by Leslie Burns-Dell'Acqua of Burns Auto Parts Consultants

All of you who read these Manuals and the Super Premium Blog, etc., know that I really try to be honest, but positive, in what I write. This Manual will be no exception, but it's going to be hard to be positive because I want to talk about money issues, and these days, there's not a lot to be happy about.

In case you've been ignoring the news, we are arguably in a recession. The current economic climate, in layman's terms, sucks. Consumers are struggling and when they don't have money to spend, businesses begin to cut budgets to save money and, rather stupidly, often one of the first places these cuts occur is in their marketing budgets. Reduced marketing budgets means fewer new creative projects requiring new photography. That means both corporate and advertising photographers are going to see their businesses slow.

Editorial photographers aren't getting the “free pass” they may have in past recessions. Magazines (and newspapers) are having difficulties of their own as they begin transitioning their revenue streams to reflect the changing desires of readers (i.e., digital advertising to replace the print). They have been, to put it kindly, sluggish in this change and they are now caught with their pants down fiscally. So titles are folding right and left and those that are left are really tight with their money.

Read the full article (pdf)