Simon McGuire

This was taken from this SITE

“In a nod to the obvious, CNN announced yesterday that it was cutting its corps of cameramen.

Photographers, editors and other staffers in Atlanta, New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles and Miami are being let go. In all, at least 50 positions are being eliminated. As many as 12 staffers in the Washington, DC bureau alone, four of whom are longtime photojournalists.

CNN Senior VP Jack Womack writes in a note to staff that the cuts come after a 3-year analysis of the company’s work processes.

Said Womack:

“We looked at the impact of user-generated content and social media, CNN iReporters and of course our affiliate contributions in breaking news. Consumer and pro-sumer technologies are simpler and more accessible. Small cameras are now high broadcast quality.”

Well, this is pretty inevitable.

When everyone and their brother has a video camera now… and when pretty much all of them are both HD and point and shoot, there isn’t a whoe lot to be said for investing $40-50K in a ‘broadcast quality’ camera, (whatever that now means) and some guy to drag it around.

It’s unfortunate for those who used to earn their living doing this, but it’s the natural consequence of the intersection of technology and economics.  Farriers also are highly skilled, but there isn’t a whole of work for them these days.

The good side for former cameramen is that the demand for video, per se, is escalating at a phenomenal rate – but they have to deliver a finished product, not just the pictures.”