Chicago Sun Times dumps Photogs

The Sun Times group has fired its entire photojournalism staff - indicating that relying on candid snaps from cellphones and social media photo-sharing would appeal to an "increasingly digital-savvy" readership.  It's also been reported that all reporters will be taking mandatory iPhone workshops for photo training.

Is this validation of the shift to backpack journalism, or another short-sighted attempt to cut costs by reducing the product's value?  While I think arming all reporters with the capacity to capture photos, audio, and video can be helpful, a trained photojournalist can add value through framing and their ability to identify and capture "the moment."  And that quality is one of the few competitive advantages major news outlets have over their online competition.  Is it really one to ditch for possible short-term cost savings?

Source -  Chicago Sun Times Fires Its Entire Photo Staff

Off-Topic - US College Tuition Inflation

This comes from a feature called "Scary Chart of the Day", and it is.

Since 1978 (the first year that Tuition costs were tracked and published as a separate category by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics), the costs of College Tuition and Fees have increased almost 1200%.  That's almost twice the increase in Medical Costs, more than three times the rate of increase in Energy costs, and around four times the increase in Food costs.  What makes it worse is that the chart also shows that the curve became steeper around 2002-2003, which indicates that the rate of increase has increased.  Further, the curve remains fairly steady after that kink, which suggests that this increased rate of growth in College Tuition and Fees is a long-term phenomena, rather than a reaction to short-term events and factors (as the jagged Energy costs line reflects).

This should be of concern to Journalism Departments, particularly as starting salaries aren't increasing significantly over time, and certainly not keeping pace with the increasing costs of getting the degree.  In a purely economic market (which thankfully higher education isn't), this would mean declining demand and fewer majors.  And the very real possibility that at some point, the cost of getting a journalism degree would not be recoverable - that is, the degree isn't worth the cost of getting it.  Particularly since, in journalism and media industries, the degree isn't essential to the job.  Declining demand and majors is a real problem for departments and programs in higher education today - and in many programs can be a death knell foreshadowing closure.
  Now that's scary.

Source - Scary Chart of the Day: Tuition Inflation,  College Insurrection

Retrans Fees News

Hot on the heels of an SNL Kagan report projecting a bog hike in future revenues from Retransmission Consent fees, comes a report that U.S. broadcasters will seek retransmission payments from Canadian cable, satellite, and Internet TV providers that include their signals.

  The SNL Kagan report projects that revenues from U.S. retransmission consent fees will total $2.36 billion in 2012, or about $1 per MVPDS  subscriber (multichannel video programming delivery service - includes cable, satellite, telco-TV).  They also significantly raised their retrans revenue estimate for 2018 - $6.05 billion, or $4.86 per subscriber in aggregate.  There's two ways to look at this - that it would be only 10% of what cable operators pay for all carried programming, and that all broadcaster-based fees combined will be still be less than what ESPN earns just for its primary channel; alternatively, you can think of this as saying viewers will be paying nearly $5 per month to access "free TV" through cable or other MVPDS services.

  The money's good enough to get border-area stations to to seek payments from Canadian MVPDS services now, rather than waiting for a proposed WIPO Broadcasting Treaty that would explicitly give broadcasters the right to seek payment for carriage of their signals beyond national borders.  They argue that they should be treated the same as "distant" Canadian stations are under a new set of consent and compensation rights in Canada.  The new Canadian regulations can into effect in 2011 after Canadian authorities looked into "fee-for-service" video platforms.  The new regulations provide consent and remuneration rights to "distant" or out-of-market TV stations in Canada, that are similar to US retransmission consent rights in the U.S.

“Our channels deliver value for Canadians,” said Chris Musial, General Manager for WIVB and WNLO-TV in Buffalo, New York. “We expect the right to negotiate appropriate compensation for the full value that our signals and programming deliver to Canadian markets.”

While it may seem like a winner for these U.S. stations, it likely won't be long before non-US stations seek reciprocal rights from US MVPDS operators.  That could negatively impact carriage decisions and retrans payments in the U.S. as well as in Canada.
  Even with the additional revenues from Canada, it's likely that local stations won't be able to keep most of it.  As copyright holders for most of the broadcast content local stations transmit, networks are already grabbing significant chunks of retransmission consent revenues from stations.  Retrans consent payments are contributing to higher prices for syndicated programming.

As for TV viewers, remember that these carriage fees get passed on to subscribers; or result in denying them access to channels (if no deal is reached.

Sources  -  Kagan: Retrans to Top $6 Billion by 2018,  Broadcasting & Cable
US Broadcasters Seek Retransmission Fees, Broadcaster

Broadband for the World - Still Too Costly

A new ITU (International Telecommunications Union) report argues that broadband services remain unaffordable for much of the world.

  Comparing the cost of broadband access to average national income, the study identified 19 countries where broadband cost exceeded average income, and another 30 where the cost of broadband access was greater than half of national average income.  In contrast, the price of broadband access amounted to less than 2% of national average income in 49 countries (mostly in the developed world).

  That's despite continuing and significant drops in the cost of broadband technologies and service.  The ITU reported broadband access prices in most areas fell more than 50% in the last two years, and mobile broadband access costs have fallen 22%.  In classic bureaucratic understatement, the report concludes that "huge discrepancies in affordability persist."

  The report's authors urge governments to further reduce broadband access costs through subsidies, improved competition and improved regulation - in support of the ITU's goal of having basic broadcast access costs fall below 5% of average income in all emerging markets by 2015.  Telecommunication costs have consistently fallen over time, and where allowed, newer technologies will naturally bring costs down as they replace older technologies.

  But the problem isn't just that broadband prices are too high. The real and more serious problem is the other side of the comparison - that national average income levels are too low.  However, that's both too big, and too impolitic, to be the focus of a short-term UN agency goal, so for now the ITU will stress efforts to reduce costs.

Source -  Broadband still unaffordable in many emerging markets, says ITU,  TelecomEngine
ITU Report - The State of Broadband 2012: Achieving Digital Inclusion For All