Hi Harry,
I can relate to your challenges with providing images to the media. Our museum receives multiple requests each month from a wide variety of digital outlets and print publications. Many of these media outlets have unreasonable deadline requests and expectations that we will find the exact image to match their story upon short notice. We currently require a $15 fee to be paid to us for each digital image that is requested, which we feel is quite reasonable. We still get tons of beef about it though, and we try our best to explain to the media the time and expense in fulfilling their requests, especially as a non-profit with a limited staff (one archivist).
Personally, I get frustrated with media outlets who are unwilling to pay our small fee. When we requested from the local paper (McClatchy publication) an image of a docent tour to use for internal purposes, they charged us a $250 rights/reproduction fee. Yet they expect courtesy photos from us on a regular basis, both from our collection and from our publicity images. If paying for image rights are part of the cost of doing business for their organization, I don't see why we can't also expect to have a cost of doing business. It takes our archivist time to find images, digitally touch them up, and then send them with the correct captions and credit information. Sometimes if the image takes a while to find, it's more than our $15 fee can cover. So, again, we try to explain this to each person requesting so they can be informed and understand where we are coming from.
However, we do regularly partner with local media outlets and provide images for free as part of a partnership. Those partnerships are more intentional, and both parties take time to think about what would be beneficial to share to that specific audience. We have a very successful partnership with a local magazine that runs a half page archive image each month with an extended caption relating to the neighborhood it serves, and we appreciate the give and take in that relationship. There is plenty of time for us to submit the content, and we provide content that is meaningful to the readers/community. The "story" is well branded and keep us front and center each month. It is definitely important to maintain positive relationships, and just as the others have mentioned, we don't want to burn any bridges and ensure that our events and exhibitions receive coverage in the future.
Hope this is helpful to you. Best of luck!
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Christina Claassen
Marketing & PR Manager
Whatcom Museum
Bellingham WA
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Original Message:
Sent: 11-22-2019 10:34 AM
From: Chris Godbold
Subject: Rep-roduction Fees for Commercial/News Media
Harry,
I agree with Paul. When I first started working with rights and reproductions, I charged our local newspaper a fee for images. They got a bit upset so we scrapped it. Our Director of Marketing explained to me then that she couldn't buy the exposure and, essentially, advertising that the use of our images and credit line in the newspaper provides. We did, and still do, have a pretty thin marketing budget. It is well worth it to maintain goodwill with local media by allowing them use your images for free, especially when you consider that it is the same media that you want to cover your events, exhibits, and other good news. I am attaching our fee schedule. It is more of a guide than a hard and fast rule. I try to work with folks, especially academics and writers who don't make much money off of their books or projects.
Best,
Chris
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Chris Godbold
Chief Curator of Collections
Fort Bend History Association
Richmond TX
Original Message:
Sent: 11-21-2019 09:11 AM
From: Harry Klinkhamer
Subject: Rep-roduction Fees for Commercial/News Media
Would anyone be willing to share their policy/fee structure for use of images in your collection by the media?
Specifically, I am interested in relationships between your local museum and local newspaper. We are flooded with requests from our local paper for historical images from our collection that they want to run with community history articles they write. They are crying foul that we wish to now charge them for use. We are looking to treat them as any other commercial entity.
Thanks!
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Harry Klinkhamer
Historical Resources Manager
Venice Museum and Archives
Venice FL
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