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  • 1.  Press/Media Research & Image Requests

    Posted 02-03-2020 02:24 PM
    Our Museum often receives asks from press/media outlets to use photos or documents from our collection in articles that do not serve to promote the Museum's mission, as well as requests for our archives team to research questions for them. These questions are unrelated to our Museum's mission/exhibits/programs, but they do pertain to objects or images in the Museum's collection. 

    I'm curious how other institutions handle these types of requests. My main questions are:

    • How do you process press/media requests that don't serve to promote the mission of your Museum, but do pertain to something in your Museum's collection?
    • Do you have a separate fee schedule for press use or is use of any and all archival materials free for the press?
    • How much staff time or resources are dedicated to doing research for press? Is there a set time limit? What do institutions with smaller teams do? 



    ------------------------------
    Chelsea Newburg
    Press & Marketing Strategist
    New York Transit Museum
    Brooklyn. NY
    ------------------------------
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 2.  RE: Press/Media Research & Image Requests

    Posted 02-03-2020 04:59 PM

    Hi Chelsea,

    I'm the only staff member at my organization who handles research and reproduction requests. For research, we only offer the service of scanning the files (which is a project we are working on anyway) at a cost of $20/half hour. Whenever possible, I try and use volunteers to do the scanning. We simply don't have the staff time to conduct actual research. 

    As far as reproduction images, we have a fee schedule in place that tells us how much we charge/image depending on context. It is a board approved document; however, there is some flexibility to it as needed. We use the same fee schedule for press, but are more flexible with local press.

    As for the actual process, they call me and we discuss the image(s) they want. I send low res scans that are watermarked to confirm that is the image they want, along with our contract/invoice for the image. Once they have accepted the cost and the image selection, we sign the contract, they pay, and I send a high res image.

    I hope this helps!

    Shelby



    ------------------------------
    Shelby Miller
    Curator/Dr. of Education and Outreach
    Galena History Museum
    Galena IL
    ------------------------------

    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 3.  RE: Press/Media Research & Image Requests

    Posted 02-04-2020 07:10 AM
    I agree 100% that developing a fee schedule is essential ... do the media allow you to use their photos of your events free of charge?

    But - it seems you could also use a CAP (AAM's collections-based consultancies)... why do you have objects that don't relate to your mission?y

    Vivian F. Zoë, Director
    Slater Memorial Museum
    108 Crescent Street, Norwich CT 06360
    860-425-5560 vox
    860-885-0379 fax

    "Inspiration is for amateurs - the rest of us just show up and get to work," Chuck Close, 2003


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    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


  • 4.  RE: Press/Media Research & Image Requests

    Posted 02-04-2020 08:56 AM

    Oh man, this has been an issue for us for quite some time.  My predecessors had an unofficial policy of waiving fees for the local newspaper (not all press/media) and they would constantly be asking for some basic research, but also lots of images.  Requests would come in for a dozen images or more and only one or two would end up being used.

     

    My curator and I put an end to that and they started screaming bloody murder and how dare we after all the support they provide us.  We would get the occasional "hey we have a great little museum in town" that would be part of praising all the cultural institutions, but when we mentioned their failure to run any of our press releases or sponsor any events we get the run around.

     

    Right now we have offered to give them a limited number of free images a year and do cursory searches like we would for any researcher in exchange for a mention that you can  learn more about x subject they are writing about at our museum with contact information.  We've been waiting months for a reply.

     

    I know newspapers are suffering and you want good relations with them to promote you, but keep in mind they are a business and they run stories and your images to create reader interest and sell more newspapers.

     

    Harry Klinkhamer

    Historical Resources Manager

    City of Venice

    941-486-2490

    hklinkhamer@venicegov.com

                                

    Venice Museum & Archives                        City of Venice

    http://www.venicemuseum.org/              http://venicegov.com

     

    The value of history is, indeed, not scientific but moral:

    by liberalizing the mind, by deepening the sympathies,

    by fortifying the will, it enables us to control, not society,

    but ourselves - a much more important thing; it prepares

    us to live more humanely in the present and to meet rather

    than to foretell the future.

    -Carl Becker from Every Man His Own Historian

     




    Original Message
    AAM Annual Meeting & MuseumExpo, Baltimore, May 16-19, 2024, click to learn more


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