ACCESS: FIGHT FOR RIGHT TO COVER NEWS IS KEY ISSUE FOR ALL EDITORS
By PIM VAN HEMMEN
The Star-Ledger, Newark, N.J.
Last year when the state of New Jersey removed 24 tigers from a private reserve, the press was kept out because it was private property. But the state and an animal rights group were allowed in, and the animal rights group, whose publicly stated goal it is to rescue wild animals from private reserves, took photos and provided them to the wire services. The Star-Ledger did not run the photos on the principle that the animal rights group could not be considered an unbiased source of information. Unfortunately, many of our competing papers ran the photos, causing some of our editors to question why we did not. Access, and consequently the use of handout photos, is becoming a more prevalent trend in our industry. Some of the hurdles we have recently encountered in New Jersey involved:

• Rock stars trying to provide us with concert photos by celebrity photographers they handpicked, rather than giving any newspaper or wire photographer access to the event.
  
• Sports leagues making commercial deals with agencies to provide their own photos to newspapers. Most are writing contracts on the back of press credentials stipulating onerous conditions (in some states some colleges are trying to do this as well).
  
• School principals saying we can't shoot kids' faces in school. One school in New Jersey just hired a public relations agent, through whom all requests for photography (and interviews) must be filed. In what seems to be a clear contradiction to that policy, we can continue to photograph any kid after school, on school property, while they play school sports under the supervision of coaches who are schoolteachers.
  
• Fire police keeping our photographers from fire scenes only to have firefighters try to sell us the exclusive photos afterwards.
  
• Emergency Medical Technicians at accident scenes telling our photographers we cannot photograph victims -- even though they are on a public street -- supposedly because of the recently introduced federal HIPAA rules. They are incorrect in their understanding of the HIPAA rules, but try explaining that to them while the fleeting photo opportunities pass before your eyes.
  
• A local university restricting our photographers to a box at a graduation ceremony, which they were not allowed to leave, and not allowing journalists to speak to students without a university assigned public relations representative present.
  

We are quickly losing our ability to independently gather the news.

If these groups figure out that they can keep us out of events, and then afterwards hand us photos of what they want us to see, we are failing to provide our readers with an independently produced view of the scene. Newspapers are already in a compromised position because we use handout photos from film companies, theaters and record companies in our feature sections. I suspect we do this because it is cheap and convenient.

So if it's okay in our features sections, why is it not okay to use handout photos in our news sections? When Saddam Hussein was captured last year, virtually every newspaper used the U.S. Army handout photos. The news-value of the photo seemed to outweigh any reservations about who shot it. But why could the U.S. government not provide accredited journalists with access to Saddam Hussein?

If groups figure they can keep the press out and we'll just use their hand-out photographs, we fail our readers

The White House entrusted reporters and photographers with information and access that could have endangered the safety of the leader of the free world when he made a risky Thanksgiving trip to Baghdad. Yet they wouldn't trust a journalist with a photo opportunity of the defeated and bedraggled dictator of Iraq. Both subjects were surrounded by American soldiers, so why was one accessible to the accredited press and the other one not? And how come we didn't make any noise about that?

One editor at my paper suggested that one of the problems with the tiger photos is that the wire services moved them at all. If they had not moved them, he argued, then no paper could have run them, and we would not have found ourselves divided as a group.

We need to guard against the increasing use of handout photos because it erodes our access to newsworthy events. The more we use handout photos, the greater the likelihood we will be forced out of similar events in the future. As photo managers we need to raise awareness of this problem among the top decision makers in our newsrooms and persuade them to aggressively pursue access restrictions. We also need to convince them that the use of handout photos in our newspapers poses a threat to our ability to effectively do our jobs in the future.

If we don't stop this trend, we may soon find ourselves permanently on the outside, unable to look in.

COORDINATION: IDEAS TO HELP DESIGNERS AND PHOTOGRAPHERS COMMUNICATE
While word journalists may see newsroom designers and photographers as part of a single "visual" culture, a recent APME/APPM meeting recognized the difference approaches the two disciplines can take.

Organized by APPM president Sherman Williams of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "10 Things a Designer Should know about Photography and Picture Editing/10 Things a Picture Editor Should Know About Design" was one of three visual oriented sessions at the May 20-21 Wisconsin APME/APPM meeting.

The session featured a panel of designers and photo editors and discussions prior to the meeting indicated a lively and productive discussion. Panelist Dwight Nale, photo editor of the Appleton (Wis.) Post-Crescent, noted "the biggest thing is the communication, because sometimes in the communication business we don't communicate enough."

This communication, he said, needs to incorporate sensitivity on the part of the designer that what the designer may spend an hour putting together is the result of several weeks of effort by both the writer and the photographer. But photographers, Nale said, need to remember the pressure designers are under. "We as photographers have to understand what designers do," he said, adding that photographers shouldn't feel entitled to have every photo used. But, he adds, "A big thing designers need to know is that photographers want to be part of the process."

Bill Olmstead, photo editor of the Janesville (Wis.) Gazette and a panel member, adds that photographers should not come to the process expecting to have problems with page designers. "A lot of photographers just assume page designers are going to do bad things to them," he said. Olmstead adds that designers need to recognize that "photographers, like any other caring person, are highly invested in their work and hope to see it used well."

Lonnie Turner, features design editor at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, begins her list of 10 things with "Designers LOVE great photography." She reminds photo editors: "The more powerful the photo is, the easier our job becomes. Good design frames great photography. Give us powerful photos, and there will be no need to pull out 'our bag of tricks.'"

Olmstead would remind designers that it is possible to play photos too large as well as too small, and he has seen detail shots used much large than ever intended. He also asks designers, "When presented with a group of images, pick the most important photographs, what directly relates to the story."

Turner and Nale both agree that photographers should remember to turn the camera and offer designers vertical images in photo packages. Turner adds, "Want to get on a designer's good side and have photography more prominent on cover pages? Give us horizontal and vertical options to design with. You will have a friend for life!"

Designers should ask questions of photographers, Olmstead said, adding "Photographs are finished pieces of work. Like a finished story you can trim them, but you don't crop it severely without getting someone else involved. You wouldn't cut 30 or 40 percent of a story without involving and editor or the reporter."

He also notes it is reasonable for designers working on deadlines to ask photographers to shoot to a shape, but would ask that the size not be a restrictive. Photographers need to understand the newspaper's demands and respond appropriately.

Finally, in her list, Turner addresses the contentious issue of "block outs" or as photo editors sometimes refer to them, COBs (cutout backgrounds). While she argues that sometimes the block out is the best use of space, she notes it works best when, "The idea of photographing the subject of the story and blocking the image out for design purposes has been discussed and agreed upon by the photo editor, photographer and designer in advance."

It's all about communication, as Nale says.

You can see Lonnie Turner's complete list at www.apphotomanagers.org.

Today's issue was written by Darrell Hoemann of The News-Gazette in Champaign, Ill., an APPM member and coordinator of APPM's Update contributions. The access article is by Pim Van Hemmen, assistant managing editor for photography at The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J., an APPM board member and APPM Press Access Chair.

TRAINING: REGISTER NOW FOR FREE SESSION IN SAN FRANCISCO
The first Northern California APPM regional meeting will be July 1 at the San Francisco Chronicle. It will be coordinated by Susan Gilbert, deputy managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle and Geri Migielicz, director of photography of the San Jose Mercury News and Stephanie Mullen, San Francisco AP photo editor. A program is still being developed. Food and beverages will be served. All photo editors at newspapers in Northern California are encouraged to attend, but all photo managers are welcome. For more information or registration for this no-cost workshop contact Susan Gilbert, Geri Migielicz or Stephanie Mullen.

WEB: CHECK OUT NEW APPM WEB SITE
APPM has launched its new site. Here is what you will find:

• News: Latest APPM developments
  
• Resources: Stories on management, press access, legal issues, controversial photographs.
  
• Workshops: News about national and regional APPM workshops
  
• Registration: You can join or renew on line using your credit card.
  

MEMBER COOPERATION: AP MEMBERS CITED FOR SHARING NEWS, PHOTOS, TIPS
AP member newspapers, broadcast stations and online sites are the local eyes and ears of the world-wide news cooperative, contributing tips, stories and photographs to improve the content available to all members. These members will receive APME Instant Citations for their assistance on recent stories:

• The Logan (W.Va.) Banner which made sure AP members were protected with photographs and stories when floods hit southern West Virginia twice on Sundays in June. Managing Editor Michael Browning provided pictures, quotes and color for stories that became available for other papers, including nearby ones that would publish before The Logan Banner.
  
• The Brainerd (Minn.) Dispatch, where Editor Roy Miller tipped AP June 5 that a man sought in the killing of a central Minnesota woman had been arrested in Michigan. AP was able to quickly confirm the information and provide a story in time for morning newspapers around the state.
  
• The Evansville (Ind.) Courier & Press, which shared with other AP members three on-cycle photos showing Gov. Joe Kernan surveying tornado damage in Newburgh, Ind. The newspaper made the photographs available before it could publish them itself.
  
• The Times-Mail of Bedford, Ind., which transmitted two on-cycle photos May 28 of flooded roads in southern Indiana after severe storms rolled through Indiana the previous night. They were the first daytime photos showing the effect of the storms. The member protected other AP newspapers with the photos before it could publish them itself.
  
• The Star Press of Muncie, Ind., which transmitted two photos May 27 of flooding caused by severe storms that rolled across Indiana. They were the first member-contributed photos documenting the effect of storms that pummeled Indiana for several days.
  
• The Journal and Courier of Lafayette, Ind., which transmitted two photos the night of May 30, when severe storms rolled through Indiana. The next day, the photo staff moved three more on-cycle pictures of additional storm damage.
  
• The Antelope Valley Press in Palmdale, Calif., for helping AP and its members receive a timely obituary of state Sen. William J. "Pete" Knight. Knight, who wrote California's gay marriage ban and took it directly to voters after twice failing to get it through the Legislature. Upon learning from family sources about Knight's death the night before, Editor Dennis Anderson called AP in the morning before he could publish the news in his own paper. His call put AP ahead and the AP story ran on the Los Angeles Times' Web site most of Saturday.

AP Photo, Tom Fox, The Dallas Morning News

Also, congratulations to Tom Fox of The Dallas Morning News for contributing the May Member Showcase Photo of the Month. When heavy rain from a passing thunderstorm briefly halted play during the Big 12 Conference baseball tournament, Fox found action of a different sort in the stands where 13-year-old Baskin Betsworth sat underneath a stream of runoff water from the upper deck, much to the bemusement of other fans seeking shelter underneath. For his winning monthly contribution, Fox is eligible for the annual APME Member Showcase Photo Award, which includes recognition at the annual conference and a cash prize.