Reuters gives freelance sports photographers the heave-ho

NPPA article

I won't bore anyone with the gory details, because I don't think we have any freelancers here on the boards anyway. But this is just another kick in the nuts for editorial photographers. All Reuters sports photographers have been reassigned to other jobs, or let go. Reuters will now use USA Today Free Images (formerly US Freewire) for their sports photography needs. USA Today Free Images has a notoriously horrible contract and low pay rates.

The rumor mill is that Getty Images will also soon be getting rid of its staff photographers and going with a "contributor" setup. If that happens, in my opinion, editorial staff photography is officially dead.

Just in case you were wondering, this used to be a very good gig to get into.

With my brother on photo staff at one of the country's largest papers, a very tenuous gig at present, it has me wondering what will happen once everyone lets everyone go? Papers are purging staff and using wire services and possibly some freelance, while wire services are booting freelancers to use lesser image pools, so eventually it seems that there will be no one working as a photographer anywhere in news unless it's for free. While I understand the economics, I mourn the loss of real everyday news photography. There will always be people willing to go off to war zones to shoot for someone, but local news photos are a thing of the past.

BackdoorHippie said:

...eventually it seems that there will be no one working as a photographer anywhere in news unless it's for free.

Click to expand...

Winner winner chicken dinner!

I think the small town newspapers will be okay, places like my area. There's not enough crowdsourcing available, so the staff guy's job is fine. Of course, being such a small paper they have a lot of other issues to worry about, like declining readership, etc. My local newspaper was just sold again. That's the 4th time in the last 10 years. It's not making any money. For the bigger cities: Boston, NY, Chicago, Miami, etc. Absolutely those guys are working on borrowed time. When you have readers sending in photos via iPhone for FREE by the masses, and freelancers willing to work for FREE or peanuts? There's no point in having a staff.

Here's the problem:

There is no national-level organization for photographers, a single unifying body. There are dozens of smaller ones (NPPA, ASMP, etc.) but there is nothing in place to keep editorial and freelance photographers from simply taking it on the chin at every turn. No one to negotiate rates, no one to go to court, or go on strike. This industry has shot itself in the foot.