Dayton Daily News photo chief quits rather than layoff people

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/blog/2011/08/pulitzer-photojournalist-takes-a-stand.html?page=all

I admire his desire to see newspapers survive, but I don't think I would lionize a guy who is quitting.

 

The opinion of one guy who has been in a similar situation ... for what it's worth:

I think Larry Price did what all of us who are asked to cut staffers would like to do. I wish that I had felt like I had the ability to say "eff you," and just leave. It's what I wanted to do.

There's part of me that feels guilty about having been able to stay employed while I made a choice about which staffers were going to have their lives turned upside down. And sitting on that knowledge for days before management was finally ready to go through with it was agonizing beyond words. I'm reminded of the scene in Broadcast News, where the network has laid off a bunch of people and Holly Hunter's character says to William Hurt's character, "It hurts -- physically -- doesn't it?"

Yeah, it did.

If you've never been in that position, I hope you never have to experience it. Because it changes you. Every time you have to do it, it claims a little piece of your soul. I apologize for sounding melodramatic, but being forced to cut staff had a profound impact on me. I've found it hard to muster the same sense of enthusiasm for what we do that I had before. Eventually I recovered and moved on the best I could, I managed the people I had left. But mentally, emotionally nothing has been quite the same. Because every day I come in wondering if this is the day it's gong to happen again.

I'm with you in spirit, Larry Price.

 

This man should be congratulated by everyone in journalism, and congratulated twice as much by newspaper readers.

 

Did you see this little gem down in the story?

The seminal moment for him occurred earlier this year after he shot a photograph of a girl with tears in her eyes at a candlelight vigil in west Dayton. The photo, he was told, was too emotional.

“The new prerogative, as it was explained to me, was to dumb down the photo report, to pull back and show crowd photographs,” Price said.

TOO EMOTIONAL? Jesus. People are fucking clueless.

 

That really jumped out at me, too.

We had a similiar situation when corporate denied one of our reporters a chance to be imbedded in the Middle East with the National Guard unit from our area.

A corporate boss, who incidentally was supposed to be a 'newspaper guy who gets it,' said what are we going to get from that that we can't get from the AP.

 

What's the least we can do and get away with? That's the formula for growth!!!

 

We had a situation last month at our paper. Guy goes nuts and kills several people and eventually takes hostages (made the national news). One of our excellent photogs took a picture of the father grieving in the street and being consoled by someone. We got a few letters, but most everyone agreed the pics were a powerful part of the story.

When are people going to wake up and realize the power of print/photo?

 

Display of photography is the last thing that print newspapers do better than online. It's a shame that any newspaper would do anything to compromise that.

Good for Price to take a stand, but those people are going to get laid off anyway. I'm not sure what he accomplishes other than giving himself the ability to get on with his next career.

 

Price accomplished this: He can think of himself as a person willing to live by his principles, and with the guts to take what comes with that, which is almost never materially good. Principles, pride, those things used to be considered pretty important -- even more important than "accomplishments."

 

As long as you can still buy groceries and pay the bills after standing on your principles, absolutely. It's a tough spot to be in. I empathized with TheHacker's post above.

 

I had an EE who did the same thing, basically (after I had already left that particular shop). Good for both of them.

 

I respect him taking a stance.

But, if it means he can't collect unemployment and has trouble finding a job, then he made a big mistake.