[Leica] In defence of the newspapers

[nathan at nathanfoto.com (Nathan Wajsman)]

Before we all jump on the newspapers for cutting back on their photo  
staff and using free images from readers, consider the double of  
triple whammy they have been hit with:

1) Loss of readership, as older readers die off and the younger  
people get their news from the web or TV or wherever, but certainly  
not from the newspaper.

2) Loss of advertising revenue, as the classified business that used  
to be the bread and butter of many local papers has migrated to the web.

3) The rise of free newspapers--maybe not everywhere, but certainly  
in the last few places I have lived they have been around for several  
years. In the Netherlands there are 3 or 4 at any given time. Even  
Alicante, with its 400,000 people, has its own edition of "20  
Minutes" and "Metro". These papers are not NYT or The Guardian, but  
they are good enough for many people who only want a quick read in a  
convenient size when sitting on the train to work.

So, with those economic forces hitting them, it is perfectly  
understandable that newspapers have to cut costs where they can. It  
is a matter of survival for them too. At the same time, we should not  
forget that traditional broadsheet newspapers were never the bastions  
of great photography in the vein of Life magazine etc. They were  
printed on cheap paper, your hands got black from reading them, and  
the reproduction quality of the images was pretty bad. Let's face it,  
in a daily newspaper photography is secondary to the words.

I know photographers who do advertising and other commercial  
photography, and they are doing OK.

Having said all of the above, I sympathize with the professional  
photographers losing their livelihoods, and as an amateur who takes  
pretty decent pictures, I would not dream of giving them away for  
free, except to friends and family.

Nathan



On 10-apr-2008, at 5:33, Alastair Firkin wrote:

> Ted, this is the true situation indeed. It will turn, when people  
> begin to want better results, but the "gear" is allowing many  
> people to make recognizable images in even bad situations. In our  
> local paper there are now 3 weekly articles on photography every  
> week: this in tne TV guide section. Photography has NEVER been so  
> popular.
>
> --- tedgrant@shaw.ca wrote:Unfortunately I'm wasting my breath and  
> typing time because nothing will
> change.
>
> What does have to change is professional photographers no matter  
> who, have
> to move with the times and go with the flow in finding another  
> discipline of
> photography where they can earn a decent living. WHY? Because  
> whining about
> all the free stuff isn't going to change as long as you have the  
> hordes and
> hordes of digi-shooters who claim to be photographers when they  
> wouldn't
> know a good photograph from a dung heap!
>
> But they sure as hell know how to make digi operated electronic   
> exposures
> of nothing!
>
> ted
>
>
>
>
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Nathan Wajsman
nathan@nathanfoto.com
General photography:
http://www.nathanfoto.com
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.frozenlight.eu
Picture-A-Week: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog
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