written by Melanie Rockett
Who will take tomorrow's front page photograph - a professional press photographer or a passer-by armed with a cameraphone?
"Somebody, somewhere is in the position to photograph just about anything that happens on the planet."
"If you capture a newsworthy event, you could have a valuable scoop on your hands. Scoopt can sell your photos and videos to the media - and you'll get paid
just like a professional."
The "Sell Your Photos to the Press" Website launched their website on June 22, 2005. Weeks later (July 7) the terrorist bombings in London immortalized those
first two paragraphs.
The BBC, news websites and police organizations used over 1000 photos and video footage, from ordinary citizens, taken at the crime scenes to piece together a
story of the tragedy.
http://www.scoopt.com/cms/templates/news_template.aspx?articleid=25&zoneid=6
The Sell Your Photos to the Press Website is called SCOOPED a new business whose purpose is to represent YOUR news worthy photos and sell them to the press or whomever else is willing to
buy them.
The deal? You supply news worthy photos taken with your digital camera, camera, or cell phone camera by uploading them to the scoopt site. And Scoopt will act
as an agent selling "rights" to the photos on your behalf. The financial deal? You can join scoopt.com for free. IF they sell your photos, there is a 50/50 split, and you get paid in 30 days.
Here is Scoopt's purpose from their own mouths:
"We set up Scoopt specifically and exclusively to help amateur 'citizen reporters' sell newsworthy photos taken on cameraphones to the media. Scoopt bridges the
divide between pavement and picture desk.
The point is that members of the public are now in a unique position to take genuine scoop photographs. If it happens anywhere on the planet, it can and will be
photographed by somebody - and some of these photos will have considerable value to news organisations.
For now, blogs and photo-sharing sites are new and exciting, and there's an undeniable movement that supports free news for all. Plus we all like the kudos
of a credit. This is great, and long may it continue.
... people are beginning to get wise to the notion that commercial news organisations can feed off these efforts for free. There comes a point where the passer- by with a cameraphone who happens to get a fantastic,
special snap thinks: hang on a minute, why should I upload this to a blog in exchange for a credit when I could sell it to the BBC, Sun, Newsweek or whoever on the same terms as a professional photographer?
That's why we set up Scoopt."
If you KNOW you have a fabulous news worthy photo and you are a good negotiator, consider selling your photos on your own. On the other hand, even with the 50/50 split, Scoop may be able to do a better job for you because they know what photos are worth and they know what to ask for. Sure, you could spend time doing the research, but as you do your photos are getting older and older and older ... and old news just doesn't sell.
Scoopt has carefully considered the ins and outs of selling your photos. They have laid out all the legal information in their FAQ sheet ... so be sure to read all the FAQs and any other bits of small print you are presented with before you going ahead and submiting your photos.
Scoopt FAQs
http://www.scoopt.com/faq.asp#worth
Scoopt Terms and Conditions
http://www.scoopt.com/tandc.asp
Scoopt Signup
http://www.scoopt.com/register.asp
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About the Author
(c) 2006 Melanie Rockett
Melanie Rockett is a freelance writer who has written over 500 television scripts, eight books and thousands of published articles. She coaches small business entrepreneurs on how to build a successful and thriving business, and in her spare time develops websites for herself and carefully chosen clients. http://www.proofpositive.com
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RESOURCES:
Check out these great books on how to build a stock photography business.
How to start your own Photography Home BusinessGoogle is Making People Rich ... a guide to turning your website into an income generating machine
The Profitable Photography Business Guide
Stock Photography: Going Digital Everything you need to do to sell your digital--or digitized--images online, today.