Feral Beast: British Snappers get the shaft in hard times

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

British Snappers get the shaft in hard times

Things aren't what they used to be for photojournalists, alas.

Photographers have been shocked by curt notices from Murdoch's News
International telling them that the Times is unilaterally reducing
its space rates. (This has also been reported by the Press Gazette)

Live News rates.(all in square inches. And sterling)
0-10" 90 down to 54
11-25" 130 down to 90
over 25" remains at 130

Stock rates.
0-6" 40 down from 75
7-10" 50 down from 110
over 10" 90 down from 110

Photographer response ranges from incredulous to disgust. These rates have been static for fifteen years, so the figures speak for themselves. What's more, the sterling exchange rate is going south. And most nationals insist on grabbing all electronic rights to the images. Some snappers are holding firm, in the knowledge that when that one needed image is unattainable elsewhere, the photo editors wil come crawling. Possibly....

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Feral Beast? Try Lemming

If the press were an animal, what kind of animal would it be? I’ve got my answer. A legion of lemmings, furry and well-intentioned, but ultimately condemned by their nature to follow each other mindlessly off a tall cliff, over the Paris Hilton peak or into the Invade Iraq crevasse. The words “feral beast” certainly wouldn’t come to mind. It’s not particularly accurate or particularly evocative. But that is how the departing British prime minister, Tony Blair, sees journalists: as malicious tormentors who have tried to tear him limb from limb.

--Gal Beckerman of the Columbia Journalism Review

“Journalism is a form of cartography,” write Tom Rosenstiel and Bill Kovach of Pew. “It creates a map for citizens to navigate society. Inflating events for sensation, neglecting others, stereotyping or being disproportionately negative all make a less reliable map.”

"Journalism is good at solving small problems or taking small bites of a big problem. It’s not good at solving big problems." Adapted from David Simon, creator of The Wire.

Retrospective : five decades of journalism as reported by CJR

Fake AP Stylebook reminds us: Unless you're doing a story on the Muppets, you are not a gonzo journalist.

"The once idealized information superhighway has become a parking lot of error, misinformation, rumor and junk." Poynter Institute, advocating a broader definition of who is a journalist.