Newspaper photographers won’t have a limit put on their access at next month’s Illinois High School Association state track and field meet at O’Brien Stadium.

A settlement was reached on April 8 in the ongoing legal dispute between the IHSA and the Illinois Press Association about a newspaper’s right to re-sell photos taken at IHSA-sanctioned events.

The initial lawsuit by the IPA, filed Nov. 1, came about because the IHSA wanted to give exclusive access to its contracted photographer, Visual Images Photography, but limit where newspapers could position their photographers and how many photographs newspapers could re-sell.

The State Journal-Register, based out of Springfield, and the Northwest Herald, based out of Crystal Lake, were also on the lawsuit against the IHSA.

Springfield-based attorney Don Craven, who represented the IPA and the newspapers, said the settlement benefited the newspapers the most.

“We have an agreement with the IHSA that will last indefinitely,” said Craven, who has represented the IPA for more than 20 years. “I hope that the IHSA has learned that it does not want to re-open the subject. From the small weeklies to the (Chicago) Tribune and Sun-Times, everybody was just incensed by the actions of the IHSA.”

Marty Hickman, the IHSA executive director, said in a statement last week that the IHSA understands the value of newspaper coverage of high school sports.

“This settlement will allow both of our organizations to get back to doing what we do best,” Hickman said.

State Journal-Register photo editor Rich Saal said he first became aware of the situation last summer.

The IHSA posted on its Web site the credentialing process newspapers had to comply by in relation to the upcoming school year’s sports.

Saal noticed more restrictions placed on newspapers this year, and forwarded the e-mail to then SJ-R publisher Sue Schmitt.

Legislative measures taken by both the Illinois House of Representatives and Illinois Senate in March that supported the newspapers’ position helped both sides reach an agreement, said IPA Executive Director Dave Bennett.

“The IHSA is an organization that puts on sporting events for primarily public high schools,” Saal said. “It seemed totally out of place for them to be in a position to place restrictions on access to amateur athletic competitions in public venues.”

Bennett said he thinks claims the IHSA made about being a sanctioning body, like the NCAA or NASCAR, are wrong. He said the IHSA is a state organization subject to state laws and are responsible to the public for what they do.

“We thought comparisons of what the IHSA does to all of those other sports enterprises was not a well-founded argument,” he said. “The practical application of this is that the IHSA represents local schools and communities. A relationship between a small, local paper and schools is vastly different compared to a relationship with the University of Illinois or the Chicago White Sox.”

Restrictions were placed on photographers that didn’t agree to conditions the IHSA imposed on them at the state football championships in Champaign in late November. Several photographers had to take photos from the stands or press box, instead of the field. Saal said the SJ-R didn’t run into this problem at the football championships because no area team from the SJ-R‘s coverage area played, but the paper did run into a problem in February at the state wrestling championships.

Saal said an SJ-R photographer had to buy a ticket and sit in the stands at Assembly Hall in Champaign in order to cover the state wrestling finals in February.

“We were restricted to be on the floor because we refused to sign the agreement that said we wouldn’t sell pictures online,” Saal said. “It’s a courtesy to the press because an individual member of the press is representing thousands of readers.”

Saal said it costs $25 for readers to purchase a color reprint of an 8×10 photo from a sporting event the SJ-R shoots. Saal said he thinks this is fair and that newspapers are not into selling reprints of photographs to make money.

Darrell Hoemann, the photo editor at the Champaign News-Gazette, said his photographers were prepared for the wrestling finals, and bought a seat with a good vantage point to take photographs.

They weren’t allowed access on the floor either because they refused to sign the same agreement.

“Our photo reprint income might pay for the batteries we use,” Hoemann said. “It’s not about huge amounts of money. It was just about getting the kids covered.”

Daniel McCaleb, the managing editor at the Northwest Herald, said his newspaper was limited to taking photographs from the stands at the state wrestling finals also.

“I think my initial reaction when I heard what the IHSA was trying to do was disbelief; frustration and anger, to a limited extent,” McCaleb said. “Essentially, the IHSA was trying to tell us what we could do with our property.”

Saal said he’s glad that when he sends photographers to Charleston to cover the state track and field meet next month, he won’t have to worry about access problems his photographers might encounter.

“It would have been difficult if we were limited to photographing that event from the stands,” he said. “There’s a lot of interest in that from our area. I’m just happy it’s all behind us.”

Matt Daniels can be reached at 581-7936 or at mwdaniels@eiu.edu.

Senior high jumper Laura Morris of Mahomet High School sits on the track after missing her last attempt at 5’5″ at the 2007 Illinois High School Association Track and Field meet. On April 8, the ongoing legal dispute between the IHSA and Illinois Press As

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