414 replies to this topic

[sebberry]

Drex on CKNW has been speaking the last couple of nights about the Victoria News. 

 

They had (and quickly removed) an article on their website looking for volunteer photographers.  The article can be seen in Drex's twitter pictures here: https://twitter.com/drex

 

Tonight he revealed that Black Press had laid off their staff photographer last year. 

[Bingo]

Drex on CKNW has been speaking the last couple of nights about the Victoria News. 

They had (and quickly removed) an article on their website looking for volunteer photographers. 

The article can be seen in Drex's twitter pictures

here: https://twitter.com/drex

 

Tonight he revealed that Black Press had laid off their staff photographer last year. 

 

There is not much money to be made as a staff photographer as people on the street can send in free stuff taken with their phone,

and you would starve as a volunteer photographer if you didn't have another source of income.

Everyone is a photographer in the digital world.

And that is all I have to say about that...and I suppose this is not a good time to re-negotiate my contract, eh? 

[Mike K.]

That's major. You'd think that for the amount of advertising that's printed throughout that newspaper that they wouldn't need to resort to volunteers.

Or maybe things aren't so bright at Black Press? They've sold their building, Monday Magazine is nearly gone, they have shed a lot of writing positions, and now photography is taking a hit. Brutal.

[Rob Randall]

I get that anybody can push a button but we are getting snapshots and we are losing photography.

[VicHockeyFan]

I get that anybody can push a button but we are getting snapshots and we are losing photography.

 

I'm not so sure that it matters so much.  If you have 200 public-submitted photos from events all over, vs. 12 from your staff photographer that can only hit 6 events in a day, you might find a better image from your volunteers.

 

Cached page calling for volunteers:   http://webcache.goog...n&ct=clnk&gl=ca

 

The ad says you should make sure to note all names of subjects in your photo.  That might be problematic.

[Rob Randall]

^That would be fine if they were supplementing their professional photography with amateur snaps but it sounds like reporters will be supplying their own photography and the rest will be photos by volunteers so the Vic News will soon resemble SNAP or whatever that vanity freebie paper is called.

[Jill]

Not Victoria or Black Press, but I just saw a CBC report that the daily papers in Saint John and Moncton have gotten rid of all their staff photographers.

[sebberry]

Perhaps the writers should be let-go too?  Surely newspapers can rely on volunteer submissions for news stories...

[tedward]

Perhaps the writers should be let-go too?  Surely newspapers can rely on volunteer submissions for news stories...

 

Given the steady use of press-releases as "news" we are half-way there already I think.

[Bingo]

Newspapers will be done in a few short years. By the time a story ends up in print for a bi-weekly, the news is already three days old.

[johnk]

Newspapers will be done in a few short years. By the time a story ends up in print for a bi-weekly, the news is already three days old.

Yesterday's news, tomorrow.
Does anyone read the Black papers to get news? IMO Black Press's concept of news is the stuff you use to fill space between ads.

[manuel]

As soon as the auto dealers find a way to create local buzz about the new rides that doesn't depend on the newspaper, the majority are done for.

[VicHockeyFan]

Up Island, the Courier-Islander has closed, and the Oceanside Star also.

 

http://vancouverisla...o?clipId=577266

 

[VicHockeyFan]

WEDNESDAY, 25 MARCH 2015

Nanaimo Daily News Loses 20 Jobs

Black Press Closes Two Island Papers
Cuts Twenty Nanaimo Jobs

CHEK News reports that the purchase of eight Island newspapers by Black Press from Glacier Media is resulting in the closing of the Campbell River Courier-Islander and the Oceanside Star. For the time being the other papers including Comox, Nanaimo and Port Alberni will continue to operate.

The printing and mailing staff at the Daily News will be losing their jobs as production is moved to Black's Ladysmith printing plant.

How long the Nanaimo Daily News, the Harbour City Star and the Nanaimo News Bulletin will operate in the same market, competing for the same ad dollars will likely be the subject of Black Press boardroom discussions over the coming few months.

Whether Nanaimo can support a daily publication is questionable as the Daily struggles to retain it's daily subscription base, having less than 5,000 subscribers currently. The big 'prize' in the local market is the flyer distribution which has been dominated by the Bulletin, with it's city-wide coverage for quite sometime.

I predict, it is only a matter of time before whatever papers survive in Nanaimo are produced from one facility employing amalgamated staffing under one roof. Maintaining duplicate overhead, simply doesn't make any business sense.

How people get the news and stay engaged in their community has become a moving target with the advent of the internet and online publishing. Providing effective advertising which costs big bucks has become more and more challenging for the print media.

On a local level, this little blog (Nanaimo-Info-Blog) has been online since 2007 and has gradually gathered a following of several thousand on a daily basis, and as many as 10,000 on a weekly basis depending on what 'news' is the hot item that week.

 

http://www.nanaimo-i...es-20-jobs.html

[Bingo]

Striking workers at the Cowichan News Leader Pictorial have just learned their paper is being closed, and that they will never return to work.

http://www.cheknews....ey-news-leader/

 

A few weeks ago this was said...

The Black Press-owned newspaper’s 12 employees—including editorial, art, advertising and support staff—have been on the picket lines for over six weeks, said Peter McQuade, western Canada’s national representative of Unifor Local 2000.  

Work-to-rule was instituted in late November, and after a strike vote passed with 100 per cent support, workers walked off the job Dec. 1.

In a proposed collective bargaining agreement, the company wanted to eliminate the existing wage structure’s top tier for new hires, meaning future employees would make $1 less per hour than the $21.90 a reporter currently earns after four years, McQuade said.

While the company had hoped to secure a new contract, there’s “a high probability” the News Leader Pictorial, which was already struggling financially, will close if an agreement can’t be reached, Blair said. - See more at: http://j-source.ca/a...h.EHcmQM1Q.dpuf

 

 

[todd]

 

Oak Bay News posted Jul 9, 2015

News welcomes new publisher and editor

The Oak Bay News welcomed two new faces this week with the arrival of publisher Janet Gairdner and editor Jennifer Blyth.

 

see more: http://www.oakbaynew.../312947311.html

 

[VicHockeyFan]

Daniel Palmer left Black Press last month.

[todd]

So haven't received by delivery the Oak Bay News for weeks, it's a free publication so at first I figured I wouldn't phone nor did I want to get the delivery person in trouble. But after a couple weeks a call is placed and it turns out they have no delivery person for the area and service will likely not be restored until September. Think they need to raise their delivery person wage. Guess it is a free publication.

[johnk]

I get notices in my mailbox every few weeks advising that my neighbourhood route is available. Quite frequent turnover and very often delivered by adults. Kids don't want to break off after-school time to do it. Maybe they pay kids' wages, too.
We won't be seeing Mr. Black selling pencils from a tin cup in front of the Bay Centre anytime soon.

[Mike K.]

It's wages. 100%.

Remember, Black Press fired their photographers and put out requests to the community to supply them with photos of events. If that's how they treat photographers imagine what the conditions must be like for delivery people.

Speaking of which, I haven't received a copy of Vic News in months. I wonder if BP continues pushing the same circulation numbers to their advertisers despite major gaps in delivery.