The main focus of this blog is to cover the business side of photography from a commercial and advertising perspective. I do, however, have a soft spot for a number of friends and colleagues who decided to go work for newspapers as well as the vast number of emerging photographers that were fed a good line from the educational and news institutions encouraging them that everything would be OK. It’s not that it was on purpose but, I feel, a product of the lack of understanding of economic forces combined with a zeal to tell important stories under the same conditions as the golden era of photojournalism.
I took a lot of flak and received as much praise for my previous posts for my rant on the community for engendering a false sense of hope in newcomers while not engaging in a practical discussion of business methods and other tools to help photographers transition into other fields in photography.
This doesn’t mean you can’t make it. Some of you will defy the odds, the odds of which are strongly against you. In any case, I wanted to revisit the discussion one last time and make my final plea for those of you who want to photograph for newspapers. Please, don’t do it.
From the Baltimore Business Journal:
U.S. newspapers’ advertising revenue came in $2 billion lower for the third quarter than for the same period in 2007.
Ad dollars for print and online newspaper editions were $8.9 billion for the third quarter, down 18 percent from $10.9 billion for the third quarter of 2007, according to new numbers from the Newspaper Association of America, Print ads were down 19 percent and classified ads were off 31 percent quarter over quarter. Down car and home sales have cut into ad buys, and newer media forms continue to take a bite out of traditional ad buys. Still, online advertising was down 3 percent, according NAA.
I want to make an important distinction:
This is not a cyclical problem. It’s an industry problem that has been exacerbated by the current economic recession.
The decline of newspapers has been going on for decades and it’s been accelerating the past few years, including the more lucrative years before the financial crisis started.
Do your research, look around for articles, it’s all there. But I strongly urge you to reconsider.
Although I’m certain journalism will be around long after this and future generations, one can’t deny the magnitude of the problem facing the industry. I really do feel for the entire generation of American journalists, but it’s time for a reality check. I don’t claim to know all the inner workings of newspapers and the business end of things. But I do have a solid grasp of business and economic principles…and it’s very risky to bet against the consistent and accelerated decline in revenue across the whole industry, especially in photography.
For what it’s worth,
The Monk
