Sports Illustrated photo staff gone

[imagemaker46]

Sports Illustrated has laid off all their staff photographers. The six photographers were told this morning.

 

[tirediron]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

 

[Braineack]

they should have migrated over to iphone techonology sooner.

 

[Gary A.]

Next will be NG I guess. I guess they will hire them as independent contractors with a personal services contract ... Lowering overhead with no beanies. I wish all the bean counters get fired and outsource that department.

 

[waday]

Sports Illustrated Lays Off All Staff Photographers | NPPA

As early as last summer there were rumors of pending staff cuts at Sports Illustrated as well as at other Time-Life publications because of the company's plan to move this year into new quarters downtown. The new floorspace is considerably smaller, and it will seat far fewer people. The magazines are moving because they can no longer afford the rent where they are, one of the magazine's contributing photographers was told by an SI editor.

Ha.

 

[runnah]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

 

[tirediron]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Really? I love magazines. Still, even on-line periodicals need images.

 

[runnah]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Really? I love magazines. Still, even on-line periodicals need images.

Yeah but you also love trains that were built when dinosaurs roamed the earth so your opinion is skewed.

 

[tirediron]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Really? I love magazines. Still, even on-line periodicals need images.

Yeah but you also love trains that were built when dinosaurs roamed the earth so your opinion is skewed.

You've just figured this out?

 

[sm4him]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Nonsense. Perhaps people LIKE YOU haven't. I have two sons, one is 22 and the other is 24. They have both bought a substantial number of magazines over the years; the youngest in particular would greatly prefer to have a print magazine, book or newspaper in his hand than something electronic.

 

[minicoop1985]

I'm 29 and still read Popular Photography.

It seems sad, but in reality, these folks will still have jobs as freelancers and be contracted to work with SI/Time-Life, I'm guessing. They still need images, and they're not about to train someone with zero photographic experience.

 

[runnah]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Nonsense. Perhaps people LIKE YOU haven't. I have two sons, one is 22 and the other is 24. They have both bought a substantial number of magazines over the years; the youngest in particular would greatly prefer to have a print magazine, book or newspaper in his hand than something electronic.

Like me? You having a go?

 

[sm4him]

Wow! That really is a sign that the times, they are a' changin'. I thought they'd be the last ones to do something like that.

Changing?

I am 30 and Haven't bought a magazine in 10 years. People younger than me have never bought a magazine.

Nonsense. Perhaps people LIKE YOU haven't. I have two sons, one is 22 and the other is 24. They have both bought a substantial number of magazines over the years; the youngest in particular would greatly prefer to have a print magazine, book or newspaper in his hand than something electronic.

Like me? You having a go?

Nope. If I were "having a go" at you, there'd be no doubt.
I literally meant "like you." People who are similar to you, who tend to like the same sorts of things and whatnot. The real point was that I don't think you can lump everyone under the age of 30 into a group who couldn't possibly be interested in buying magazines.
Some of them do, some of them don't. The best ones do.

However, your REAL point, I believe, was that print magazines are a dying thing, and THAT I can't really argue with. I'm not happy about it, but it's true. And less circulation = less advertising dollars = less operating budget = bye bye photo staff.

 

[JoeW]

I'm stunned. Generally, print journalism outlets have been taking on the chin. Some I thought that there would be some national publications that were high on graphics (NGS, SI, etc.) that would continue b/c they had national markets, were very visually oriented (unlike a newspaper). And don't write this off to age or generation b/c there are some print sources seeking to have a go of it online...or by providing content to other people as well.

I really don't like this trend. I think there is value in having editors. I think there is value in vetting content (be it print or photo or video). The more we go to blogs, websites, content aggregators, free lancers to provide content, the more susceptible we are to content manipulation and distortion.

Right now, print media is casting about for a business model that makes sense. Saying "outsource your photographers" isn't a business model, it's just cost cutting. I have yet to see anyone come up with a model that seems to work or make sense..so it's a tough time to be working for print and visual media.

 

[robbins.photo]

Sports Illustrated has laid off all their staff photographers. The six photographers were told this morning.

Well if the offer to fly me to Tahiti and ask me to shoot a bunch of supermodels free of charge I'm going to do the principled thing and tell them to go pound sand.

Ok, no, not really. I can't really back that up... lol