Chicago Sun-Times hires back four photographers amidst wider job cuts
posted Wednesday, March 5, 2014 at 1:09 PM EDT
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)