#NEWS in ONPA matters:
- We are excited to announce that Saturday, April 1, 2023 has been reserved as the official ONPA Conference date! Please stay tuned for more information as we work hard to plan a rich, meaningful, and memorable conference.
- Adam Cairns has graciously agreed to stay on board as co-chair for the Annual Still & Multimedia Contest. Other co-chairs are Sam Greene, and Andrew Dolph.
- The newest podcast from The Buckeye Visualist has dropped! Lori King interviewed Toledo Blade staffer, Stephen Zenner – give it a listen!
- Our inboxes are open for suggestions about the place ONPA has in your professional lives as our profession continues to evolve. We really do want to hear from you – especially freelancers. To reach us please click to navigate to our contact links.
#PEOPLE 1/ Meg Vogel has left her position at the Cincinnati Enquirer. 2/ Cleveland area freelancer Nick Cammett made the cover of Sports Illustrated digital fronts with his photograph of Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson. Nick can be seen most often on professional playing surfaces making great pictures. For more info about how his business works, ask him – it’s a great example of maintaining an archive.
3/ Cleveland area freelancer David Richard marked the beginning of his 42nd season covering sports in Ohio!
#INSPIRATIONS 1/ Somber reflection as many of us cover the first day of #fallsports practices. Austin Anthony is a Nashville based freelancer, covering the flooding for the NYT.
2/ Amanda Rossman and Amber Hunt of the Cincinatti Enquirer with a feel-good feature about people doing unique things. 3/ A beautiful portrait from Lindsay Wasson, on an important story. Lindsay is a freelancer based in Seattle, WA.
4/ About the announcement from #Gannett on impending layoffs: (I’m an employee, so my opinions will remain reserved). Instead, I’m going to list an ongoing thread of links for further reading – should you be interested – as I come across pertinent information. What that portends for the future of journalism we’ll probably only know when we have arrived.
Links related to the matter:
- Akron Beacon Journal staff writer Abbey Marshall with the reaction Tweet that sums up common sentiments. – a Tweet
- Opinion: “Can local news be saved?” – by Rick Edmonds at Poynter
- “Gannett can’t be trusted to invest in journalists as it begs for special powers.”– from The NewsGuild-CWA
- “Why does the New York Times prosper while Gannett struggles? Here are four reasons.” – Poynter
- “Hundreds of Gannett journalists walk out over layoff threats.” – The NewsGuild
- “While Gannett journalists brace for layoffs, those at the top rake in the big bucks.” – Media Nation
- Opinion: “How ‘pink slime’ journalism exploits our faith in local news” – WaPo
- “Gannett Stock Dropped on Weak Earnings. Then the CEO Bought $1.2 Million Worth.” – Barron’s
- “Gannett lays off journalists after dismal second quarter results.” – Poynter
- “With Gannett on fire, CEO buys $1.22 million of stock for himself.” – New Jersey Globe
- Analysis: “Bad to worse for news biz: Gannett chain turns to union busting, layoffs, stock buybacks” – Salon
- Media: “They were some of the last journalists at their papers, then came layoffs” – WaPo
- “After weeks of silence, Gannett revealed that it laid off 400 employees and cut 400 open positions” – Poynter
Here at the Times-Reporter as of 6pm, Friday, Aug. 12, we lost Roger Metzger, formerly the Sports Editor, and writer of 36 years across multiple newspapers in the area. We no longer have viable sports representation for 9 high schools (and 3 just outside the county, depending on how they are counted for coverage purposes). Sports coverage has always been a bread-and-butter section for community journalism. What does a county of nearly 100k people do without sports coverage of high schools? I collected screenshots of various Tweets, related to the layoffs – lots of sentiments of solidarity.
Some layoffs are continuing as of Wednesday, Aug. 16, as employees returning from vacation, or other leave, are being notified. A company town hall was held today, Aug. 16, which was apparently boycotted by the various union shops:
USAT posted the story below. The irony is thick.
5/ Reading The Pictures analyst Michael Shaw takes a deep dive into the drying up of Lake Mead in ‘Chatting The Pictures.”‘
6/ In perhaps the biggest #breakingnews story of the month – and we are only nine days through it: Trump. When I read the late-night headline about the raid on Mar-A-Lago, I immediately thought of Erin Schaff’s photograph of the White House move-out pile of boxes as a casual reminder, née – insistence, that nearly everything we see can have significant meaning while out on assignment. Make pictures. You never know where they may lead. The historical significance is now particularly prescient. And of course Jim Bourg Tweeted it out!
7/ ONPA Board Secretary and freelancer, Gaelen Morse knocks it out of the park with a quintessential ‘politician-eating-anything’ photograph.
8/ When David Burnett notices, you’ve probably made it. Noah Berger has certainly earned the recognition. Assignment after assignment of his continues to raise the bar. The fire coverage in particular continues to be breathtaking.
9/ Charlie Riedel. That’s it. That’s the post.
10/ Photos That Helped to Document the Holocaust Were Taken by a Nazi
“Photographs never killed anyone,” she added, “but what photographs can do is they can justify an ideology. If you present your victims as low or passive, or like vermin, you can justify a genocidal plan of action, as the Germans did.”
11/ Jose Carlos Fajardo an absolutely wonderful baseball feature from his archive.
12/ In a recent book recommendation taken from our intrepid ONPA Treasurer, Barbara Perenic, I apparently randomly ordered (from Amazon – I know, I’m sorry) David LaBelle’s signed copy of Bob Lynn’s Vision Courage & Heart. I reached out to Dave, and it was indeed his copy!
13/ And speaking of Mr. LaBelle, he’s been busy. 14/ A very important documentary is coming to CNN, Monday, Sept. 5 at 10p ET. Yunghi Kim said, “In a field dominated by men, Jane Evans, Maria Fleet, Margaret Moth, Mary Rogers, and Cynde Stand broke news, bucked stereotypes, and built an enduring sisterhood.”
15/ The screenshot below is a post made by someone at Reading the Pictures on their Twitter feed and was subsequently deleted a few hours later. Just a casual reminder to think a bit before you engage on social media. That is all.
16/ From Yunghi Kim, an incredible example of ‘get closer.’ And that’s about as close as it gets – physically. There’s other ways of getting closer in photojournalism, and that ability often sets photographers apart.
17/ This is an interesting promo sent to me by my mom in San Jose Calif., from the San Jose Mercury News. Click to learn more.
18/ Nineteen Women and Non-Binary Photographers Who Inspired Photography’s Past and Future 19/ Barack Obama’s Summer reading list, courtesy “full stop”, by Melissa Lyttle.
