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A question, especially for those of you who contribute News regularly.

 

Do you see sales through the News channel or does it tend to come later when those news images have moved into the Stock collection? Anyone making consistent news sales?

 

I appreciate that sales may take many weeks to report so it may be difficult to tell except by the licence date and even then it may be a sale from the News Feed as the client will have it on their system, especially newspapers. I realise that everyone is different but I am starting to conscientously monitor my activity to geta sense of what part of my efforts is delivering benefits - still far too early to draw any conclusions.

 

I am now a few weeks in and working hard and full time on my photography again - it is my job (albeit largely uinpaid so far). I am realistic, I do not expect a sudden turnround in my fortunes here on Alamy - I will be grateful if I see positive signs by Christmas. But I am enjoying having the focus; that in itself is a major benefit.

 

 

 

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What many people don't realise is that images to the News section are processed in a different way. The news editors make conscious decisions on the viability of images and send those with potential out to picture desks - if you submit 40 near-similar images, they might just select a few - and sales made through this process are usually quick eg the following day. I've had this quite a few times. But I also find that news images sell well as stock later on. It probably also depends on the subject. If you submit pictures of the first snowdrops in winter, they might not sell for another year.

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What many people don't realise is that images to the News section are processed in a different way. The news editors make conscious decisions on the viability of images and send those with potential out to picture desks - if you submit 40 near-similar images, they might just select a few - and sales made through this process are usually quick eg the following day. I've had this quite a few times. But I also find that news images sell well as stock later on. It probably also depends on the subject. If you submit pictures of the first snowdrops in winter, they might not sell for another year.

 

That was what I assumed but it is useful to know that News sales often appear within a day or two. I am rather banking on soft news pics selling as stock later on. Magazines and marketingclients sorted out their autumn colour pictures months ago and are probably working on New Year/Winter editions having pretty well finalised Christmas

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Keith, thanks. That is kind of what I expected as I have seen that happening through another channel I have used.

 

More particularly, do you find that you make more sales from later stock use than you do from initial 48hour news feed sales?

 

MPW

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I know from submitting news in general that it's not long before on-line usage appears. Alamy always contacted me with regards to anything in the written press, however, there was quite a lot of usages (albeit a lot lower rates) for images of a general nature from the news images. More success on Alamy with that than on the other one I'm on. Don't submit to Alamy news now right enough. Best to stick to one as it's a nightmare to keep track of if you haven't been credited. 

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Martin, I think it depends on your location and your area of coverage.  I know the other place Paul is referring to...and my experience is exactly opposite.  I suspect it's mostly because I'm in the U.S. and he is in Scotland.

 

With relation to "newsworthy" images, I've had it go both ways.  Many of my stock images have been used as news images a time later.

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Thanks Ed and everyone, I too know the other place, in fact I cut my news teeth there last year with modest success and considerable subsequent frustration. I think Alamy may do better on subsequent stock sales but perhaps not so well with the immediate news stuff.

 

I am trying to refine my business plan and narrow down my target subjects, I can't cover everything. I am getting the message that you pays your money and takes your chance. I guess it will be an intelligent guess (hopefully I can manage that) and then work diligently on both coverage and putting it out there.

 

Time will tell - my new focussed effort is only five weeks old so it is early days. tT least with the advice here one gets some insights to narrow thinking down. It looks like a wet week so I guess it is a good time to use to build the network and plan future activity; but I will still aim to get "a" story "in" my home patch, however small, most days - since I restarted I have found 2 at home, one inside and one literally on the doorstep so my mind is getting into the right way of thinking. I keep telling myself it's about execution, execution, execution ...

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"It looks like a wet week so I guess it is a good time"

 

..to work on weather-related news stories

 

km

That as well :)

 

I am not going to make the excuse that it is just grey and boring - I know there will be a story there somewhere. But I do need to do some desk preparation for stuff that is coming up and to get access to some other forthcoming events. Perhaps when my wife retires next year I will have some help on that front ;)

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 I have never sold news images within the 48 hours. I think weather photos are more saleable in the UK. The weather in Copenhagen is not that interesting. However, I have had many sales of news images later on.

 

A news image is kind of livestock to me  :)

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Does anyone change the image caption once the news related item has become history and no longer news ?

I always go back and simplify the caption, then add keywords, etc., that are more appropriate for stock image searches. Many of our images first submitted through Alamy News get licensed later as stock.

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I've been covering a lot of news stories recently but I am constantly thinking about stock at the same time, as that's where most of my sales come from - portraits of celebrities speaking at a rally, used later for an unrelated story, or general shots of police doing their thing at an event... When an event has covered the cost of the train fare to London, it's usually thanks to stock images used months later.

 

I have had a couple of proper news sales, from the time, reported later at non-newspaper scheme prices, which didn't show up in Google searches. Maybe they were in regional papers or not in the online versions.

 

As for captions, I frequently go back and change them, a couple of weeks later, especially if they have stock potential. You can get some really odd results coming up in searches due to the extra long captions. A classic is sport, where you search for a tennis player and you get pictures of others, because they were playing in a match against the one you were looking for. Useful information for a news story, but irrelevant in stock. I even saw an obituary of Elena Baltacha illustrated with a photo of Maria Kirilenko - because that's who she was playing against in the match and clearly the picture editor didn't know what she looked like!

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What is the criteria to have access to news web upload? 

I'm not having any rejection for stock, but only 12 submissions until now. 

I think you need a proven track record of sales - at least 10 sales.

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What is the criteria to have access to news web upload? 

I'm not having any rejection for stock, but only 12 submissions until now. 

I think you need a proven track record of sales - at least 10 sales.

 

 

Is that just a guess or do you have some information? I had been on Alamy for a while before the News section was started. They sent me a letter giving me permission to upload news but I have no idea how many sales I had at that point. I do know I had a good record with no fails for a long time. An email to Member Services could give you the proper information.

 

Paulette

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What is the criteria to have access to news web upload? 

I'm not having any rejection for stock, but only 12 submissions until now. 

I think you need a proven track record of sales - at least 10 sales.

 

 

Is that just a guess or do you have some information? I had been on Alamy for a while before the News section was started. They sent me a letter giving me permission to upload news but I have no idea how many sales I had at that point. I do know I had a good record with no fails for a long time. An email to Member Services could give you the proper information.

 

Paulette

 

 

From my actual experience, you do not need 10 sales.  I was able to use the news web upload for the Hong Kong protests.

 

Simon

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