Run Time or Changing Pace

 

Things sometimes take time when it comes to journalistic magazine production. And over time things can change. Also over time, I have made a number of submissions to a particular mainstream runner’s magazine in South Africa. The submissions often take at least 4-8 months before being published and hitting the news stands. Most of my content consists of two images used as double page spreads, a map graphic, and about 500 words of text. It has always been like that for this particular feature and it is a formula that works well and one that the magazine has used for years. So no change there.

What has changed, apparently, is their payment for the submission. And not upwards you probably aren’t surprised to learn. The drop in price was significant, at 40%, and enough for me to query if the payment was per double page spread (never mind about text and graphics) and not for the ‘package’, as in the past. It wasn’t. I requested some kind of explanation, assuming that there was some logic, perhaps the payments were separated into text and graphics. That’s how it used to be some years ago, in the industry. Whilst I am not in favour of cost cutting when it affects me negatively, I do understand that sometimes it is necessary. But 40%? Really?

I didn’t receive any explanation for weeks despite a second follow up email. I knew they didn’t have a backlog of content as the turn around time was quite quick at 3 months. Also the tone of the emails after submission confirmed that my journalistic training was appreciated (very little, if any, editing of the main text, a graphic that only needed dropping onto the page and images sized to match the output). I knew that even a mediocre designer could layout these four pages of the magazine in less than ten minuets. So you can understand my interest in finding out why there was such a marked drop in payment.

You can also understand my surprise when I bought a copy of the magazine in question and saw my images, text and graphic in print. And here I was thinking that I was waiting for confirmation of payment, which would equate to my permission to publish. Seeing it in print therefore negated any option I might have had to not have the work published, or to seek a more lucrative publisher.

And so time will tell, as I am still waiting for a response from the publishers as to why the payment was dropped by 40% and why my content was published prior to reaching an agreement. And because I haven’t received a response, I am also waiting to receive payment! 

Photography, Money and the Moot Point

In my opinion one of the worst things to have ever plagued the face of the Earth is the so-called ‘current financial crisis’. Why? Because it is nonsense. Irrelevant in the extreme.  I don’t mean to undermine the deplorable knock on effects of a global financial decline. I just mean to say that as far as business and negotiating work is concerned it is a moot point – and a much-proffered moot point at that.

Here is why I say this. In the last three years or so, I can recall, and only with great effort, a few instances where price negotiations for photographic work has not been propped up, crutched by “the present financial situation”. When I quote a client, even giving a breakdown, for the work, inevitably the “situation” is brought up with such inappropriate, ill found concern (unconvincingly glum expressions and thinly veiled anxiety).

Here are a couple of versions of what is really being said in these situations (in fact, sometimes they are actually said). There are also some of my preferred, but not necessarily verbalised responses:

Potential client: “Oh yes, your quote is great, but did you take into consideration “the present financial situation?”

3P Photography: “Aghhhh! I always do that! I always forget to include my “current crisis discount”. What a tragic oversight! Lets knock off 25% shall we. There we go that’s more like it! I feel better already, don’t you?”

Potential client: “You know we really would like to sign off on your quote, honestly, but our hands are tied due to “the present financial situation”.

3P Photography: “Oh nonsense! They’re simply thrust fist first into your pockets. They’re not tied at all. Let me know when you manage to get them out”.

Potential client: “This is fantastic! There is a lot of enthusiasm for your proposal … but the present financial situation has brought in budget constraints”.

3P Photography: “Oh, for the budget free days of old!”

Potential client: “This looks great, but the present financial situation is forcing us all to work a lot harder.”

3P Photography: “No kidding! Why do you think I looked you up? You think the ‘crisis’ is only yours?”.

Potential client: “This is exactly what we had in mind, but I’m not sure our budget will cover it.”

3P Photography: “So who’s budget will? Show me the way to that office”.

So, bringing up “the present financial crisis” in a negotiation is a moot point. As moot as my mentioning that I intend to use a camera and a computer.