ONPA

We've been hearing bits of news lately that the operations at The (Medina County) Gazette and The (Elyria) Chronicle Telegram were being merged in some fashion. Now a report from the Ohio Media Watch blog spells out the details of the arrangement. It appears the...

The Saginaw News, The Flint Journal, and The Bay City Times will no longer be on a daily print cycle and will publish only on Thursdays, Fridays, and Sundays as of June 1. All three publications are owned by Advance Publications, who is also closing the Ann Arbor...

Judging in the Still Photography and Web categories of NPPA's 2009 Best Of Photojournalism competition will start Sunday at the contest's host site, The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg, FL.This year 3,700 journalists from 147 countries submitted...

On the heels of the closing of the Rocky Mountain News the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has stopped the presses. As had been speculated the 146-year-old Seattle daily will now deliver the news online only, a move the entire industry will be watching closely.The newsroom...

Under the radar of recent headlines of large metro papers across the country giving Associated Press their two year cancellation notice, the Norwalk (OH) Reflector was ahead of the trend. They gave their notice two years ago and are three weeks into life without AP....

The Newspaper Guild, representing newsroom employees at The (Toledo) Blade, will meet with company representatives today to explore layoff alternatives at the newspaper. The union was unsuccessful in obtaining buyouts in December when the newsroom was trimmed by 20...

Following Cleveland's lead three Columbus broadcast outlets have announced plans to pool coverage for planned news events. WCMH-TV, WXYX-TV and WTTE-TV are the stations involved in the sharing agreement.Full story

Lisa DeJong of The Plain Dealer was a first place winner in the Feature Picture Story category of the Sixty-Sixth Annual Pictures of the Year International Competition. DeJong’s story, “Survivor’s Journey” won the James R. Gordon Ohio Understanding Award in the ONPA...

Citing its location in one of the weakest markets in the country, The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer was included in a list of the 10 major daily papers that are most likely to fold or shutter their print operations and only publish online by the end of next year in a Time...

This issue of who owns the rights to visual depictions from high school sporting events has reared its ugly head again. This is round two for the issue in Wisconsin and it pits the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association (WIAA) against Gannett, publisher of the...

The deadline for submissions to the 41st Annual Pro Football Hall of Fame Photo Contest sponsored by Canon is April 6th. For complete rules and instructions on how to upload your photos use this link.Even if you're not interested in entering, the contest page has...

The Columbus Dispatch is one of the few Ohio newspapers that haven't had to resort to layoffs to offset falling revenues, but that is about to change. According to a story on the newspaper's Web site 45 newsroom staffers are facing layoffs effective April 3.In 2007...

Matthew Rafferty of WJW-TV in Cleveland won two third place awards for his work in NPPA's Best of Photojournalism 2009: Video News Editing contest. Rafferty won for work in the News Feature (Editors) category and in the Editors Effects category. Co-worker David...

Matt Eich, a student from Ohio University, has been selected as the 2008 SportsShooter.com Student Photographer of the Year by a panel of judges gathered together at the Adorama Camera Building in New York City, Thursday, February 26, 2009.Eich was the 2007 winner of...

Today's front page of the Rocky Mountain News carries an April 23, 1859 date and a look that mirrors it's beginnings nearly 150 years ago .While today's front page goes back to it's roots the Rocky Mountain News also has a history of great photojournalism as well. A...

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has decided to allow photographs of flag-draped caskets arriving at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as America's war dead return home as long as the families of the fallen troops agree, the Associated Press reports today. The ban was...

The Rocky Mountain News will publish its final edition on Friday. E. W. Scripps CEO Rich Boehne broke the news to employees in the newsroom at noon today, just two months short of it's 150th anniversary.The Rocky Mountain News has been operating under a joint...

The latest cuts in Canton at The Repository are not in staff but in the product itself. Top Repository editors have been hosting live chats on the newspaper's Web site in response to reader reaction to a redesign of the paper which debuted on Tuesday.Several major...

Former ONPA member Katie Falkenberg of The Washington Times placed third in the White House News Photographers Association's Eyes of History 2009 Photographer of the Year competition.Andrea Bruce of the Washington Post took top honors and Carol Guzy of the Washington...

First it was newspapers finding creative ways to share content, now two Cleveland television stations have gotten into the act as well. NBC affiliate WKYC and CBS affiliate WOIO in Cleveland will pool video coverage from pre-planned events.A story on the WKYC Web site...

Plain Dealer photographer Gus Chan didn't strike gold and take top honors in the World Press photo competition, but he didn't strike out either. Though the facts are he swung first.Friday's headlines drew attention once again to Cleveland's foreclosure crisis when...

A photo of Cuyahoga County Sheriff's detective Robert Kole searching a home in Cleveland to ensure evicted residents had left the premises following a mortgage foreclosure was awarded the top prize in the World Press Photo competition. The photo was taken by Anthony...

In a relative short time frame the Plain Dealer photography staff has turned from being still photographers to visual journalists thanks to the new Canon Mark II 5D.Plain Dealer director of photography Bill Gugliotta shares his thoughts about the newspaper's efforts...

The NCAA and Associated Press have inked a three year agreement which will make AP the worldwide distributor of NCAA Championship photography. An Editor & Publisher story says that under the agreement, AP Images will serve as the NCAA's exclusive photo licensing...

An update to an earlier posting about severance payments to former employees at the Minneapolis Star Tribune.A federal bankruptcy judge has ruled in favor of the Star Tribune's motion to pay in full its severance obligations to 43 former employees who left the company...

NPPA has formerly requested to the White House that the ban be lifted on photographing America's war dead returning to this country at Dover Air Force base. The base is the military's largest mortuary facility and is located in Dover, Delaware. The question of lifting...

NPPA members who enter the organization's monthly news clip contest (MNCC) are encouraged to visit the NPPA website to review the new rules announced for the contest. The January contest is now open for entries. Entries will be accepted through the end of February...

The NPPA and Amtrak have been been at odds recently over the railroad's policies towards photography. The issue was brought to light on the Cobert Report recently which was written about in a story on the NPPA Web site.I was aware of the Colbert video, but hadn't had...

The Associated Press is hosting a Multimedia Workshop Saturday, March 7, at the Crowne Plaza - Columbus North. Cost for the daylong seminar is $40, which includes breakfast and lunch.The event is sponsored by the Ohio AP, Associated Press Society of Ohio, Ohio AP...

Another photographer is victim to newspaper downsizing as Steve Schenck has been laid off at Tribune Chronicle leaving one full time photographer, R. Michael Semple holding down the fort in Warren. Schenck had been at the paper for quite some time and  previosuly...

Columbus Dispatch photographer Neal C. Lauron was part of the Dispatch team in Washington D.C. covering the recent inauguration of Barack Obama.While there for four days Lauron made his first run at blogging, sharing his thoughts on covering the historic event with...

Brown Publishing Co. is eliminating Tuesday print editions at the Troy Daily News, Piqua Daily Call and the Sidney Daily News according to an AP story. The weak economy is to blame for the cuts which start next week.

Not often these days that we get to share news of a job opening but here goes. Posted on journalismjobs.com an opening in Lorain.Here are the details: The Morning Journal, an award-winning paper in Lorain, Ohio, 30 miles west of Cleveland, has an opening for a...

These are troubled times for workers in all sectors in today's economy, but they may have gotten much worse for some former employees at the Minneapolis Star Tribune. Several employees who opted for buyouts last summer are now being told they may not get their full...

Barbara Perenic of the Springfield News-Sun scored a win with a high school wrestling picture that was selected as Photo of the Week by Editor & Publisher.If You Can't Beat 'Em, Bite 'Em was the headline over the photo on the E&P Web site.Weekly winners in the...

The honeymoon between the press and Barack Obama's new administration seems to have been a brief affair. Photographers were denied access to Obama in his first day in the Oval office, a tradition photo op. The White House later released photos taken by White House...

The party is over and now we move on. Quite a day for the journalists and editors handling the inauguration of Barack Obama.  Days like this on the picture desk are quite nerve racking. Not only are you dealing with the local photos of the day, but scanning the...

Perhaps subdued somewhat by the economy, but local newspapers and broadcast stations all seem to have staff on the ground in Washington D.C. today for the inauguration of Barack Obama. Special sections and historic front pages will make Wednesday newspapers collector...

Playing catch up with a few items that fell through the cracks during the holiday season by me, and went unreported in traditional media outlets.The Akron Beacon Journal joined The Columbus Dispatch giving the Associated Press its required two-year notice to cancel...

I’ve been staying away from headlines of the spiraling business of broadcast and print journalism, but when they come from inside the Buckeye state they are hard to ignore.By now most of you know about Gannett’s imposed company-wide, first quarter one-week furlough....

Lighting guru David  Hobby did a guest blog entry today on Scott Kelby's Photoshop Insider blog talking about  the practice of an extreme photo competition known as first frame. The rules were simple: Two competing photographers shooting the same game shot the first...

No one told me, but I'm here for you, so you don't learn the dark secret of the digital photo frame the hard way.My son was looking for a Christmas present for his mother a few weeks ago and also looking for suggestions to accomplish the task. He came to the old man...

A five-part series produced by The Columbus Dispatch launched yesterday and will run through Feb. 2.The series examines death through the eyes a professionals who face it every day. Part one of the multimedia portion of the project looks at the subject with a trauma...

Readership for the print edition may be dwindling but in Chicago the shrinking masses have spoken and the powers that be at the Tribune have listened and are addressing complaints about its much heralded redesign.The complaints must have been many and loud, more so...

A feature photo by Marshall Gorby of the Springfield News-Sun has been selected by the Associated Press Managing Editors as its National November Member Showcase Picture of the Month. 

ONPA's first still Photographer of the Year, Herral Long is retiring from The Blade after 58 plus years. Long reflected on his career in a story by Ryan E. Smith in The Blade on Sunday saying, “I’ve been, since early on, just mystified by the ability to just press a...

Pete Souza will return to the White House to chronicle Barack Obama's presidency according to an NPPA story. Souza, who has been teaching photojournalism at Ohio University's School of Visual Communication, knows what's in store as he was also a White House...

"Postcards from Columbus" is the theme of a new 2009 calendar featuring the work of Columbus Dispatch photographers. The images were part of a Columbus Day group project in which each photographer was asked to contribute at least one postcard-type image of...

This courtesy of Skip Peterson: Bob Phillips, chief photographer for WDTN in Dayton, retired today, after 51 years at the station.A longtime ONPA member and former Television POY, it is believed that Phillips holds the record for the longest tenure at the same...

Working as a journalist these days is about as unnerving as being a stock market invstor. If you've had enough on the professional end and are looking for a way out, the Career Transition Day being organized by employees at The Plain Dealer may be a first step in that...

At the request of Sport Shooter guru Robert Hanashiro, Ohio based Associated Press photographer Amy Sancetta shares her Top 5 list of cool things she experienced this year. She even found a way to make the transition to the Big 50 tolerable. There was nothing cool...

For those who like Pictures of the Year galleries the New York Times has posted its Year in Pictures. The 160 images looking back at 2008 are broken down into eight categories if your interest is select.

White House photographer Eric Draper granted an interview for Fox News about his experience covering George W. Bush for the last eight years.Draper covered Bush's first run for the White House while working for Associated Press. Cabinet members, press secretaries and...

The majority of headlines reporting on newspapers in the last year or so have been dominated by dwindling revenue, falling stock prices and layoffs. Poynter Media Business Analyst Rick Edmonds believes there is some long term hope for the industry despite another bad...

Christmas shopping and a few holiday parties have kept me away, but I did have the misfortune of having time to catch the Browns - Bengals game on the tube Sunday. TV types were pitching this game as the "Battle of Ohio". That statement is an insult to the State of...

As the calendar winds down on 2008 its customary to look back on the year that was. The Boston Globe's Big Picture is doing so over three days telling the story of 2008 in pictures in three 40 picture galleries.Chapter one debuted yesterday with some powerful...

I'm note sure if its the state of the industry today or an NPPA leadership issue but it seems the organization is having problems filling its leadership positions.Elections are supposed to be taking place now in its even number regions. Region 2 and 4 voting is now...

Its now official - Detroit Media Partnership has announced it will cease home delivery except for Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions and print a one-section street edition the remainder of the week for the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News. Readers will...

The industry headlines spread so much doom and gloom I thought spreading a little comic relief was in order. Just in time for the holidays a humorous video, set to Christmas music, that looks at the state of journalism today. All in good fun. And by someone who...

Philadelphia Daily News sports columnist Bill Conlin is usually throwing his darts at sports figures. Earlier this week his attention was turned to the demise of the sportswriter.As only Conlin could put it he wrote: There are still newspaper readers who venerate the...

Job losses continue to mount including in the Buckeye state with four Ohio employers in staff reduction mode. The Toledo Blade has announced plans to layoff 23 employees. The Toledo Newspaper Guild wants the same buyout offer for its members that is being offered to...

As 2008 winds down contest season winds up. NPPA has posted rules for The Best of Photojournalism 2009. There are links for still photography, photo editing, web sites and television. As always read the fine print.The call for entries for the 66th Annual Picture of...

Ron Kuntz been taking pictures almost as long as ONPA has been in existence and doesn't show many signs of slowing down. He even found some time to work with retired Plain Dealer sports writer Burt Graeff to put a book together looking back on his 50 plus years of...

We've all been there before - your colleagues are making the rounds gathering money to purchase group lottery tickets. Happened to me Friday night. Coughed up my five bucks and joined the group and spent the night figuring out who we would call to finish putting out...

27 employees at the Plain Dealer were dismissed on Monday as part of the company's effort to eliminate 50 jobs in the newsroom. The balance of the cuts were achieved through buyouts. In the photo department longtime staffers Roadell Hickman and Brynne Shaw were laid...

After pushing yourself away from a turkey dinner many of you will be heading for Canton or Massillon this weekend to shoot the state football finals. OHSAA has a media release available in pdf format with complete information on the games.Don't forget the Gore-Tex and...

The Canon EOS-5D Mark II is on its way to dealers which should put this much anticipated camera into photographers hands very soon. The camera's video capability got rave reviews back in September when Vincent Laforet's video shot with a preproduction model was posted...

Get a couple of media types in a conversation these days and the subject is more than likely going to be about industry downsizing rather than what story they are pursuing. Hard to blame em - first you need to have a job before you can worry about what you're going to...

A new federal law requiring news media to wear high visibility safety vests while working on federal highways goes into effect Nov 24, 2008. The National Newspaper Association is selling vests which meet the requirement for $15-$17 dollars plus shipping. Full story

Buyouts and layoffs continue in the ever troubled news gathering sector as revenue and circulation continue to fall. At the Beacon Journal in Akron buyouts and early retirement packages were offered to employees with a goal of shrinking the newsroom by 17%. Eighteen...