BILL BITES:
The Beast Killed the Beauty

Issue #18, by Bill Russell

IThe newspaper artist is suffering two deaths. Cutbacks, lower rates, increased competition and antiquated technologies are killing the newspaper biz and the illustration biz. It’s evident to me from recent personal experience.

Last month, Dan Hubig, Tom Murray, and myself, staff artists at the San Francisco Chronicle, were laid off, or as our boss calls it, “voluntarily terminated”. We were part of a “reduction in force” by the paper’s owners and upper management who are struggling with the economics of producing a major daily newspaper. I think they feel like art doesn’t fit in anymore.

It does portend a trend in the broader decline in the use of editorial illustration in newspapers. On a daily basis, we art staffers were making editorial illustrations that were narrative, funny, opinionated, metaphorical, beautiful, conceptual and iconographic. We managed to do all this while there was tremendous pressure to “get it done fast and get it done right”. In spite of the fact that the Chronicle had us working relatively cheap and working on tight deadline, we were imprinting the paper with a unique visual look.

I wanted to hear from my fellow “voluntary terminated”. How they were feeling about this transition and what were they thinking about the trends in news art? Did they feel that newspapers are moving away from using editorial illustrations and more toward the quick-read news of USA Today and online media? The emotion was still present in our conversations.

Dan Hubig was with the Chronicle for 14 years. His whimsical digital illustrations in Freehand and Photoshop were ahead of their time. Everyday, he delivered bold yet elegant graphics. Hubig feels that one thing that benefited the paper was in having a “stylist” like himself on staff and that by his presence, he helped to "brand" the publication. He explains that “one of the big problems for newspapers in this time of tremendous competition is to have things that the reader will identify exclusively with that publication.” He goes onto say, “I think that the industry-wide movement away from staff illustrator positions is understandable from a flexibility point of view, but that ultimately it results in a homogenizing of newspaper design. Certain illustration styles come into vogue and art directors pursue that ‘look’, resulting in a similarity that stretches across the newspaper community. Developing staff illustrators at a publication should be seen as similar to developing columnists or photographers as the unique “voices” of that particular newspaper and the community it serves.” Hubig realizes that, “ultimately, this decision (to lay us off) was probably about money. But it's a false economy. Branding is what newspapers pay fortunes trying to achieve. In this case, that's the very thing the Chronicle tossed away.”

“We had a good thing going,” Tom Murray says. “I thought that we Chronicle artists were the only institutionally-funded group of illustrators on Earth, plus with healthcare … it was a gift”. Murray, a 17-year veteran, was a mainstay at the paper. He produced hundreds of witty, inventive drawings with just a tiny 2” pencil. The gift was not without a price however. "I understand that illustration is not a vehicle for pure self-expression," Murray says," although, I believe a moderately inflated ego is an occupational requirement. What I found disturbing was that, in the course of my career at the Chronicle, an Orwellian political correctness came to pervade the place. In the beginning, I had a fairly mainstream set of guidelines to recognize. In later years, with the rise of "diversity" and “pop feminism”, articles of corporate faith created a complex maze of taboos to traverse with each new assignment. I'm certainly not advocating for the execrable racial and gender caricature of vintage illustration, but the pressure I felt to second-guess myself in order not to offend the PC commissars, and in turn the endlessly special and sensitive Bay area reader, became increasingly oppressive … and sinister. Although these new taboos were never described or discussed outright, the corporate culture seemed to magically grant even the most novice editors with censorial acumen based entirely on their own personal sensitivities. Forget provocative, assumption-challenging art, the overarching concern regarding illustration became first and foremost: "Do Not Offend.” Murray recognizes that there still are places that allow for free expression. “There’s a magazine or two that still tolerates drawing and painting," concludes Murray, not without a little irony. "I hear they're paying in the high two figures!"

I can probably assume the Chronicle won’t eliminate illustration entirely. They have some versatile infographic artists. Lance Jackson, an illustrator and page designer, is still on staff. They can still commission freelance and purchase stock art. Martin Kozlowski is a Connecticut-based illustrator who helps run the Inx Syndicate, and a subscription service for news art. Kozlowski says that, “clearly that's the trend (in newspapers) right now. It's always been the two-edged sword of syndicated (and stock) art — it expands your market (though at much-lower rates) while undercutting local talent. That's a drag, but we know all the print editions of newspapers are hurting financially and no one has really figured out how freelancers are going to turn much of a dime on the Internet”.

The Hearst Corporation, which owns the Chronicle, made the decision to reduce workforce by we three. With this move, I feel they removed the art from the paper. Hubig, Murray and I truly felt our contribution was to make the newspaper more beautiful and provocative with our images. Forgive my metaphors but contrary to the message in King Kong: the beast killed beauty.

Comments, etc. to Bill@Billustration.com

Illustration: © Bill Russell 2006

BILL RUSSELL

A Guild member for 20 years, Bill has been a freelance illustrator for over 25 years in Toronto, New York and the Bay Area. He taught illustration at California College of the Arts (formerly CCAC) for eight years and been a staff artist at the San Francisco Chronicle for six years. His contributions to various Guild efforts include volunteering on the North Bay Luncheon Committee, a successful North Bay Sales Tax event, the Outreach Committee, and the Repeal of the California Sales Tax on artwork. Bill is one of the original All-Rights Refusniks.

To view his work and other musings, visit www.Billustration.com.