From the Newspaper Guild:
Sun photojournalists launch byline strike
Eighteen Baltimore Sun photojournalists launched a byline strike today protesting Tribune Co.’s move to force reporters to become photographers and videographers as a way to cut costs.
If Chicago-based Tribune has its way, reporters at The Sun, with little or no experience in photography, will not only be required to shoot still pictures, but take pictures with video cameras for submission to the paper’s website while they are conducting interviews and writing stories on deadline.
“Combining jobs and forcing reporters with limited experience to take videos and still shots will compromise the quality of The Sun,” said Cet Parks, Chief Negotiator for the Washington-Baltimore Newspaper Guild. “This is another misguided step by Tribune and clear evidence that the company will compromise quality to save a buck. What Tribune fails to see is that when quality suffers advertisers will spend their money elsewhere.”
In protest Sun photojournalists will withhold their bylines from pictures they take from June 11- 13. The photojournalists along with two photo editors and three technicians sent a letter to Sun Editor Timothy Franklin on June 7 expressing concern that quality will be compromised if the paper moves aggressively in this direction. - more
