geoff s Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 Hello all, after the changes to Live News I received an email which said "As you are someone who has uploaded news imagery that has later sold as secondary stock, we’ve given you access to the archive / reportage route which means you can upload similar work for secondary sales, but it won’t be pinged to the news desks." Being a bit thick, I'm not entirely sure what that means in practice. Could someone with the patience to do so explain it to me please. I've had 'archive' access for some time - is this different ? I live in Buxton which is famous for 2 things - snow and the Buxton Festival - which are the things I have mainly sent to Live News in the past. When it next snows (probably next week) will submitting via 'reportage' give me any advantage over the standard submission ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niels Quist Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 (edited) 30 minutes ago, geoff s said: Hello all, after the changes to Live News I received an email which said "As you are someone who has uploaded news imagery that has later sold as secondary stock, we’ve given you access to the archive / reportage route which means you can upload similar work for secondary sales, but it won’t be pinged to the news desks." Being a bit thick, I'm not entirely sure what that means in practice. Could someone with the patience to do so explain it to me please. I've had 'archive' access for some time - is this different ? I live in Buxton which is famous for 2 things - snow and the Buxton Festival - which are the things I have mainly sent to Live News in the past. When it next snows (probably next week) will submitting via 'reportage' give me any advantage over the standard submission ? Thanks Yes, some advantage. The images bypass QC but will first be on sale online after the next server update. Tried the same thing the other day using Twitter to announce. But had to wait about fourteen hours. The waiting time could be less - or longer. And the images will be marked: This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage. Niels Edited May 20, 2019 by Niels Quist Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 Hello Geoff, The potted history behind the archive/reportage email is this:- Alamy blocked live news uploads to some contributors who were not selling a lot of news pictures and bunging up the Live News feed. Much wailing and wringing of hands ensued. The blocked contributors said many things. Some best forgotten but a relevent point was:- The blocked news contributors said "Ok my news pictures don't sell as news, but they often sell as stock shortly after. If I can't upload my news pictures I will lose the incentive to shoot this stuff, and we both lose out". OK it's my quotation marks but that was the gist of many posts. If you want to read the +20 pages of the Live News thread, go ahead, but like Sean Bean said, "You don't just walk into Mordor"... Alamy's response was to make the reportage route available and get on with accessing the contributors who have re-applied for Live News. So the bottom line? It sounds like weather and the buxton festival are news, so you are probably best served by sticking with Live News. If you have archival you have access to reportage, it's the same button on the additional revenue box on the dashboard. Niels has covered the benefits of reportage. As for the weather? Rain on wednesday, no snow! Hope this helps. James Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sultanpepa Posted May 20, 2019 Share Posted May 20, 2019 As James said it may have been to appease those who sell news type images but perhaps not immediately as news but perhaps soon afterwards. The problem with it, as has been mentioned before, is that if it's not being 'pinged' to news desks then submissions, by this route, are still unlikely to sell because newspapers are not going to see them unless they're searching for something specifically. Even then your images still have to compete with all other stock. So, IMHO reportage is next to useless unless you want to get inferior quality images past QC which shouldn't be anyone's intention if serious about photography. It is though the only way I personally can get news type images on sale as quickly as possible, certainly through Alamy. It's not ideal. Much better would be a secondary news section which could be made aware to prospective news buyers whilst keeping the main news section for pushed news items. As with pushed news the secondary news items would join the main stock holding after two days. The setting up of a secondary news upload facility would be that contributors would have a ready made avenue to prove that they could supply timely news items worthy of the main live news upload route, something that is lacking at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb photos Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 9 hours ago, Niels Quist said: <snip> And the images will be marked: This image could have imperfections as it’s either historical or reportage. Niels I've mixed views re news Reportage and Stock uploads, have submitted both since losing Live News uploads. I used to shoot and submit all Live News, that was news (not breaking news), and was at stock QC quality. As with Reportage, Live News displayed "This image could have imperfections as it's either historical or reportage", but images still sold later as stock. It didn't put buyers off. Possibly as what I shoot wasn't usually shot by Stock photographers. I have now submitted both as Stock and Reportage, depending upon subject. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoff s Posted May 21, 2019 Author Share Posted May 21, 2019 Thanks guys. In short then, it doesn't really amount to much ! May have to try and apply for News access as suggested. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VbFolly Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Can someone who has used Reportage please tell me if you have to include headlines and captions in the IPTC Metadata as with Live News. I'm guessing it's the same so they can go on sale quickly, but I can't seem to find any instructions anywhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 5 minutes ago, VbFolly said: Can someone who has used Reportage please tell me if you have to include headlines and captions in the IPTC Metadata as with Live News. I'm guessing it's the same so they can go on sale quickly, but I can't seem to find any instructions anywhere. I have been adding iptc caption and heading before uploading, as the images are not going through the live news feed the caption does not have to comply with strict live news rules. If you upload without a caption, the images will sit in aim without a caption until you add one, same as stock would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Standfast Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 5 minutes ago, VbFolly said: Can someone who has used Reportage please tell me if you have to include headlines and captions in the IPTC Metadata as with Live News. I'm guessing it's the same so they can go on sale quickly, but I can't seem to find any instructions anywhere. I have been adding iptc caption and heading before uploading, as the images are not going through the live news feed the caption does not have to comply with strict live news rules. If you upload without a caption, the images will sit in aim without a caption until you add one, same as stock would. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VbFolly Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Just now, Mr Standfast said: I have been adding iptc caption and heading before uploading, as the images are not going through the live news feed the caption does not have to comply with strict live news rules. If you upload without a caption, the images will sit in aim without a caption until you add one, same as stock would. OK, thanks very much for your reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sb photos Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 (edited) Captions and keywords, as stock, but with a very useful caption of up to 600 characters. Stock captions of 150 characters max can be a little short for what is news submitted as stock. I also add most relevant keywords, prepared in advance of shooting before uploading, then finely tune for individual images when available in AIM. Works for me. Edited May 21, 2019 by sb photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VbFolly Posted May 21, 2019 Share Posted May 21, 2019 Just now, sb photos said: Captions and keywords, as stock, but with a very useful caption of up to 600 characters. Stock captions of 150 characters max can be a little short for what is news submitted as stock. Thanks, it is certainly useful sometimes to be able to include longer captions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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