A day after the Sun-Times announced it was laying off all its photographers, the newspaper released a “bold new plan” to capture the visuals associated with the news it reports, anchored by stick figure drawings and reporter self portraits from the field.
“Actual photos are old news, pardon the clever pun,” said Sun-Times publisher Timothy Knight. “What better — and far cheaper — way to translate the visual components of a story than a crudely drawn stick figure of President Obama giving a speech or selfie of a crime reporter taken at a murder scene?”
As of Friday, the Sun-Times began using stick figures in its sports section, with the first being a photo of Cubs pitcher Travis Wood hitting a grand slam in Thursday’s win over the White Sox.
“Stick figures are at the cutting edge of journalism technology,” said Knight. “Who knows what’s next? Maybe we’ll just fire everyone and have the readers tell us what’s happening. How’s that for an intriguing idea?”
