Photojournalism | News Research
Video Notes
Changing from physical papers to internet/online presence
Decline in newspaper sales
Fewer people are interested in physical newspapers
2.25 million readers lost interest in newspapers
Half a million people stopped buying Sunday papers
Advertising makes up the majority of newspaper pages
Adverts have moved from physical newspapers to online advertising
Local papers have taken the largest hit
Advertisements are the main source of income for newspaper businesses
Journalists, editors, and newspaper staff face job loss
The newspaper has faced revolutions before (radio, TV, etc.)
Modernisation began in the 1980s
Fleet Street was the newspaper 'hub' of the country up until the '80s
"Modernisation" was transferring to computerised offices
The only major British paper not to lose readers in the previous year was The Sun
The Sun won more awards than any other paper
They reduced their price to keep customers (still retaining good profits)
The Sun's main competitor is The Mirror
120-page newspaper, 30,000 copies per hour (40 pages in colour) upgraded to 80,000 copies per hour (all pages in colour)
Investing in new technology and processes
Due to these investments, some papers had to increase prices
Free giveaways are a technique used to boost sales i.e. when The Sun was giving away a free CD copy of McFly's newest album at the time - The Sun gained 300,000 additional readers and the McFly album reached 2.5 million listeners in one weekend
Metro 55% news and 45% advertisements
Robert Murdoch - CEO of News Corporation
The digital revolution is bringing more competition
If readers can't immediately find something on your website - they'll look elsewhere
Videos were being introduced as a form of news outlet on websites/online
Online news is generally free which has an impact on newspaper profitability
Two-thirds of the Guardian's readers are out with the UK
The market is global - no longer physically/geographically restricted
Reader-specific advertising to improve adverts and reader experience
Amazon released the Kindle - subscriptions to newspapers available (as well as books) portable, user-friendly
The younger population tends not to read traditional newspapers
Presentation Questions
Where do you get news?
Television
Radio
Social Media e.g. Twitter
Online newspaper websites
Word of mouth
Four tenets of a newspaper:
Accessible by the public
Published at regular intervals
Information is current
Covers a variety of topics
Why were newspapers so powerful?
The main or only source of news for a long time
Influential
With the inevitable demise of newspapers, what are the implications for photographers today?
Less work
Reduced pay
Stock photos over hiring out
More easily accessible images via the internet
No job security
Paparazzi dominating tabloids
"Citizen" Journalism i.e. newspapers buying images from citizens/pedestrians who happened to take a snap on their phone
Benefits of online news
Larger audience
More exposure
Opportunities for press photographers
Freelance work
Agency work
Can send images to papers rather than working for them
Don't have to wait to be "discovered"
Benefits of working for an agency
Guaranteed work
Additional opportunities
Job security
Benefits
Photo Agencies
Agent France Presse
Reuters
Corbis
Getty
Magnum
Broadsheets
The Times
Sunday Times
The Telegraph
The Guardian
The Observer
The Herald
The Scotsman
The Independent
Tabloids
The Sun
The Mirror
The Daily Mail
The Daily Record
Sunday Mail
Tabloid/Broadsheet Task
What is the photographic style of the paper? Why do you think that is? Daily Record - Attention-grabbing with various images to keep the reader's attention. The Independent - Takes a more organised/structured approach primarily full of informative articles and fewer images.
How many images are in the paper? 161 images in the independent vs. 189 in The Daily Record.
How many are credited? Only 18 of the 161 images were credited to The Independent
Comment on the layout of the paper. What proportion text, what proportion images? In The Independent, there is an even split of images and text, whereas The Daily Record has slightly more images than text.
Freelance or Staff - can you tell? When looking for credited images, sometimes the same names appear which might indicate these photographers are staff for the paper as their images are used consistently throughout.
Comment on the quality of the image and effectiveness; does it tell the story? The images with accompanying text work well to help convey the story.
Look for similar stories/events. An article regarding Russia and Ukraine.
Where is the article? Page 23 in The Daily Record, page 33 in The Independent.












