Over the Falls without a barrel

[Warren Toda]

In a couple of weeks, one of the world's most unique publicity stunts will be staged in Niagara Falls. It will be the biggest PR event that city will ever experience. It could be at least tens of millions of dollars worth of free publicity.

So you might think the province of Ontario and its agency The Niagara Parks Commission would be on the ball to fully capitalize on the event.

Sadly, you'd be wrong.

First, let's bring you up to speed. Niagara Falls Parks Commission policy (direct link to PDF) includes:

• except for family vacation pictures, some outdoor wedding photography and only *breaking* news, absolutely NO PHOTOGRAPHY IS ALLOWED in any of its public parks without a $250 permit. There's no exception for the news media.

A permit request has to be submitted and paid (no refunds) several days in advance of the photography. Further payments to access each park may be required (minimum $100/hour, four hour minimum).

• if any news media want to do a feature story (i.e. not breaking news) in any Niagara Falls Parks, they need prior approval (and a $250 permit) from the Commission.

• permit holders must have at least $5 million worth of insurance.

• no flash pictures at night.

• the Parks Commission co-owns the copyright in your pictures/video.

• the Commission reserves the right to review your pictures/video.

• you must send a copy of every picture/video to the Commission.

• any rude hand gestures will cause your permit to be revoked

• no outside food allowed on any photo/video shoot. Otherwise you have to pay another $250 fee.


Okay so far?


If any news media would like to cover the big event in two weeks, the Commission has "classified" this event in a public park as a *commercial venture*. As such, the previously-mentioned policy terms apply.

News media attending must preregister with The Niagara Parks Commission, show their insurance coverage and pay $250 for a permit. Other fees may also apply.

The Commission said today that it needs the money from the media to help cover its costs surrounding the event including a media room and specially-designated media areas near the event.


Let's recap:

The public gets in free, shoot pictures and do anything they want with the pictures.

News media, which is the sole source of the top-level worldwide publicity that the city desperately needs, has to pay for access.

No other sports or entertainment event in the world(?) demands money from the news media to cover an event.

News coverage brings publicity. Every pro sports event in the world has learned this. Every tourist attraction (outside of Niagara Falls) has learned this. Every business and product manufacturer has learned this.


The Parks Commission's inability to see the big bucks because it concentrates only on the pennies is why the area is the way it is. The Commission and the city have yet to publicize the event beyond its own web site.

Oh wait, it's expecting the news media to do free promotion for them.

The purpose of any publicity stunt is that the person(s) involved is trying to yell, "Hey! Look over here!"  But like a tree falling in a forest, if no one pays attention then did the stunt even matter?

The small-town, sideshow mentality of the Parks Commission and the city has been the *one and only* problem with Niagara Falls. This is the sole reason why the city has not developed into a world class (I hate that phrase) tourist area. Millions of dollars of annual revenues and countless number of jobs don't exist since the folks running the show can't get their act together.

Just like that big waterfall, millions of dollars and tons of jobs are just flowing downstream to someone else.



But wait there's more!

The City of Niagara Falls is begging for photographers to help with its upcoming War of 1812 celebrations by contributing to the city's photo calendar project [edit: the calendar page has been taken down]. To take part, each selected photographer must...

... (wait for it) ...
                                   ... (wait for it) ...
                                                                                ... (wait for it) ...

... must pay the city a $400 fee. In return, each photographer will get ten free calendars!

World class indeed.




(edit: removed a dead link to the calendar page)

[David Chidley]

Wow unbelievable.  So Warren I hear you are taking a vacation at the falls real soon, enjoy!  Certainly not "working."

[Jack Simpson]

YAY .... there are stupider (i know  ) bureaucrats that
reside in Vancouver 

jack

[Jack Simpson]

Perfect chance to use your 28-300 lens and
shoot outside the high insurance rate area

Cheers,

jack

[Warren Toda]

The Niagara Parks Commission just sent out an OFFICIAL MEDIA RELEASE (40pt bold text). The Commission wants some free publicity. It wants the media to publicize an upcoming meet-n-greet with Wallenda.

Members of the public can get autographs and take pictures of Wallenda. 

Members of the media - be sure to buy a $250 permit for that day. 

[Victor Biro]

So much for my plans for Friday night...

[Moe Doiron]

Other than a tent with donuts and stuff what is the point of following the permit process? This event is a long lens photo with the falls behind him and can be shot from dozens of locations, probably all better than any organized media spots.

So take off the Domke vest, put on the Hawaiian shirt and shoot till your CF cards melt. If a park ranger comes up to you just ask him to settle an argument you're having with your friend ... what's better Canon or Nikon? Then show him your new zoom lens.

Is there a fine if you don't?

[Warren Toda]

Other than a tent with donuts and stuff what is the point of following the permit process?

A tent and donuts? How could it possibly get better? 

I assume it includes access to the after-event press conference (which is no big deal for photographers), media workroom (power? and Internet?), nearby parking?, infinite PR handouts about the city and its tourist attractions, and most important, washroom access with no lineups.

Okay, no tent. Media room is a block away. Please enter via the backdoor.

Okay, no free donuts. But the Commission has kindly pointed out that there's a Tim Hortons, Niagara Pizza Company, Burger Town and an Ah So Sushi nearby.

Okay, no free parking.

Okay, there might be power and Internet. Two wireless access points and total bandwidth will be 512 kbps upload. They're not guaranteeing it'll work but say they'll try their best.

Yes it includes lots of PR handouts about the area and tourist attractions.


Who knows, maybe they'll change their minds and not enforce anything.

This event is a long lens photo with the falls behind him and can be shot from dozens of locations, probably all better than any organized media spots.

That's what I figure, a very long lens. Except, thanks to TV, the event has been pushed back even later. Yesterday, they said it'll start around 10:20PM which tends to be a tad bit dark.

Sure, they'll use a few spotlights but the one picture we can all imagine (the guy in front of the Falls) will look lousy. Maybe they'll make it festive by using the coloured lights.

I'm sure it'll be fun. Just me and 119,999 other folks standing in the dark on a fine spring evening.

So take off the Domke vest, put on the Hawaiian shirt and shoot till your CF cards melt.

By coincidence, the East Toronto Long Lens Camera Club is having an outing this week.

Is there a fine if you don't?

I doubt it since there is nothing in law prohibiting photography. The Commission just has a policy banning photography. I guess the worst case scenario is that you get a good talking to and then asked to leave.

However, in case you were wondering:

   No person shall, within the Parks, operate a catapult or discharge a torpedo without the permission of a park officer.

   No person shall, within the Parks, carry or display any flag or other emblem without the written permission of the Commission.

[Victor Biro]

However, in case you were wondering:

   No person shall, within the Parks, operate a catapult or discharge a torpedo without the permission of a park officer

You mean I don't need a permit for my catapult, but I will if I want to take a picture of it?

[Warren Toda]

However, in case you were wondering:

   No person shall, within the Parks, operate a catapult or discharge a torpedo without the permission of a park officer

You mean I don't need a permit for my catapult, but I will if I want to take a picture of it?

I'm sure they have a catapult permit fee. 


In case anyone was wondering:

Generally, it's considered unethical for a news organization or journalist to pay for permission to take pictures or to pay for interviews (or access to interviews). Especially in this case where the money goes to a government agency.

This is not about paying for parking or other work-related expenses.

In this specific case, this is a free public event held in a public park. The permit fees go to a "self-funding" government agency. This means that it's in its own best interest to charge fees whenever it can. This agency, on its own, has decided the event is a private commercial venture and as such, it's charging permit fees.

A government agency is deciding whether an event is news or not. This decision is not based on picture use or actual story but based on their decision to make money.

Supposedly it's a commercial venture. So what? Pro sports and entertainment events are commercial ventures. News value is not defined by venue or event. It's defined by the actual story at hand.

But here's the fun part. If you do buy the $250 commercial permit from them, does that mean you can now use the pictures for commercial use (posters, T-shirts, coffee mugs etc)?

[Lyle Aspinall]

How many news agencies actually go along with this? If they're paying the fee, the problem will only get worse.

[Victor Biro]

How many news agencies actually go along with this? If they're paying the fee, the problem will only get worse.

Lyle,

I get the impression that TV find this less of a problem. Their pockets are deep, and this is a small part of their production budget.

I think that has skewed the perception of event organizers. I think that they now beleive that still photographers are either exploiting them or aren't worth worrying about as long as the TV cameras are there; after all, if the still photographers are providing useful (to them) exposure they must be making enough to pay.

Victor

[Warren Toda]

Just one last post (i.e. rant) on this topic:

How many news agencies actually go along with this? If they're paying the fee, the problem will only get worse.

It turned out that many news outlets happily paid a government agency for access to this news story. In the end, they gained a preferred shooting position and a parking spot about 217 meters closer to the action.

The best pictures came from non-government positions (i.e. rooftops and public positions).

I'm sure there's no coincidence    but just to point out that many of the newsprint organizations which paid for access are also the same organizations that: (1) use set-up, posed-with-model, online stock pictures to illustrate news stories and/or (2) swipe pictures from Twitter and other social networking sites.

It's too bad that journalism principles and ethics no longer exist at some newspapers. I guess that better returns for their shareholders is more important.

There was a time when newspapers were considered to be separate from other commercial businesses. It was because of this difference that news organizations were given special exemptions when it came to (i) privacy and copyright laws and (ii) access to newsworthy events. Failure to maintain this difference will mean that these exemptions will eventually disappear.

[Nathan Denette]

I know that The Canadian Press had three media event park passes for photographers, not including our reporters and video staff which also had the official passes and from what I was told that CP did not pay any commercial frees to cover this event. It was a battle but in the end we got our way.

I was in the Arctic a few years back covering Nunavut as its own territory turning 10 since it separated from being part of the NWT, and we had made contacts earlier to get access to a polar bear hunt with the local Inuit people. HA! when we arrived they wanted us to pay like $ 5,000 or more just to tag along plus we would have had to bring and buy all our own supplies.

I passed back the info back to Graeme in Toronto and he said our company policy has always been "we don't pay people for coverage and stories" so that was that and we never covered it.

The worst thing is you can have five or ten media outlets stick to their guns on issues like this, but there will ALWAYS be two or three that  will pay, breaking the link in the chain.

[Steve Russell]

I know that The Canadian Press had three media event park passes for photographers, not including our reporters and video staff which also had the official passes and from what I was told that CP did not pay any commercial frees to cover this event. It was a battle but in the end we got our way.

Ditto the Star, Taras and Greame worked hard!

Although the $250 bucks would have been a bargain if there was reliable internet drops close to the shooting positions.
I remember the paper paying 500 bucks for a phone line installed at various events!

And if you were there.....Look for yourself in Randy Risling's Gigapan