It's a little ironic—a contrast, let's call it—that the Chicago Tribune actually supports a regular blog by one of its leading photojournalists, while the Chicago Sun-Times no longer supports its photojournalists at all (Jim Romenesko reports that the outgoing photographers have already had their email accounts cut off). At any rate, here's Alex Garcia's requiem for his fellow warriors at what used to be the competition.
The Sun-Times might have bought some headaches to go along with being boneheaded: USA Today is reporting that the photographers' union, the Chicago Newspaper Guild, is going to file a bad-faith bargaining charge with the National Labor Relations Board.
Photo by John J. Kim / Chicago Sun-Times
And a taste of what that paper's readers will no longer be getting: John Kim's photo essay on Chicago detectives was part of what won a Pulitzer Prize for the Sun-Times in 2011.
Mike
(Thanks to Albin)
Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.
(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:
rnewman: "Thanks for the link to Alex Garcia's column. Very educational. It gives us outsiders a view from inside the newspaper photo world which we don't often see."
There go those sanctimonious unions again complaining about workers' rights! Haven't they already caused enough havoc with their demands for: hunch breaks, eight hour days and two day weekends?
BTW- The future of the Sun-Times can be found on that USA Today piece, the one with two links to Jennifer Aniston.
Stan B.
Shop Steward
SEIU 1021
Posted by: Stan B. | Saturday, 01 June 2013 at 01:42 PM
I keep getting the feeling that the Sun-Times are shooting themselves in the knees with this very shortsighted decision. I predict a slide in sales now that their photos are going to suck.
Posted by: Lanthus Clark | Saturday, 01 June 2013 at 06:01 PM
The photo essay is brilliant! And then they went and fired the guy who took those pics the next year? What a bunch of idiots...
:-(
Posted by: Lanthus Clark | Saturday, 01 June 2013 at 06:10 PM
I note, with a strong sensor of irony, that the John Kim's photo essay is presented as a Flash movie that has the form of a video with a "soundtrack" rather than a UI for a photo slideshow.
The management can't beleive that photos can stand for themselves or that viewers can make decisions for themselves to view an image. I think that sums up the whole problem.
Posted by: Kevin Purcell | Saturday, 01 June 2013 at 07:09 PM
And this photoblog is just too good to miss:
Laid off from the Sun-Times. http://laidofffromthesuntimes.tumblr.com/
One of the recently fired photographers of the Sun-Times documents the process of being unemployed with the outmost irony - by using an iPhone camera.
Posted by: Svein-Frode | Tuesday, 04 June 2013 at 07:34 AM