The Chicago Sun-Times is one of the most respected American newspapers, and recently its administration team made the decision to fire the entire team of photographers. The company did not give details about the real reason for the dismissal, it stated in a press release that the world is changing, they must evolve, they must be more attractive to consumers who have advanced technological knowledge, blah blah, and it started to train their journalists to take pictures using iPhones. Of course, we are not talking about the basic functions, but about an advanced photography course using iPhones, courses of this kind have existed for quite some time in the USA.
It is unclear how, precisely, canning the entire photo staff helps the company "evolve" with its "digitally savvy customers." The company isn't otherwise saying anything. But a tweet this morning from Robert Feder, who was the Sun-Times' widely respected media reporter for 28 years until he was laid off in 2008, puts things in perspective: "Sun-Times reporters," he wrote, "begin mandatory training today on 'iPhone photography basics' following elimination of the paper's entire photo staff."
Considering that iPhones cannot record as good pictures as professional cameras and that a journalist does not have the same experience as a photographer, the decision of the newspaper management is surprising. It is true that from iPhones the pictures can be uploaded much faster on the newspaper's websites, or sent directly to the editors, not to mention the FaceTime function, but this is the first newspaper to make such a radical decision, but it unlikely to be the last.
