Grumpy Editor: What happened to photo captions in BusinessWeek?

The Grumpy Editor blog wants to know why publications, particularly BusinessWeek, have decided that they don’t need to publish captions below their photos to help readers understand what’s been shown.

Grumpy Editor wrote, “But BusinessWeek, in its Feb. 5 issue, sports a number of images without appropriate information, sort of like Aunt Abby’s thick picture album sans dates and identification.

“The BW issue contains at least 19 illustrations that lack captions. Make it 21 if one counts three-quarter-page art of a man in a business suit riding an oil barrel bronco style, and a strange full-page drawing of an in-flight purple-winged woman, dressed in a gray suit and wearing high heels, encountering turbulence that scatters feathers and contents of her large pill box, all against a yellow and orange background.

“Contrary to traditional procedure, 15 color photos in an eight-page ‘Special Report’ cover story on McDonald’s all are minus ID. These include close-ups of old and young customers, usual and new food offerings and preparation, plus shots inside and outside a fast-food eatery, presumed to be in Garner, N.C., highlighted in the text.”

Read more here.