Crowdsourcing Platform Newzulu partners with CP

[Jimmy Jeong]

Does anyone have any experience or dealings with Newzulu? I'm curious on how they verify photos? Do you think it will have any impact on our industry - whether good or bad?

[David Buzzard]

Boy, is that ever ugly.  I had a look at their web page, and even their most viewed posts don't have what I would think of as a single usable image, even on such large stories as the new transit trains in Toronto.  If it ever catches on, it's going to be bad for everyone.

[Jack Simpson]

Very sad.

Jack

[Hannah Yoon]

I actually ran into one of their photographers this week. It was a small event and he was telling people he was from Newzulu and that his photos can be used by the Canadian Press. I was surprised because I was there for CP and had no idea what he was talking about.
Still confused and unsure about what they're really all about.

[Mark Blinch]

http://www.newzulu.ca/en/photos/opinion/2014-08-08/5665/top-photos-of-the-week-august-2-8-2014.html#f=0/64130

http://www.newzulu.ca/en/photos/opinion/2014-08-22/5749/top-photos-of-the-week-august-16-22-2014.html#f=0/65851

I think they have a long way to go.

[Mark Blinch]

and some tiff stuff:

http://www.newzulu.ca/en/photos/canada/2014-09-08/5863/toronto-gael-garcia-bernal-stars-in-jon-stewart.html#f=0/67620

[Warren Toda]

I think they have a long way to go.

And that's not just the photography. The editing, the web site itself and the legal terms all need a lot of work.

If you summit a photo to the site, they get a 30-day, worldwide, exclusive license to the picture, followed by a non-exclusive, perpetual licence. None of this can be revoked once you upload a photo.

The "photographer" works for free and gets paid only if someone licences a photo. How much does the photographer get paid? Well, it's vague and confusing.

How do they verify any information? Let's put it this way:

Newzulu does not offer any warranty regarding the quality, legality, reliability or accuracy of the Media Package, or regarding the Newzulu Contributors entitlement to sell any Media Package....

Newzulu is looking for a managing editor in London, UK, and an editor in New York. No journalism experience required. That pretty much says it all.

I'm not sure if Newzulu is partnered with CP or CP Images. In any case, I will guess that CP/CPI pays nothing and it gets first look and a commission if a photo is sold through CP/CPI.

There's nothing about this service that can benefit a photographer, professional or amateur, unless you like to work for free and then give away your work.

Having said that, a photographer's worst enemy is themselves:

• Two days ago, I was speaking with a US-based photographer who shoots for a stock agency. His commission from one client is $0.02 per picture and from another client it's $0.03 per picture.

• Yesterday, a picture editor from a small agency told me he couldn't find photographers to work for $250 plus expenses because the photographers he called were shooting the same event for a much bigger agency for $150 (including expenses and copyright ownership).

• Spoke with a photographer who works for $125/day including expenses. He lives ~180 km outside of Toronto and drives in to shoot assignments. His car expense alone is more than $125. He was complaining that his photo business wasn't taking off.

[David Buzzard]

That works out to something along the line of $15 to $18 per hour, pretty hard to live on that. 

In the last year, I've had several commercial clients who have had photographers come in to large events and not get a single usable (i.e. something better than what anybody could get with an iPhone) photo.  It's a big problem for them, as the photos are used to sell the event for the next year, and a lot of trade associations get the bulk of their income from those events.  I got out of shooting events after the 2008 crash, as the budgets really disappeared for photography.  This year the business has really come rushing back.

[Moe Doiron]

• Spoke with a photographer who works for $125/day including expenses. He lives ~180 km outside of Toronto and drives in to shoot assignments. His car expense alone is more than $125. He was complaining that his photo business wasn't taking off.

Sounds like a problem eventually taking care of itself.

Like many things its fun at first then the hangovers start.

Once all these guys look back after a year and realize they just lost $20K going to "work" things will change.

[Mark Blinch]

• Spoke with a photographer who works for $125/day including expenses. He lives ~180 km outside of Toronto and drives in to shoot assignments. His car expense alone is more than $125. He was complaining that his photo business wasn't taking off.

Sounds like a problem eventually taking care of itself.

Like many things its fun at first then the hangovers start.

Once all these guys look back after a year and realize they just lost $20K going to "work" things will change.

Moe - for the most part you are right. But you would be surprised how long people can keep this situation going. Some photographers are able to sustain this situation by having a day job. Just being on the field or ice level is payment enough. I get it, sports photography is fun and glamorous. You can make spectacular pictures. You are the envy of your peers when they see you sitting there in the background on tv. They will argue its their passion and this is the way they can do it. Pros will argue you are driving down the value and quality of sports photography.

Neither situation is sustainable. Fewer and fewer pros will be on the sideline, and eventually, it will be hard for the weekend warriors to keep up with the latest gear and finding the time to pursue this expensive hobby while cutting into family time or a social life.

However.. News photography something I thought would never go down this route. Its not cool to stand outside a courtroom in the dead of February waiting for some jerk to show up. No one wants to go shoot a funeral. No one wants to get out of bed in the middle of the night to cover a nightclub shooting, or run into any sort of danger. That is why I think this newszulu thing will be hard thing to get off the ground. Its just not glamorous enough for amateurs to spend their spare time pursuing it.

[Mathieu Belanger]

Moe - for the most part you are right. But you would be surprised how long people can keep this situation going. Some photographers are able to sustain this situation by having a day job. Just being on the field or ice level is payment enough. I get it, sports photography is fun and glamorous. You can make spectacular pictures. You are the envy of your peers when they see you sitting there in the background on tv. They will argue its their passion and this is the way they can do it. Pros will argue you are driving down the value and quality of sports photography.

I have to agree with you Mark on this and as you said this is not sustainable for pros. But I don't think it will go away for hobbyist who just "want to be there". More and more people are interested in photograph. So if one of them want to spend more time with his family, there is gonna be 5 more to take his place. I've seen doctors, engineers and even business people (who would have thought???) on the sidelines. They make quite a bit of money so they will keep buying all the new gear because, most of them, think that the gear make the picture.

It's hard to compete with that but I think we have to adapt and find new ways to make ourselves more valuable to clients.



[Edit- fixed a quote tag - Warren Toda]

[Robin Rowland]

I often drive up to 500 kilometres round trip here in northwest British Columbia for assignments. In four years, so far I haven't had a problem with editors paying mileage for either photo or video assignments. In a number of cases, however, writing/reporting assignments have led to hassles.  In June a manager over ruled an assignment editor and refused to pay mileage. So now I have a rate card with my mileage rates saying you either pay the CRA rate or your posted corporate rate for any long distance assignments. I e-mail the mileage rate card to a potential assigner with the note that I will not do any assignment where I lose money.