The plight of the French photo agencies seems to have been largely ignored by the press here. ?Le photojournalisme agonise' (in French) chronicles the layoff and the other problems at three of the most legendary French photo agencies Sygma, Gamma and Sippa. (A bad English translation is available here). The French press and the Sygma photographers are of course blaming Bill Gates, big business, American greed at al. But the decline of the great photojournalism agencies seem to be a worldwide phenomenon. Russell Miller pointed out in 'Magnum: Fifty Years at the Front Line of History' , how increasingly hard it has been for photoagencies to stay sustainable doing just journalism. I would be curious to know whether there are photo agencies out there that are making money doing great photojournalism work.

(PDN has good coverage of this in their print edition)