Well, there’s bad news, and there’s good news. Let’s get the bad out of the way first. In The New York Times, David Jolly reports that photojournalism is in “a crisis” because the proliferation of amateur photographers and the slashing of newspaper and magazine photo budgets have created a perfect storm in which skilled photojournalists are being devalued.
“In the latest sign of distress, the company that owns the photo agency Gamma sought protection from creditors on July 28 after a loss of $4.2 million in the first half of the year as sales fell by nearly a third,” writes Jolly. “The problem is that news photography is finished,” Olivia Riant, a spokeswoman for Gamma’s owner, Eyedea Presse, told Jolly.
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“The problem is that news photography is finished.”
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The article also features perspective from John G. Morris, a former photo editor for The New York Times, Life, and The Washington Post, and Jonathan Klein, chief executive of Getty. “Photojournalism means the photographers can tell the story themselves in pictures, and there were places where they could publish those photos,” Klein tells Jolly. “In the print world, many, if not most, of those places have since disappeared.”
Despair not, though, says Newsweek, which asserts that “magazines are not dead” and reports on a dozen periodicals that have actually grown in the first six months of this year. Interestingly, the list is mostly centered on the home and family: Sports Illustrated for Kids, Cooking With Paula Deen, Organic Gardening, and Family Circle are among the titles that have posted gains. There was even a music magazine in the bunch: Country Weekly, which appeals to advertisers because it connects with twangy Wal-Mart shoppers.
“…A bunch of factors explain the ad surge at the lucky dozen: recent redesigns, new editors, smart implementation of multiplatform sales, quirks, and old-fashioned stunts,” writes Johnnie L. Roberts. Read all about it here.
Photojournalists in “a crisis”
Well, there’s bad news, and there’s good news. Let’s get the bad out of the way first. In The New York Times, David Jolly reports that photojournalism is in “a crisis” because the proliferation of amateur photographers and the slashing of newspaper and magazine photo budgets have created a perfect storm in which skilled photojournalists are being devalued.
“In the latest sign of distress, the company that owns the photo agency Gamma sought protection from creditors on July 28 after a loss of $4.2 million in the first half of the year as sales fell by nearly a third,” writes Jolly. “The problem is that news photography is finished,” Olivia Riant, a spokeswoman for Gamma’s owner, Eyedea Presse, told Jolly.
…
The article also features perspective from John G. Morris, a former photo editor for The New York Times, Life, and The Washington Post, and Jonathan Klein, chief executive of Getty. “Photojournalism means the photographers can tell the story themselves in pictures, and there were places where they could publish those photos,” Klein tells Jolly. “In the print world, many, if not most, of those places have since disappeared.”
Despair not, though, says Newsweek, which asserts that “magazines are not dead” and reports on a dozen periodicals that have actually grown in the first six months of this year. Interestingly, the list is mostly centered on the home and family: Sports Illustrated for Kids, Cooking With Paula Deen, Organic Gardening, and Family Circle are among the titles that have posted gains. There was even a music magazine in the bunch: Country Weekly, which appeals to advertisers because it connects with twangy Wal-Mart shoppers.
“…A bunch of factors explain the ad surge at the lucky dozen: recent redesigns, new editors, smart implementation of multiplatform sales, quirks, and old-fashioned stunts,” writes Johnnie L. Roberts. Read all about it here.