Photojournalism: Value of First Run?

<p>Hi All - <br>

I'm not terribly familiar with photojournalism (personal project) contract norms. I have a personal project that I think has legs - it's a photo essay. There's a smaller publication that's interested in running it. But I want to be sure that I can get it run by a larger publication in the future. My concern is that the larger publication will perceive less value in it because it's already been run by the smaller publication. Is this a valid concern? Do stories diminish in value as more publications run them?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>

The more publications pick them up the more licenscing fees you can collect. Make sure you register your copyright in the

images so you have legal hammer to collect licenscing fees from those who choose to run the essay without asking you.

In the USA registering your ownership of the copyright to the set of images will take all of maybe fifteen minutes filling out

an online form, attaching thumbnails, and paying a $40.00 fee (for the entire set, not per image). The publishers think

your work has value to their business, you should Think the same way too.

<p>Thanks Ellis, sage advice. Is there a diminishing return though for every publication that picks up the story? For example with simple numbers, if the first publication picks it up for $100, is it therefore only worth $80 to the next one, and $60 to the one after that? Or is it worth $100 to all three?</p>

<p>My experience has been that one publication doesn't affect the value of later publication. However, this is with fairly limited number of appearances, if it is something that appears widely there may be a lower value.</p>

<p>Very limited personal experience, (4 pictures sold & published only once) but I believe every paper has its own pricing depending on copies they are usually selling. - So a giant German magazine pays almost 150 Euro while tiny village papers pay about 10 per picture.<br>

Content usually doesn't matter, history neither, its just "my stuff on your space" that earns money. Writers are paid by line, photographers per image.<br>

I don't know of a similar phenomenon in print media as in TV broadcasting, where trusty seasoned productions are bought for cheap to get aired during the bad hours. AFAIK there are just a few not timing sensitive articles buried in drawers, for the case that nothing big happens. And local freelancers suffer from big agency covered news abroad that urge them to twiddle their thumbs sore.</p>

<p>In the U.S., what you normally license to a magazine (which is more likely than a newspaper to publish a photojournalism personal essay) is known as "first North American serial rights." That means they are the first periodical in North America to be allowed to publish the photos (or article, if it's something written). Once you've signed the deal, it's often up to the publication just how soon they will run the piece. But they have the right to run it first, so you can't have it run somewhere else in the meantime.<br /><br />You do typically get more for the first-run, partly because the publication is paying for the right to run it first. You get less when something is reprinted elsewhere. The challenge is getting anybody interested once it's already run. Competing publications are not usually in the habit of running things second.<br /><br />You definitely want to go for the larger publication first. One criteria for many publications is that the piece have not run anywhere else previously. Large prestigious publications (the ones that pay the best) pride themselves on delivering content readers can't get elsewhere. <br /><br />That doesn't mean there aren't secondary markets. If you get something published in the U.S. you might be able to get the same thing published in Europe or Asia, assuming there is a worldwide interest. You can also repackage something to run elsewhere -- a different selection of photos from the photo essay. Or the same story might be suitable for a news magazine, a travel magazine, a children's magazine and a photography magazine if you spin it the right way, depending on the subject matter of course.<br /><br /></p>

<p>Thanks Craig! Great info. For advertising and stock, FotoQuote does a good job of detailing pricing. Is there any guide for photojournalism/photo essays?</p>

Reality today is that if you don't get out in front and specify one time publishing rights that do NOT include the web, and that your images are not to be used on the web edition for free, you are likely to discover too late that if your story does blow up big, it will be the result of everybody linking to the original story on the web, for which you got paid squat.