Riots coverage show depth of picture desk cuts

The riots across the UK get massive coverage in today’s newspapers but media watchers will be intrigued by the front pages of the Mail, Independent, Express and Sun which all carry the same photo of a hooded “yoof” looking distinctly menacing (presumably the Prime Minister has flown back from his holidays early to give him a hug!).

It is unquestionably a powerful image supplied by EPA, one of the biggest European Photographic Agencies, but it does also demonstrate the extent to which the nationals have now outsourced image sourcing to agencies. Much of it goes unnoticed, but today’s front pages will, I suspect, cause one or two red faces for the editors involved.

A picture may still be worth a thousand words, but today’s use of the same image across four titles demonstrates that our major newspapers unfortunately no longer have the photographic staff (or the budgets) to get their own photos.

A sign of the times.