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Kent News and Pictures closed yesterday, with its founder blaming poor national newspaper rates and tough economic conditions.

The agency, which covered stories both in the UK and abroad, made the news when it became the first UK agency to send staff to report in Iraq in 2003.

Chris Eades, a former Evening Standard journalist who set up the agency in 1993, told Journalism.co.uk he knew of several other major photography agencies also threatening to pull the plug. "Their management are saying 'we're not sure how long we can hold it together'."

Eades, who was already back out on a photography job today, said he could not foresee online offering new opportunities, as the papers simply wouldn't pay enough for content.

The Kent News and Pictures business had suffered when newspapers began paying for the photo space in the paper, rather than the time on the job, and cutting retainers and advance fees.

Eades claims that he was getting more material placed in newspapers than the Press Association in the middle of 2009, but the model was no longer working for him: 'The thing is that PA's a subscription agency, we're a paid agency."

Eight photographers, two reporters and one freelance learned that they would  be made redundant yesterday.

One staff member told Journalism.co.uk: "He [Eades] tried to fend off the recession by coming up with new initiatives and ideas, but it didn't work out.

"It's very sad for everyone involved - it's back to the drawing board."

Kent News & Pictures sister agency, Images International, which provided images from all over the UK as well as overseas, has also closed.

The international arm of the business had been developed as a way of branding its non-local content, said Eades:

"You spend an awful lot of time explaining why you're called 'Kent' in Basra."

Yesterday had been a terrible day, Eades said: "It was bloody awful and I don't want to have to do it again.

"They were a great bunch of lads, and they were being really good about it."

He said that he would now resume work as a freelance photographer, but deeply regretted having to lay off his staff: "I'll cope, I'll manage, I'll look after myself but I feel gutted about them."

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Written by
Judith Townend

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