Dayton Daily News photo chief quits rather than layoff people

Did you read the story about it? He already has side work and he basically said that really won't be an issue for him.

 

Well that's good then.

 

I've got to think if you are a professional photographer and committed to producing a better product - getting the word that you have to cut staff makes you realize that you and your employer and have different agendas.
It's easy to say, harder to do - just walk away from the only job many of us have ever wanted - but I imagine going through with the cuts would make it tougher to look yourself in the mirror or your colleagues in the eyes. Not to mention the ghosts that lurk around a newsroom.
If we were just making widgets I think it might be different. But people don't go into newspapers for the cash, it's a pretty personal job and an emotional commitment - you lose that, what makes this job special, and you might as well leave.

 

Good for Price -- I salute him for taking a stand. And not just on the layoffs.

The Dayton paper's "dumbing down" and de-emphasis of good photos for infographics made me feel ill.

Pretty soon "newsrooms" will consist of executive editors, graphic designers (not page designers) and maybe one wrangler of unpaid bloggers. Ugh.

 

On a smaller scale, I had a publisher on my hind end about that for years at our suburban daily.

"So, why are you covering the Indianapolis 500 when I'm PAYING the Associated Press to cover it? I'm PAYING you to cover local sports."

"Uh, because there's a local driver in the Indianapolis 500 and local crew members and local people the AP won't really care about?"

(or, the variant, "why do you cover the Colts when we pay the AP?" Me: "Because they give us one story that every other paper in America runs. We write PM second-day ledes on the game, combine our coverage with the other papers in the chain that don't have a problem sending reporters, and do huge numbers of web hits.")

 

Amen to this.

 

If Price worked for another company, the Dayton paper would put him on A1 and write an editorial lauding him for standing up for the little guy.

 

I hope his decision didn't create too much of a hardship for his family.

 

Survivor guilt is powerful and often debilitating. Damn emotions.