A bit less than a year ago, the Chicago Sun-Times made the shocking decision to fire its entire photography staff, cutting 29 positions in favor of journalists with smartphones and freelancers. This action lead to widespread criticism and an immediate drop in front page quality. Now it seems the paper is hiring back a small number of those full time photographers, but amidst further cuts that see its workforce reduced even further.

According to Robert Feder four of the 29 fired photographers are being brought back: Rich Chapman, Brian Jackson, Al Podgorski, and an unnamed fourth person. However, this comes amidst news of five other union positions that are being cut from the paper and its associated publications, and a dozen non-union jobs.

The new jobs are described as “multimedia”, and require strong video skills as well as traditional photography. And keep in mind, while it’s good to see them bring some photographers back, that’s just four dedicated employees to cover a very, very large city. While it might be enough to improve the front page for local events, they’re still going to be stretched very thin.

(via Reddit)

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The Chicago Sun-Times looks like it may be partly reversing its actions from earlier this year, re-hiring some photographers. But it’ll only be four of the once large photojournalism staff, with the remaining members receiving a one-time $2,000 payout.

According to the NPPA, a tentative contract settlement has been reached by Sun-Times Media, and the newsroom employees’ union. Of the 28 photographers laid off early this year, four will be re-hired, and the remainder will receive $2,000 each, if they agree to waive all future claims.

There’s no indication of which photographers will be re-hired, if it’ll be by seniority, or an open application. But even so, bringing back 14% of the photographers that the paper had just a year ago is still a marked change.

The Chicago Sun-Times made news earlier this year with the layoffs, which saw them being widely derided, and unflattering comparisons to its competition at the Chicago Tribune. There were also claims that freelancers brought in on occasion were being paid just $65 for their services.

At least this new deal does something to redress the publication’s previous actions – but at the same time, $2,000 is hardly what you would call a generous settlement.

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Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun-Times moved to lay off its entire photography staff, instead aiming to arm journalists with iPhones, and pay freelancers a miserly rate. This naturally earned them a widespread drubbing from the rest of the media. But a comparison of today’s front page from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune shows the real effect of these new rules.

Put together by Brian Cassella over at Twitter, you can see the differing photographs from the two papers. The Tribune has a large, dynamic, and high-quality photograph of Chicago Blackhawks hockey player Andrew Shaw hoisting the Stanley Cup above a crowd. The Sun-Times, on the other hand, has an incredibly low-quality, small, and pedestrian image of Jonathan Toews holding the same trophy (viewable in high quality here), captured by journalist Lauran Berta.

For such a momentous sporting victory for the city of Chicago, this single, small image on the front page says a huge amount about the importance of having dedicated and skilled photographers on hand, to capture important events such as this.

(via Reddit)

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Less than a month ago, the Chicago Sun-Times sparked controversy when it laid off its entire photography staff and switched to using freelance photographers. Today Romenesko.com got its hands on a freelance-rates memo from Pioneer Press, which is the Sun-Times Media’s chain of suburban newspapers, suggesting that freelance photographers could be paid as low as $65 per photo for some assignments.

While the memo is from Pioneer Press Newspapers photo editor Geoff Scheerer, not from the Sun-Times itself, it does imply that freelance photo pay is not exactly lucrative at the Chicago-based newspaper group.

You can read the full memo at Romenesko.com but here’s the section that discusses photography rates for Pioneer Press freelancers. (Scheerer does say later in the memo that assignments from flagship Chicago Sun-Times might pay better than these rates.)

“These are effective for any assignments 6/24 and going forward.

News/feature assignment, still photos only : $65

News/feature assignment, still photos and video : $85 (only if video is asked for, not on spec)

Sports assignment, still photos only : $90

Sports assignment, still photos and video : $110 (only if video is asked for, not on spec)

Sports assignments, multi-team $???? (see below)”

The Chicago Sun-Times has been ridiculed for planning to train reporters on “iPhone photography basics,” and, while there’s no mention of that in Scheerer’s memo, he does note that “cell phone video is fine” for some video assignments.

(Via Romenesko.com)

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Last week, the Chicago Sun-Times made national headlines for laying off its entire photography staff, and moving to relying on freelancers, while teaching its reporters “iPhone photography basics.” All of which has made the newspaper a perfect target for America’s favorite satirist, Stephen Colbert.

During last night’s Colbert Report on Comedy Central, Colbert took took the paper to task for its assumption that trained photographers can be replaced by a journalist with an iPhone, saying:

“But the paper will continue to have great photojournalism, because reporters are now required to learn iPhone photography basics. But only the basics, like pressing the button. If the Sun-Times is still around in a week, the reporters can move on to the advanced stuff, like using a flash, and asking flood victims to say cheese.”

Meanwhile, one of the photographers replaced with an iPhone has started a new blog chronicling his new life using an iPhone of his own. So while the Chicago Sun-Times front page might not look quite as bad as this, you do have to wonder if an iPhone photograph is good enough to be before the fold.

(Via Poynter)

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In what is, perhaps, another sign of the times for newspaper-based photojournalism, the Chicago Sun-Times has laid off its entire photography staff, according to reports. Anywhere between 20-30 full-time photo staffers at the Sun-Times got the news about their termination this morning.

(There were scattered reports that the Sun-Times may be keeping two full-time photographers and one photo editor, but they couldn’t be confirmed.)

According to competing paper, The Chicago Tribune, the Sun-Times will use freelance photographers going forward.

In a statement released today by the Sun-Times, the paper said it would focus more on video in future news coverage.

“The Sun-Times business is changing rapidly and our audiences are consistently seeking more video content with their news. We have made great progress in meeting this demand and are focused on bolstering our reporting capabilities with video and other multimedia elements. The Chicago Sun-Times continues to evolve with our digitally savvy customers, and as a result, we have had to restructure the way we manage multimedia, including photography, across the network.”

According to Crain’s, the Sun-Times will ask the paper’s reporters to provide more photos and video for their stories. The Chicago Newspaper Guild, a union that represents the staff photographers, is considering what action to take against the cuts. “We will be looking into all of our options, legal and non-legal,” Craig Rosenbaum, executive director of the union, told Crain’s. “We think this is a terrible move for the paper and community.”

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