"Newspapers do not seem to have that level of self-awareness, and are stuck in a business model that is not very profitable."
Historically, papers have been extremely profitable, even since the advent of the Web: "A typical newspaper with a 100,000 circulation makes a 15.6 percent annual pre-tax profit margin, according to Inland Daily Press Association and the International Newspaper Financial Executives. The Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other media outlets, for example, operates on an 18.3 percent pre-tax profit margin. Gannett, which owns 90 newspapers in the U.S., including USA Today, operates on a 21.4 percent pre-tax profit margin. By comparison, Walmart Stores Inc. operates on a 5.4 percent pre-tax profit margin, while Exxon Mobil Corporation operates on a 17.9 percent pre-tax profit margin."
I've always thought this sort of high profit was kind of messed up, since reporters are paid so little. I don't mean the Sean Hannitys and Wolf Blitzers of the world, I mean regular cops/city council/schools type newspaper reporters. They earn miserable salaries by and large. Take a look at www.journalismjobs.com and you'll see $30,000/year is pretty typical. Where's the profit going? Shareholders I suppose, not into journalism. It's all business, sadly. And it has been sucking the life out of newspapers for decades, even before the Web was a factor.
"... newspapers are little more than repackaged AP..."
From Wikipedia: "The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers."
I work at a daily paper. I don't work for the AP. I don't get paid for anything I create that goes on the AP. But I've had my journalism work go *on* the AP and be published all over the place. It's just normal work-a-day journalists that create AP news; some of us work in small towns you've never heard of, some of us work in the big cities.
Reporter: "Sir, when you talk about Iran, and you talk about how you have diplomatic efforts, you also say all options are on the table. Does that include the possibility of a nuclear strike? Is that something that your administration will plan for?"
Bush: "All options are on the table."
That option means nuclear weapons. http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-28.htm
Perhaps if you, ah, read a newspaper you'd be aware of such comments.
Also,
""If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," Bush said. "So I told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested" in ensuring Iran not gain the capacity to develop such weapons."
http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/17/asia/prexy.php
Re:I'm entitled to proper punctuation
on
Donkey Kong and Me
·
· Score: 1
Gah. That last post came out formatted differently than I had intended. Here's a correction: "MBCook sends us to the blog of one Landon Dyer, who posted an entry the other day entitled Donkey Kong and Me." Entitle: to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something. Titled: to designate or call by a title.
I'm entitled to proper use of "titled"
on
Donkey Kong and Me
·
· Score: 1
"MBCook sends us to the blog of one Landon Dyer, who posted an entry the other day entitled Donkey Kong and Me."
Entitle: to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something
titled: to designate or call by a title
I went on a two-month trip across Ireland and Germany. Everything I brought fit into one small Jansport backpack (the kind a grade school or high school student might carry) and a Domke F3x camera bag. I had my Nikon DSLR and two lenses along with some other items in the Domke bag, with all my clothing and towel and bathroom kit in the Jansport. I never had to check my luggage on the airlines this way. I did not bring a laptop, but getting on the 'net was easy cuz there's so many internet cafes all over the place.
As for digital image storage, I just brought three compactflash cards with me: two 512MB and one 2gig. I took 2,700 photos on my 4-megapixel DSLR using the cards. Only once or twice did I connect my CF cards into a computer at an internet cafe... I was concerned I might pick up a virus, and wanted to limit my risk.
I work as a news photographer at a daily paper full time. We use Photoshop on OS X at work. The only thing GIMP really lacks that would make it unattractive for news work is the lack of CMYK. But I understand Krita can handle CMYK just fine. The other standard stuff -- dodging, burning, adjusting levels and curves, resizing, applying unsharp mask -- GIMP does fine. But I don't think the newspaper industry is interested in GIMP. $600 for Photoshop isn't an issue with most newspapers, plus it's a standard so everyone knows how to use it and you don't need to re-train everyone.
8bits per channel vs. 12-16 bits per channel isn't really an issue for newspaper work. I've never noticed any fellow photographers use these extra bit depth modes. Everybody seems to stick with 8bit/channel jpegs. RAW is slow and takes up a lot of space on memory cards. Also, bear in mind that newsprint is "axle grease on toilet paper" so any advantage that higher bit depths provide will not be especially noticeable. Heck, just getting the CMYK registration to line up on a press is a big enough challenge!
8bit/channel images are the standard for Web images. So for newspaper Web sites, GIMP, of course, would be perfectly adequate.
For personal work, I use GIMP. All my flickr photos are processed using GIMP. When I make prints at the one-hour lab, I bring in my media card full if images adjusted only with GIMP. For me, price is an issue. I strongly prefer not to spend $600 on Photoshop. But also, and just as important, I am a fan of the Free Software philosophy. It appeals to me. For these same reasons and more, I use GNU/Linux and BSD at home, also.
Regarding GIMPs interface, coming from a Photoshop background, it did seem to be awkward to me at first, but now that I'm familiar with it, GIMP's interface seems fine to me. It all depends on what you're used to.
I've also used GIMP for personal paid projects... some individual portraits and some group portraits.
As an aside, I recently installed GIMP on a family friend's computer. They love it! Here's an actual email I received from them:
"... I took the copy of the rooster photo you had on my CD to send to Costco to make a large print for my sister. The color was dull, so Drew helped me with GIMP and we got vibrant color and an amazing print. I will send it to my sister framed for Christmas; it will be the perfect gift. Thank you for giving us copies of your terrific photos. I want to learn more about GIMP this year, and this experiment has me excited about the possibilities... [The IT guy at work] told me we have a book in our professional library on how to use GIMP. I checked it out on Thursday before I left for Helena. I am looking forward to trying it out. It will be good to have a new interest occupying my time every so often."
Slashdot Mirror
"Newspapers do not seem to have that level of self-awareness, and are stuck in a business model that is not very profitable."
Historically, papers have been extremely profitable, even since the advent of the Web: "A typical newspaper with a 100,000 circulation makes a 15.6 percent annual pre-tax profit margin, according to Inland Daily Press Association and the International Newspaper Financial Executives. The Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other media outlets, for example, operates on an 18.3 percent pre-tax profit margin. Gannett, which owns 90 newspapers in the U.S., including USA Today, operates on a 21.4 percent pre-tax profit margin. By comparison, Walmart Stores Inc. operates on a 5.4 percent pre-tax profit margin, while Exxon Mobil Corporation operates on a 17.9 percent pre-tax profit margin."
source: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/newswar/part3/newspaperprimer.html
I've always thought this sort of high profit was kind of messed up, since reporters are paid so little. I don't mean the Sean Hannitys and Wolf Blitzers of the world, I mean regular cops/city council/schools type newspaper reporters. They earn miserable salaries by and large. Take a look at www.journalismjobs.com and you'll see $30,000/year is pretty typical. Where's the profit going? Shareholders I suppose, not into journalism. It's all business, sadly. And it has been sucking the life out of newspapers for decades, even before the Web was a factor.
"... newspapers are little more than repackaged AP ..."
From Wikipedia: "The AP is a cooperative owned by its contributing newspapers, radio and television stations in the United States, which both contribute stories to the AP and use material written by its staffers."
I work at a daily paper. I don't work for the AP. I don't get paid for anything I create that goes on the AP. But I've had my journalism work go *on* the AP and be published all over the place. It's just normal work-a-day journalists that create AP news; some of us work in small towns you've never heard of, some of us work in the big cities.
Reporter: "Sir, when you talk about Iran, and you talk about how you have diplomatic efforts, you also say all options are on the table. Does that include the possibility of a nuclear strike? Is that something that your administration will plan for?" Bush: "All options are on the table." That option means nuclear weapons. http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0228-28.htm Perhaps if you, ah, read a newspaper you'd be aware of such comments. Also, ""If Iran had a nuclear weapon, it'd be a dangerous threat to world peace," Bush said. "So I told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested" in ensuring Iran not gain the capacity to develop such weapons." http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/10/17/asia/prexy.php
Gah. That last post came out formatted differently than I had intended. Here's a correction: "MBCook sends us to the blog of one Landon Dyer, who posted an entry the other day entitled Donkey Kong and Me." Entitle: to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something. Titled: to designate or call by a title.
"MBCook sends us to the blog of one Landon Dyer, who posted an entry the other day entitled Donkey Kong and Me." Entitle: to furnish with proper grounds for seeking or claiming something titled: to designate or call by a title
I went on a two-month trip across Ireland and Germany. Everything I brought fit into one small Jansport backpack (the kind a grade school or high school student might carry) and a Domke F3x camera bag. I had my Nikon DSLR and two lenses along with some other items in the Domke bag, with all my clothing and towel and bathroom kit in the Jansport. I never had to check my luggage on the airlines this way. I did not bring a laptop, but getting on the 'net was easy cuz there's so many internet cafes all over the place. As for digital image storage, I just brought three compactflash cards with me: two 512MB and one 2gig. I took 2,700 photos on my 4-megapixel DSLR using the cards. Only once or twice did I connect my CF cards into a computer at an internet cafe ... I was concerned I might pick up a virus, and wanted to limit my risk.
Well, there's an online HTML version, too. One is not required to work with tar files.
This fellow: http://gimp-savvy.com/BOOK/ has an excellent free book.
I work as a news photographer at a daily paper full time. We use Photoshop on OS X at work. The only thing GIMP really lacks that would make it unattractive for news work is the lack of CMYK. But I understand Krita can handle CMYK just fine. The other standard stuff -- dodging, burning, adjusting levels and curves, resizing, applying unsharp mask -- GIMP does fine. But I don't think the newspaper industry is interested in GIMP. $600 for Photoshop isn't an issue with most newspapers, plus it's a standard so everyone knows how to use it and you don't need to re-train everyone.
... some individual portraits and some group portraits.
... [The IT guy at work] told me we have a book in our professional library on how to use GIMP. I checked it out on Thursday before I left for Helena. I am looking forward to trying it out. It will be good to have a new interest occupying my time every so often."
8bits per channel vs. 12-16 bits per channel isn't really an issue for newspaper work. I've never noticed any fellow photographers use these extra bit depth modes. Everybody seems to stick with 8bit/channel jpegs. RAW is slow and takes up a lot of space on memory cards. Also, bear in mind that newsprint is "axle grease on toilet paper" so any advantage that higher bit depths provide will not be especially noticeable. Heck, just getting the CMYK registration to line up on a press is a big enough challenge!
8bit/channel images are the standard for Web images. So for newspaper Web sites, GIMP, of course, would be perfectly adequate.
For personal work, I use GIMP. All my flickr photos are processed using GIMP. When I make prints at the one-hour lab, I bring in my media card full if images adjusted only with GIMP. For me, price is an issue. I strongly prefer not to spend $600 on Photoshop. But also, and just as important, I am a fan of the Free Software philosophy. It appeals to me. For these same reasons and more, I use GNU/Linux and BSD at home, also.
Regarding GIMPs interface, coming from a Photoshop background, it did seem to be awkward to me at first, but now that I'm familiar with it, GIMP's interface seems fine to me. It all depends on what you're used to.
I've also used GIMP for personal paid projects
As an aside, I recently installed GIMP on a family friend's computer. They love it! Here's an actual email I received from them:
"... I took the copy of the rooster photo you had on my CD to send to Costco to make a large print for my sister. The color was dull, so Drew helped me with GIMP and we got vibrant color and an amazing print. I will send it to my sister framed for Christmas; it will be the perfect gift. Thank you for giving us copies of your terrific photos. I want to learn more about GIMP this year, and this experiment has me excited about the possibilities