Chicago newspaper front page comparison shows what happens when you fire photographers

 

 

Earlier this year, the Chicago Sun-Times moved to lay off its entire photography staff, instead aiming to arm journalists with iPhones, and pay freelancers a miserly rate. This naturally earned them a widespread drubbing from the rest of the media. But a comparison of today's front page from the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune shows the real effect of these new rules.

Put together by Brian Cassella over at Twitter, you can see the differing photographs from the two papers. The Tribune has a large, dynamic, and high-quality photograph of Chicago Blackhawks hockey player Andrew Shaw hoisting the Stanley Cup above a crowd. The Sun-Times, on the other hand, has an incredibly low-quality, small, and pedestrian image of Jonathan Toews holding the same trophy (viewable in high quality here), captured by journalist Lauran Berta.

For such a momentous sporting victory for the city of Chicago, this single, small image on the front page says a huge amount about the importance of having dedicated and skilled photographers on hand, to capture important events such as this.

(via Reddit)