Magazines Try To Save Newspapers

Time Magazine’s former managing editor, Walter Isaacson wrote a heroic hail-mary cover story a week or two ago (here) endorsing a system of micro payments for journalism in an attempt to bridge that fast approaching cliff.

I like a couple of the ideas he brings up, namely clicking buttons to make payments instead of entering credit card information and charging micro payments to access day, week, month, year and lifetime subscriptions to media organizations.

Eventually there will be a brilliant solution hammered out (hammered as in media organizations are going to endure a serious ass whupping first). This quote says it best: “driving revenue while trying to re-invent a business model is a difficult thing to do, it’s like changing the tires on a moving truck.” Found that in the comments of a foliomag.com story.

I have several thoughts to contribute:

1. The monopoly is over. The cost of delivering advertising to to consumers along with words and pictures is now nearly zero. Advertisers paid whatever you told them to pay because the delivery method was expensive and complicated. Nobody gives a rats ass if the billionaire owners go somewhere else. Turning journalism into a break even industry is perfectly fine with editors, writers and photographers. I could go on and on about the decisions that are made by owners that put advertising and attracting easy readers first. My reasons for not reading Time Magazine anymore is certainly tied to their attempts to attract more readers (to serve to advertisers) at the expense of the quality of the product.

2. The cost to deliver the exact same product electronically should be a fraction of the printed version (I’m thinking 1/10th). If you’d like to buy me a computer (or other hand held delivery device) and pay my ISP bill each month then I’ll agree to the normal cost. Otherwise pass the savings I just gave you back to me.

3. Get off your high fucking horse. You’re no longer in control of the flow of information. Your sources have blogs, your readers have tweets and stories don’t end once you hit the publish button. Participation is mandatory.

There’s plenty of good punditry to read as well:

By Mark Fitzgerald, Editor and Publisher:

… Time itself looks more in need of saving than even newspapers that symbolize the industry’s troubles, like the Chicago Tribune or Chicago Sun-Times, both of which dropped pretty hefty packages on my doorstep Sunday.

By E&P’s count Time sold all of 14 pages of ads in the slim issue. Alan Jacobson of Brass Tacks Design puts it nicely at his blog with a trenchant piece that is far more worthy to be at the center of industry debate than Isaacson’s sort of obvious observations: “But its ‘Modest Proposal’ is delivered in a form that is remarkably modest itself — its 56 pages are barely thick enough to shim a coffee table, let alone support an entire industry.”

Bill Wyman on Hitsville:

But papers didn’t make money from subscriptions; the price basically covered the cost of getting multi-pounds of newsprint delivered to your door at 5 a.m.

… the more I think about it, the biggest problem the press has is that the evaporation of advertising has meant that the news it publishes has to stand on its own two feet.

Sure, back in the day there was some foreign news, some local reporting, some great reporters and editors sprinkled across the country. But let’s face it, most newspapers sucked in all sorts of ways, and one of the main ways was opting toward blandness and timidity wherever possible, as as not to offend the older folks subscribing to the papers.

Mark Hamilton on Notes From A Teacher:

So this is where my belief that micropayments offer at least a partial solution to the who-will-pay-for-the-news question runs up against cold reality. If you accept my idea of the three stumbling blocks, we need to devise a system that (1) allows for single registration for everything, (2) opens up the pot to everyone creating media with potential value, and (3) puts the user in control of establishing the value.

Mike Masnick on Tech Dirt:

… a piece by James Warren in The Atlantic, which you would hope would be a bit more intellectual — but instead makes the same old errors. Warren seems to imply that investigative journalism can only be done by newspaper reporters — apparently not realizing that the investigative reporting he’s talking about is a very new concept, rather than true “traditional journalism.”

Michael Turro, In Plain Sight:

newspapers cannot be saved. They are big bloated, convoluted corporate anachronisms that derive their strength and power from an economic model of news information that is in rapid and steep decline. These corporate entities were built and grew powerful in an age when new information was remote, precious, scarce, capital.

That age is over.

Today fresh information is immediate, cheap, abundant, available. News happens and is distributed in real time – worldwide – before lumbering outfits like the New York Times even have a chance to think up a catchy headline.

Finally Walter Isaacson on The Daily Show:

And finally the World Press Photo of the Year Award goes to Anthony Suau from a series of pictures he shot under contract for Time Magazine but they refused to print (story on PDN).

The Future Of Advertising Is On Main Street, Not Wall Street

Public clients hire public agencies who go through rounds and rounds of strategy and rounds and rounds of creative. 50% of the time (a best guess based on my own experience), projects die. The other 50% results in garbage that any agency could have come up with in an hour (again, a best guess based on my own eyeballs).

I believe we’re about to embark on a new era of entrepreneurial marketing. Yes, it is out of necessity. But frankly, I’m excited about it.

via Please Feed The Animals.

Simon Norfolk On World Press Photo

My advice? Get re-skilled. Keep your photographic aspirations but try to get a trade like film editing, web-design or accounting.

Soon we’ll all be amateur photographers with real money-making jobs on the side that we don’t tell our colleagues about. We need to get over the snobbery attached to that.

Honestly I think he’s kidding… he tells the WPP off for not paying him to write the piece as well.

via World Press Photo.

Photo Collectives On The Rise

I like this trend where photographers form groups and publish their work on a website or print something for sale. It certainly gives those looking to hire another resource to check out and like some agencies there’s often a thread between all the work so if you’re looking for a specific style you can spend some time exploring. Seems like a good way to build a fan base too.

The Collectors Guide To Emerging Photography– is an invite only, unique 180–page source book distributed to collectors, art dealers, gallery directors, photo editors, museum professionals, and independent curators. Published biennially, The Collector’s Guide aims to further Humble’s mission by bridging the gap between ambitious early-career photographers and often-unapproachable photography professionals and art institutions.

Lay Flat— a new print publication devoted to promoting the best in contemporary fine art photography and writing on the medium. Each issue is assembled by Shane Lavalette in close collaboration with a co-curator

Expiration Notice— will serve as an online gallery for those who’ve already lived a life, continue to do so, and have the quality goods long denied the glory of the the glossy magazines or gleaming white gallery walls.

Fjord— is a project that showcases the photography of young, up-and-coming photographers. The drastic shift in the way work is being presented today has become especially noticeable in the more technologically adept generation. Fjord’s goal is to bring together a collection of notable photographers from the internet and showcase their work in book form.

The Exposure Project— is a collection of emerging photographers taking an active approach in exposing and promoting new talent through exhibition, publication and online exposure. Formed in the fall of 2005, the goal of the project is to provide support, inspiration and community-based collaboration to emerging talent. Since its inception, The Exposure Project has hosted numerous exhibitions, has had online showcases, and has self-published 3 photo books.

Luceo Images— is a collection of photographers creating a space for fresh visual narratives. Luceo offers documentary, portraiture, and commercial photography as well as new media production on an assignment basis.

Aveum — Life, Time, Age.

The Society of Photographers — serves as a forum where members share photography as an art form. Select members are invited to submit work for review by all members of the Society on a monthly basis.

Piece of Cake — European network for contemporary images.

Image Works –Founded in 1998 by a group of large format photographers in the greater Phoenix area with a common interest in making the highest quality fine art photographic images, Imageworks is an organization committed to excellence in this art form.

Iris Photo Collective — Documenting people of color and their relationship to the world.

MJR — represents the next wave of great image makers. We are staking our claim in the future and will do our best to make this a cornerstone for everyone who finds themselves waiting to take the next big step towards becoming the next big thing.

Camera 80 — online photography gallery showcasing the work of young Romanian photographers

Photo Drifting — is a New York City based collective of creative professionals who document and share their lives via photographs. These photographs don’t relate nor do they have any concurrent theme or style. Instead, Photo Drifting represents different views of life in NYC.

This Is A Photoblog — We are a group of photographers who take turns giving each other creative assignments and have fun doing it.

Slate Grey Media — It is our mission to incubate, generate and deliver creative imagery for a global array of discerning clients in a friendly, fair and professional manner. We encourage and support each other’s creativity, inventively market ourselves and share resources in a spirit of cooperation and collaboration.

GAIA Photos — Your global team of local photojournalists. Follow the flow of new documentary photo features from a selected group of the world’s leading freelance photojournalists.

tendancefloue.net —

Alphabet Project — It involves 26 photographers from around the world. Each photographer has a first name that begins with an unique letter of the alphabet. Every two weeks the person whose letter of the alphabet it is sets a photographic task for both themselves and the other 25 photographers. The task that the photographer sets can be an adjective, a noun, a specific instruction, a verb etc but it must start with the same letter as the first letter in their name.

Burn Magazine — is an evolving journal for emerging photographers.

International League of Conservation Photographers — Our mission is to translate conservation science into compelling visual messages targeted to specific audiences

Unseen Photography — is a collective of contemporary photographers based in the UK

Remain In Light — This small group of select Bay Area photographers was originally formed to provide an agency which presents simple, reliable and artistic documentary images.

Shado Collective — is a group of photographers based in Tokyo.

The Range — is a New York based Non-Profit Organization of artists united by a common goal: We aim to pair the accomplished artist with their current subversive counterpart in the hopes of establishing a diverse networking outlet.

Statement Images — is a collective of photographers with a curiosity for the world which they wish to explore through imagery, whether still or moving. The collective started in late 2008 as members became disillusioned at the quality, style, impact and the direction photography in the mainstream press was heading.

I know there are many more, so add any you know about in the comments and I’ll get them listed.

Photo Editors Organization

Moya Mcallister and I have formed an organization for Editorial Photo Editors with the hopes of strengthening the community and providing a place where photo editors can share resources and ask questions. We already have 140 members.

If you’re interested in joining send an email to myself or Moya (moyamcallister (at) mac (dot) com) with information on where you work as a photo editor and we will let you know all about it.

Wonderwall – Navigate By Photography

Finally some real progress in magazine-like website design. Wonderwall is a new celebrity tabloid site created by MSN and it’s no surprise if you’re familiar with MSN’s history on the web (Brian from Media Storm used to work there) that they’ve innovated the logical next step. Reproducing magazines online requires using photography in a big and powerful way and I really don’t think anybody realizes the role it plays in navigation, as an entry point to the stories plus most importantly how it sets the tone of your publication for the readers and advertisers. Regardless of how you feel about the celebrity tabloid genre this is groundbreaking. More please.

wonderwall-1

Bil Zelman On The Strobist

Photoshop was something I resisted using for years, but I’m now pretty good with it and clean things up and sometimes remove things and such. But I would never use it to try and make a dull photo interesting — which we now see a lot of.

via strobist.blogspot.com

The Best Photo You Ever Made

Everyone has a “best photo you ever made” and when you’re getting started hopefully it is continually replaced by a new best photo you ever made, but at some point a picture that you made stands for a very long time (or an essay, book, body of work).

Erik Hersman was blogging from TED 2009 and filed this from a talk Elizabeth Glibert author of “Eat, Pray, Love” and it got me thinking about dealing with not being able to capture lightning in a bottle twice:

Elizabeth Gilbert: Genius and how we ruin it

Elizabeth weaves an insightful story of artists, success and pressure. She asks if she’s doomed. What if she never replicates the success of her past book? Is it rational or logical to be afraid of the work that we were put on this earth to do? Why have artists and writers had this history of manic depressive and mental illnesses? Why does artistry always lead to mental anguish?

“I think it might be better if we encouraged our great creative minds to live.”

“It’s exceedingly likely that my greatest success is behind me. That’s the kind of thought that can lead a person to start drinking gin at 9:00 in the morning.”

Read it (here).

I can identify many photographers by a single image or a series of images but when I talk to them about it they tend to talk about all the flaws in the images or how it was a fluke. I wonder if that’s just a defense mechanism. I suppose there are the popular “best photos you ever made” and the critical version but when you’re just trying to make it the popular one counts the most.

UPDATE: The video just went live.

The Salvage Of Flight 1549 by Stephen Mallon

These salvage photos are fantastic (go here). I’m not sure if it was commissioned for someone… big mistake if it wasn’t. I’ve seen plenty of chatter about the salvage but having a professional photographer on the scene makes all the difference.

mallon2

mallon3

Thanks, Jonathan.

Newsweek Set For New Identity

From a story in the New York Times (here):

“Newsweek is about to begin a major change in its identity, with a new design, a much smaller and, it hopes, more affluent readership, and some shifts in content. The venerable newsweekly’s ingrained role of obligatory coverage of the week’s big events will be abandoned once and for all, executives say.”

“‘There’s a phrase in the culture, ‘we need to take note of,’ ‘we need to weigh in on,’ ‘ said Newsweek’s editor, Jon Meacham. ‘That’s going away. If we don’t have something original to say, we won’t. The drill of chasing the week’s news to add a couple of hard-fought new details is not sustainable.'”

*clap, clap, clap, clap* Brilliant move. Thanks, Ryan.

Andy Anderson Interview

I had the opportunity to chat with Andy Anderson the other day but I’ve been a little hesitant to publish the conversation here because it’s just not fair for anyone to have to follow Chris Buck. It’s rare that a photographer is so self aware and willing to lay it all out there like that. But, the show must go on and these conversation/interviews will happen catch-as-catch-can so he’s next.

Andy’s rise to prominence in the editorial and commercial fields of photography is one of those unlikely combination’s of events that will infuriate photographers because it would be impossible to reproduce. He’s never lived in New York, doesn’t visit New York and when pressed to explain his success in photography tries to cop out of it by claiming he’s an idiot savant. There’s always a little bit of luck involved in making it in this field but Andy still has a seemingly endless passion for taking pictures; he comes from the world where relationships, hard work and professionalism are as important as the images and is a hell of a lot of fun to be around on set.

APE: Your career is very interesting to me because you live in Idaho and you used to shoot a ton of editorial and now you shoot a lot of advertising. Can you tell me how you got started?

I was a journalism major going to school in Florida but I didn’t have the attention span for writing and it just wasn’t working out for me. So, I checked out and spent the next 20 years in the Air Force as a fire fighter. While I was there my wife bought me a camera and because it was more instantaneous, gratifying and in the moment then writing for me I was hooked. I was in Alaska for a year in the mid 90’s when that happened and when I got back I started submitting my pictures to magazines and started getting published.

APE: What were you taking pictures of?

Landscapes and fishing. I made really good friends at the time with Terry McDonald who was the editor of Esquire Sportsman.

andyfish

APE: How did you become friends with him?

andy-landscapeThey were buying my images and I sold them their first cover when they launched the magazine. Terry then got the editor job at Men’s Journal and I was sent to Saudi Arabia for five months right after he started, so he said “I want you to shoot a story while you’re gone. I want you to shoot a story about fighter pilots over in Saudi Arabia.” So, I went and shot it and came back to the states on the 23rd of December 1996. He was in Jackson Hole, Wyoming skiing with his family and he said “I want to see you in Jackson Hole the day after new years and I want you to bring your pictures.” I drove over there, met him and he said “I love the pictures we’re going to run this big, it’s going to be a great story. I want to put you on contract with Men’s Journal.”

APE: Ok, you shot that story on spec basically and then he says come to Jackson Hole and show me the pictures and you have to go all the way to Jackson to show him the pictures. Then he gave you a contract. That’s nuts.

Other than getting married and having children that contract changed my life forever.

APE: This is pretty quick after you picked up a camera for the first time. How is that possible?

I don’t know man, maybe it’s because I’m an idiot savant.

APE: Getting a contract, was that common for magazines back then?

I think it was. They tried to tie up the talent. I think it’s kind of unheard of now.

APE: How did the contract work?

I was exclusive to Men’s Journal editorially. I could not shoot for another magazine that was in competition with them. I had to give them 70 days a year and they paid me almost 6 figures and that didn’t include any expenses. Any flight over four hours I flew first class.

APE: It seemed like Men’s Journal was doing very well in the beginning and sounds like they treated their contributors well.

andyafricaAfter about 3 years things changed and they ended my contract, but that was good for me because I was set. I had made it.

APE: You went from big time editorial to big time advertising. When did that transition happen?

I got Heather Elder as an agent and she’s done so much to help me market my work and then part of it is just where I live. I don’t have to shoot everything, I can pick in choose what I do, because living in Idaho my overhead is not very much.

APE: What kinds of clients did you get a first?

Fishing and outdoor clients.

APE: Did some of the art directors that you worked with back then move on to bigger accounts?

Yeah, some I’ve been with for 15 years now. It’s important for people to realize that your client is not Verizon it’s the art directors and art buyers that work on that account. Those people will always be your client even when they change jobs.

APE: Tell me about working as a professional photographer in Idaho. How is it that you can be in the middle of nowhere and land all these jobs?

I’ve been in Idaho my whole career. I’m always shooting fresh work and I’m always marketing. That’s the key.

APE: Why don’t you pretend like you live in New York?

Because I don’t think it’s the center of the universe.

APE: How have you marketed so well living in Idaho?

Good art directors, art buyer and photo directors will find people.

APE: Do you go to New York and visit people.

No. My rep will visit and I will call them on the phone but I don’t go visit.

APE: Ok wait this is the complete opposite of how most photographers make it. They don’t get 6 figure contracts several years after picking up a camera and they don’t live out in the middle of nowhere and not visit New York for face time. I’m beginning to believe the idiot savant part. It’s just one of those things huh?

I think my work is good and I always shoot fresh work for my book.

APE: You really do shoot a lot of personal projects. Have you always done all this self financed personal work?

Yes, always. I love to take pictures. I just got back from Cuba where I shot baseball players and transvestites. I also used to shoot a lot of pro bono work back in the day to get into the award books. I have a saying. Musicians don’t just play when they have a gig. Photographer need to do the same so they can evolve and look at things differently. Everyone wants to see new work in your book.

andycubataxi

APE: What do you think about the industry now. Is it busted?

At some point photographers have to take some initiative. Right now photographers need to work harder at it and don’t cop an attitude either. I get up every day and think how can I work on taking better pictures, how can I nurture my relationships with my clients and how can I build new ones. Photographers are living a dream and we need to get back to the business that given us an amazing living. You can do that by doing pro bono work. It can’t be all taking you’ve got to give back.

APE: What about the guys at the bottom who are trying to make a living. I feel like there is a group of photographers who are talented but struggling and they may or not make it, it just depends on some luck. Finding an editor, art director or photo editor who can help you take their career to the next level.

andytranniecubaThey need to partner with good art directors and get in the books and if that means doing a pro bono project so you can provide an amazing service for a client who can’t afford it but it lands you in the award books then Voila, you have an amazing calling card to land jobs with. For example I have a blues festival in Idaho every year that I put on and I gave some images to an agency in Dallas to design the posters and they did it for free and it got into the award books.

APE: So, has it always been the case that commercial work is not going to win awards so you need to do pro bono work.

No, that’s not always the case but the commercial work is not always going to win awards so you need to do other things to supplement it. There’s no excuse for photographers not shooting all the time

APE: Tell me about your stock site (here), when did you start it?

About 2 years ago. Built it from scratch.

APE: How much money does it make?

Over six figures. A couple big ticket items in there were used as national advertising.

APE: Was it expensive to build?

Yeah, but it’s my annuity for the rest of my life.

APE: I feel like there are two camps in commercial photography. There are photographers who have very strong point of view or a technique and then there are photographers who work really well with art directors. You would fall in the latter camp.

Yes, I would agree. I’m a people person. I do think that having a strong point of view is good but you need to be able to collaborate with art directors because once the thing you’re doing falls out of favor you’re done.

——–

If you have any questions for Andy leave them in the comments and he will try and answer as many as he can.

andyboxercuba cuba_090114_4h1c1786

Obama Poster May Get An AP/Manny Garcia Credit Line

UPDATE: Scrap that AP credit. According to an interview with Manny himself over on Photo Business News (here):
“3) So, you own the copyright to the image?
The ownership of the copyright is in dispute, as per the AP. It is my understanding that since I was not a staffer, and was not a freelancer, and did not sign any contract, that I am the owner of the copyright, but I am in discussions with the AP over this issue.”

… I’m not sure what there is to discuss unless AP figured out a way to change copyright law.

From a story on Breitbart (here):

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

“The Associated Press has determined that the photograph used in the poster is an AP photo and that its use required permission,” the AP’s director of media relations, Paul Colford, said in a statement.

“AP safeguards its assets and looks at these events on a case-by-case basis. We have reached out to Mr. Fairey’s attorney and are in discussions. We hope for an amicable solution.”

“We believe fair use protects Shepard’s right to do what he did here,” says Fairey’s attorney, Anthony Falzone, executive director of the Fair Use Project at Stanford University and a lecturer at the Stanford Law School. “It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment beyond that at this time because we are in discussions about this with the AP.”

Thanks, Thomas.

Newsstand Showdown

Source Interlink and Anderson News distribute 50% of the magazines to newsstands. According to this story they are giving up the business because it’s not profitable and magazine publishers refuse to pay a price hike (here). In this story Source Interlink denies the rumors (here).