Arizona freelance photographers reject new Wall Street Journal contract

Tucsonan Cassidy Araiza has photographed a variety of tales for The Wall Street Journal — from the cheer squad at a Sun City retirement neighborhood to tales overlaying the fentanyl disaster and border points.

Araiza has contributed his signature flash pictures to the WSJ for a few decade. His playful, vivid photographs have additionally appeared in The New York Times, The Smithsonian and Vogue, amongst others.

Now, he’s now one in all greater than 650 photographers nationwide asking the WSJ to rethink a brand new contract they are saying strips freelance photographers of their copyright.

“It was an amazing publication to work for until this most recent year, when the new contract that was sent out to freelancers came out, which I am not signing,” Araiza mentioned.

Under the brand new work-for-hire mannequin, the WSJ can resell a contributor’s photographs. Previously, photographers had the power to license their work themselves. Araiza mentioned he relied on licensing to generate further earnings on prime of the publication’s day fee. For instance, if a documentary needed to make use of a picture he produced for the WSJ down the road, he had the best to just accept or decline that supply.

The contract additionally doesn’t defend the photographs from getting used on synthetic intelligence platforms. That’s a priority for Araiza and different freelance photographers as a result of the WSJ’s proprietor, News Corp, opened its information content material to OpenAI in 2024 for AI coaching.

News Corp additionally struck a multi-million dollar AI training deal with Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta earlier this yr.

Araiza mentioned the work-for-hire mannequin will not be typical or honest for information publications to supply. The New York Times, as an illustration, operates on a joint copyright settlement with freelancers which deems the photographer because the creator and proprietor of the media.

Araiza mentioned to this point this yr, he’s misplaced about half the quantity he made with the WSJ in 2025 resulting from turning assignments down.

“That is a substantial financial hit,” he mentioned. “But I think if me and other freelancers don’t take some sort of stand, it’s just going to be a domino effect with other publications thinking it’s okay.”

An alliance of greater than 650 photographers, referring to themselves as Your Visual Colleagues, are refusing to sign with the WSJ. Araiza referred to as it “the closest thing [he’s] ever seen to a union.”

In a current article printed by the Columbia Journalism Review, freelance contributor Daniella Zalcman wrote that she fears for her profession for the primary time in 20 years.

“The furious organizing coming from Your Visual Colleagues and the NPPA (National Press Photographers Association) isn’t just about the Journal—it’s about awareness that, like other journalists who have organized around similar concerns surrounding intellectual property and AI, the moment demands that freelance photographers either take a stand or be complicit in the demise of our livelihood,” she writes.

The WSJ didn’t reply to AZPM’s requests for remark. A spokesperson from the paper advised Zalcman {that a} joint copyright can be assigned to the photographs regardless of the publication proudly owning them. Photographers say the phrases stay unclear and the spokesperson’s reply will not be sufficient assurance.

The contract was despatched out final November. When Phoenix-based photographer Jesse Rieser learn it, he mentioned he noticed one other asteroid coming for the information trade.

“You have this sort of perfect storm of a contracting institutional media landscape with stagnation of rates, with the introduction 15 years ago of social media and decentralization of new sources and people’s attention,” he mentioned

“The concept of freelance was hard enough and now you’re fighting all these other factors, and now we’re injecting the fears of AI,” he added.

Rieser has additionally contributed to the WSJ for about 10 years, with a deal with uniquely American themes just like the nationwide obsession with Christmas. Rieser has intensive expertise in business promoting and information media and has seen each industries shift by means of the a long time. But he mentioned the WSJ contract poses new challenges.

“The death of print has been long and slow. I think that we’re entering this time of accelerated change that most… things are going to be moving very fast. It’s hard to kind of wrap your head around even the last two or three years of AI. And what’s next year going to look like?” he mentioned. “I think there’s just a lot of shared general uneasiness about this whole thing and people don’t like it.”

Rieser criticizes the transfer as a method for information companies to achieve extra wealth.

“I fight for that copyright. I want it for resale value. I want it for book publishing. I just want control over the things I made. The other thing, too, is this sentiment that all of these big machines [are] at play — it just feels like everybody wants to have a hand in your pocket,” he says.

Araiza, additionally in that struggle, mentioned he can’t think about doing the rest. He plans to proceed the freelancer’s hustle regardless of these obstacles.

“When you spend so much time in this industry building yourself up and being known even just for your name, and then there’s a possibility it could be in jeopardy, it’s really scary,” Araiza mentioned.