Patience with Newspapers

[aphperspective]

Does anybody else have the same issue with payment from Newspapers. I had an image used from the live news feed back in June 21st in a local paper. On Alamy's advice I left it 4 months before reminding them to chase it up which I did last week. The invoice has just gone out from Alamy, I know because I have contributed directly to this paper before that they will pay out 45 working days from the 30th of the month the invoice is received, so for an image they used in June I will get paid for it sometime in January, 7 months free credit is not bad work if you can get it!!!.

Andy.

[Sally]

Yes. I sent Alamy a list of 4 missing uses from June. I was told they would be added to next month's invoices. So they will be invoiced at the end of November, and I might get paid by the end of January. Whatever system the papers use to record uses, its not at all reliable.  It's something we raised with the Alamy rep when we met at the Edinburgh meetup recently.

[aphperspective]

Thanks Sally nice to know its not uncommon, not very fair but not a lot we can do. Onwards and upwards.

Andy

[York Photographer]

Bad reporting, and long waits for payments are why I opted out of the Newspaper Scheme, along with silly prices, the amount of time spent chasing up uses, and the amount of images that get ripped off.

Still get a few newspaper sales at slightly less silly (but still fairly silly) prices, and still have to chase far too many of those.

[Joe Gaul]

Now I don't know if this is feasible, but now that we have an infringement team would it be possible for them to go through the newspapers in the scheme ( presume that they still credit at least Alamy) and check usage? If that's unworkable then fair enough. My feeling is that there is no financial incentive for Alamy to ensure complete reporting and it may therefore be beneficial to opt out, although I haven't done that yet.

[aphperspective]

This is the reply I received from Alamy on first asking about licence payments from newspapers.

"Some of our editorial customers report usages to us over a period of time, with live news images it can take up to 4 months for them to show in your account. If you don’t see the sale appear in your account 4 months of the usage date "

That reads to me that Alamy actually rely on the newspaper to tell them they are using their product? That's a vert bizarre business model where the customer informs that seller he or she is using their product  and would they mind if they paid in 4 months.

I appreciate the argument for monitoring repeat usage from a newspaper once an image is licenced is difficult but surely Alamy must know the initial licence dates etc and invoice a reasonable time after that, say 30 days. Seems to me that the contributors are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to fair recompense with timely payment.

Andy