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Sports Illustrated Layoffs – Smith, 2 others, OUT

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News out of New York is not good today. While the Time, Inc (NYSE: TIME) photo editors are scrambling with today’s extended deadline for photographic contributors to sign, this morning SI Director of Photography Brad Smith (LinkedIn: Brad Smith), along with Photo Editor Claire Bourgeois (LinkedIn: Claire Bourgeois) and John Blackmar (LinkedIn: John Blackmar) are among those that have been laid off, according to sources familiar with personnel changes at this Time Inc property.

 Their actual date of departure is not currently known, but with the Superbowl coming up fast, their departure before that would no doubt adversely affect the quality of coverage by Sports Illustrated.

 In related news, Time, Inc apparently only has about half of their photographic contributors having signed the egregious contract, even with their “clarification” document. Because of these low figures, which do not include many big names who are still refusing to sign, a revised contract is expected in the coming week.

 One of the tactics employed by Time Inc photo editors has been to identify non-signing principal photographers, and then contacting similarly styled photographers in that same geographic region who may have had a sporadic assignment schedule for Time Inc, and offering them the assignments of that geographic regions’ principal photographer, if they sign while the principal photographer is not.

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Originally published on Photo Business News & Forum on January 15, 2016. Comments are closed; this post is part of the archive.

1 thought on “Sports Illustrated Layoffs – Smith, 2 others, OUT”

  1. One day when all these publications are realising that the good talent is in short supply these days, they’ll find out that they just can’t be too picky about who they’re choosing anymore. In any case, shelling out the finances is a good way to attract good talent. Hopefully.

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