In November 2025, The Wall Street Journal announced to its stable of freelance photojournalists that they were introducing a new contract. Most notable among the changes to the prior contract, which dated back to 2011, was the specification that all work produced on assignment for the WSJ be done so on “Work For Hire” terms—meaning primary authorship of all images made while on contract for the WSJ would be held by the publication. In turn, that opens the door for unlimited sublicensing to third parties and, of particular concern, is the fact that all filed images could be used for AI training.

We are an organization with over 1,600 members based around the world—hundreds of whom have worked for The Wall Street Journal in the past. This new contract puts our members in an impossible position: they have to decide between giving up opportunities to earn money in a rapidly constricting industry or giving up their copyright. Sole copyright ownership not only gives photographers control over their own work and how it can be used in the future, but also allows them to earn additional income on their work later by licensing. We have heard from many of those members over the last few months as they struggle with this choice, and we sympathize with them as they try to decide what’s best for each of them and how their choices impact our community.

We are calling on The Wall Street Journal to negotiate a contract that is fair and upholds widespread industry standards. Opening the door for AI models to train on our intellectual property is a threat to writers, artists, and visual journalists everywhere, and we condemn its normalization. Forcing photographers to sign a contract that denies them their full copyright—and their ability to earn future income from their own work—is a predatory practice that must not become an industry standard.