Hasta La Ideas

A few years ago, cultural critics were the canaries in the print journalism coal mine. Today, photojournalists are the poster children for the tangible media crisis. The latest evidence of their plight? The bankruptcy of Gamma, the storied French photo agency that is now owned by Eyedea. A Paris court has given the parent company six months to reorganize, which will likely mean layoffs and fortifying the parent company’s profitable units, such as the one that produces celebrity photos. “The problem is that news photography is finished,” Eyedea spokesperson Olivia Riant told The New York Times. “Gamma wants to go back to magazines and newsmagazines. We will stop covering daily news events to more deeply cover issues.” [Cue the ghost of Robert Capa sobbing quietly into his Spanish Civil War portfolio.] Beyond the dearth of venues for photojournalism lurk that cantankerous old couple: supply and demand. Take it from Jonathan Klein, CEO of Getty Images, where 70 percent of revenue is derived from stock photography.

“Photojournalism means the photographers can tell the story themselves in pictures, and there were places where they could publish those photos,” Mr. Klein said. “In the print world, many, if not most, of those places have since disappeared.”

Still, he said, there are reasons to be optimistic, because “thanks to the Web, there are now billions of pages for photographers to show their work,” he added. That has led to more photos being used, he said, but at lower prices.

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