A friend dropping out ..

The Manchester Evening News used to be massive. It was known as the 'friend dropping in'. I was the second ever freelance photographer to start working for them. The man before me was the late, great Derek Eastwood who, like the late, great Weegee, had a radio receiver in his car and would arrive at many a serious crash or major fire long before the emergency services. The MEN, being a newspaper, would very often use this work and Derek made a very good living from it, thank you very much. I started there in 1982 and became very quickly established as one of the 'crew', working practically every day for them under the guidance of the late, great Picture Editor Stan Royle and, on one momentous occasion, getting a staggering 27 photographs in the 'paper in one night! They sent me to Libya once too, for goodness sake, though that might have been their way of cutting down my earnings for a wee while!..

Well, they've cut freelance earnings now alright because, today, they announced that they will no longer be using freelance photographers on the 'paper. Thirteen snappers are out on their ears, and they were all probably only freelance because, as was the case with me, they'd already been made redundant from a newspaper in the first place! Oh, what a sad day!..

Do you know the most ironic think about this 'end of an era' moment? It was announced by the Associate Editor, a Mr W. Ankers...