turn to blogs for coverage of the sports they love and to interact with the other fans that coalesce around specific blogs. The story didn’t talk about the role of blogs in sports or even journalism. The story also didn’t touch on how the blogs have affected the coverage of sports and the expectations of the readers of the New York Times or your favorite blog, like OffWing Opinion.
Are you asking yourself what the story was about yet? The blogging headline caught our eye
but the story had nothing to do with blogging, the real story is one that has played out in other industries over the past decade, it is about the Internet and it’s affects on an industry, this one being the “sports entertainment industry.” At stake are billions of advertising dollars.
Prior to the Internet only print, radio, and television news organizations had the means to communicate to the masses. Traditional media’s audience have come online and blogging has simplified the process of publishing to the point that quite literally anyone can publish a blog. The larger sports leagues have at the same time been developing their own media delivery platforms, while also securing the “coverage” of the events as a revenue stream. They are now making moves to limit access and coverage of their sporting events so that the public’s eyeballs (and subsequent advertising dollars) return to League and team websites.
The NYT’s article is really about the problems of print journalism in meeting the needs of their viewership. Stories come out everyday about more layoffs at a venerable publication. Management hands out point and shoot cameras to reporters; video cameras and audio recording devices to photographers. Quality drops as both reporters and photographers are asked to do more in less time. Yadda, yadda, yadda…I don’t really want to go down this path right now.
Washington Capitals Jump On Flickr
While researching for Game 2 of the NHL’s Eastern Conference quarterfinal series hockey game between the Washington Capitals and the Philadelphia Flyers I was clicking around the Caps website. While there I clicked on a graphic for “Image of the Day.”
A few others (shout out to tai.shar who also frequents our galleries) had found the gallery which includes just one photo per day, really. Nothing more. Well, it is a start. It looks like photographers for the away games are also posting a picture.
For more Cap pictures you can check out OffWing on flickr.
We will be back tomorrow with pictures from game 2. Later.
Getty Images In My Rearview Window
This Monday the private equity firm of Hellman & Friedman bought Getty for a cool $2.4 billion. You can read more about the details as they were released yesterday from Hellman & Friedman.
As a refugee from the heady Internet days and the Telecom mergers there are a few things I have learned after being bought, sold and merged more times than I can recall. First off, what this really means probably won’t get sorted out until later this year or early in 2009. The deal isn’t supposed to close until the second quarter of this year.
Secondly, don’t ever buy the phrase, “we are different, a merger of equals.” I laugh when I hear that one, there is always a buyer and the one being bought. In this case Hellman & Friedman bought Getty, we won’t know what the “New Getty” looks like and how it operates.
Photographer and blogger John Harrington has been following Getty’s moves and photo industry impact over the past couple of years and did some “crystal balling.” Today he posted his insights which on the whole I agree with.
Hang on for another year of big changes in the business of photography.
Taking Care Of Business
The business of photography is in a huge state of flux.
OffWing Opinion and OffWing Photo are children of the online world. As painful as it is we are developing along side as both journalism and photography reinvent themselves. As eternal optimists
we believe this to be a good thing, something that will allow OffWing to survive and flourish.
Following are some of the online resources I have found and now regularly read. They are in no particular order:
- Marketing Photos with Mary Virginia Swanson
- Photo Business News & Forum
- Photo Monkeys: A Weblog For Photojournalists And Photographers Who Aspire To Greatness
- The Business of Photography
- Photo Allies
- Confessions of a Photographer
Some of these resources are from established photographers and others are from aspiring photographers. They offer a place of community and synergy (sorry for the 90′s term) that is difficult to find elsewhere.
Finally, I have to make a special note of another resource that I have been meaning to follow, but haven’t. Well this week was the week I needed to hear from Franklin McMahon and his Media Artist Secrets’ podcast. Listening to a couple of early installments of his from 2006 got me off my butt and trying some new things which is what surviving all this change requires.
Getting Great Photos For Your Publication
Are you unsatisfied with the pictures your photographer comes back with. Or are you a beginning/occasional sports photographer looking for the edge?
A great story was posted over at the On Sports sports blog with tips on getting better photos for your sport section.
WASHINGTON, DC – OCTOBER 26: Captain Chris Clark of the Washington Capitals is injured during a NHL hockey game with the Vancouver Canucks on October 26, 2007 at the Verizon Center in Washington, DC. (Photo by Allen Clark/OffWing)
While written primarily for the sports editor or writer, the tips can just as easily be used by the photographer going into a new situation, sport, or working with a new writer.
Arkansas Bends Under Pressure Of Photo Policy
On Friday the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) decided to suspend their new photo policy just before the state football championships, from mounting pressure by the Arkansas Press Association and several newspapers. The AAA is the sponsoring organization of championship games for public and private schools.
The policy will be suspended until Dec. 1, giving all sides some time to work out a compromise. The AAA contends that it owns the copyright to all postseason events and requires photographers to pay a fee if they or their publications plan to sell
Arkansas Latest In Limiting Photographer’s Rights
It seems that everyone is reading from the same playbook on limiting the rights of photographers, even if the photographer is the parent of a player in a state championship game.
Today we welcome the Arkansas Activities Association (AAA) to the hall of shame. The AAA is the sponsoring organization of championship games for public and private schools. The news came from the Times Record in Fort Smith Arkansas in both an article and editorial.
Here are a couple of gems from the AAA’s policy:
Limiting Access To Sporting Events
I have been reading with interest with a lawsuit in Illinois by the Illinois Press Association, there is another story on this at Online News Squared. It seems that the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) which sponsors the end of season atheletic championships have signed a deal with Visual Image Photography, Inc for “exclusive and unlimited access to tournament locations and photo opportunities.”
The IHSA in turn is asking that credentialed media limit their use of photos taken at events that VIP will cover. This is just plain wrong.
Unfortunately there seems to be a growing undercurrent to limit access to events. Of course you have seen it on the pro level with the NFL limiting online audio and video to 45 seconds that must be removed within 24 hours. You can catch more on this by checking out the Sports Law Blog.
Hey….anyone want to compete on the quality of their photos, service, and editorial?
