An Open Letter to the Management of the Few Remaining Local Newspapers

Written after an encounter with a local reporter at a neighborhood house fire:

Dear Jon Doe,

On second thought, I'd ask that you NOT use any of my images with the house fire story. Our encounter last night really got me thinking about trends in print journalism: In my view, basically rushing headlong into its own grave. The idea that you'd use (and here I'm going to use "you" as a representative of a corporation, not "you" as a person, in the spirit of the recent Supreme Court decision, I suppose) a person's photograph with the assumption that paying them for that work would be almost a joke, speaks volumes about the state in which the journalism industry finds itself today. While I don't have a problem with "crowd-sourced" images in a journalistic context in certain exceptional circumstances, the offhand dismissive tone of your response to my question about compensation for the use of my photographs suggested that the use of free content is simply taken for granted at the Local Paper.

Let's back up a few years. As a student, as well as for many years after college, I often freelanced as a photographer for commercial, editorial, industrial clients, and worked several years as a freelance corporate photographer, supporting myself with a pretty good living standard by doing so. For each of these roles, I was paid. Some jobs paid better than others. Sometimes I would accept jobs as a stringer for local newspapers for much less than my corporate day rate, but it was still worth my time to do this work. The checks would add up to a helpful supplement to my income at the end of the month. I wasn't getting rich, but none of my clients, newspapers included, would have dreamed to assume that I'd be willing to work for free. Nobody ever had the gall to ask. It was simply understood that I had made a substantial investment in my training, equipment, and had a practiced eye for composition. I know how to tell stories with my images, could be counted on to get solid shots in any circumstances, no matter how technically or environmentally challenging, and had the portfolio to prove it.  Now it seems, it's simply assumed that original content will be handed over, without the though or question of payment even coming up, in exchange for nothing more tangible than a brief moment in the spotlight--the fabled chance for exposure and experience! As the internet meme has it, Great! I'll just go ahead and pay my bills with exposure and experience!

Granted, I'm NOT currently making my living as a photographer, but as a college professor in photography, I certainly have a vested interest in the continued viability of the profession. Obviously, plenty of your fellow employees are also somewhat invested in continuing in careers as photojournalists. Your organization has on staff a crack team of extremely talented and professional photographers. From what I hear the paper has never had a policy of hiring freelancers and stringers, etc., preferring to rely on this talented staff to generate original images that tell the story of our community in pictures. I deeply admire their work as a group, and also some of them as individuals. Sadly, I know both through you, and from other acquaintances at your paper that all of you are anxiously awaiting the immanent announcement of staff layoffs. I sincerely hope that your job is spared, as I have been for some time aware that you're actually doing a pretty great job of chasing down local news stories. You are a good reporter. I'm sure that your training, work ethic, experience, instinct, and talent contribute to that success. Now imagine that it was simply assumed that just anyone would send in news items, and not expect payment. Wouldn't a little bit of exposure and byline be enough? Newspapers are written at a sixth grade or so comprehension level, no? So potentially anyone that has finished the sixth grade could cobble together a credible news story. Where does that leave you and your ability to make a living? What about the factual accountability of the stories in question? I'm quite sure that you could advance any number of arguments re. professionalism, accountability, experience, talent, and journalistic integrity that would justify your continued employment. Perhaps you've practiced these arguments in the mirror in anticipation of receiving that dreaded pink slip.

My point is, of course, that the same arguments also apply to photojournalism. By actually PAYING freelance contributors, an organization is demonstrating at least some level of commitment to and backing to the work that they are using to represent their account of events. If there is no financial stake in this enterprise, it also signifies that there is no value to this content, nor necessarily any institutional responsibility to or for its veracity. I'm sure you are well aware that a photograph can just as easily misrepresent an event or situation as can the written word. It makes sense to rely on professional contributors who's careers are at stake in assuring their audience that their work presents a credible view of the events represented. Furthermore, by routinely accepting unpaid content, you are undercutting a valuable career path for aspiring journalists, as well as endangering the continued validity of your own job, not to mention those of the photo staff.

I do not wish to be party to this continued erosion of journalistic standards, and I hope that you'll also think twice about the ways that the Local Paper and other publications are allowing the same things to happen. This is a slippery slope that ends inevitably in the total irrelevance of the local newspaper, or even print journalism in general. If your content consists of unpaid and unprofessional volunteer submission, what distinguishes you from Facebook? What's the difference between journalism and hearsay? How will you pay for groceries, your mortgage, and your children's shoes? Why do we need newspapers at all? I'm sure that you were just trying to do a difficult job, under deadline stress, and certainly didn't "ask" for such a response from a random stranger, nor do you personally have any say in the way that the Local Paper gathers, vets, or compensates contributors for their work, but I'd really love for more journalists to think hard and long about these questions, and do whatever is necessary to hold your organizations accountable to some basic standards of professionalism and sustainability, before the term "journalist" becomes a word as quaint and uncommon in daily usage as so many other words denoting former professions, such as gas lighter, blacksmith, and telephone operator. Your own career hangs in the balance, as does the future of anyone who is proud to have earned the title of "journalist."

Cheers,
Neil