First published in 1891, Cycling Weekly is IPC’s oldest continually
published magazine and has been a highly profitable cash cow for years.
So
how about this for the latest management scam to cut costs and make
even more money? Recent issues have invited readers to send in pictures
of the week’s races in their local areas.
Now this isn’t a
competition, for there are no prizes and, guess what, no reproduction
fees are paid either. It is, in fact, simply a means of putting yet
more freelances, photographers this time, out of work and letting
unpaid amateurs take over our profession.
At the recent British
Guild of Travel Writers agm, one prominent member told me he had
offered a batch of travel pieces to a major national news agency:
“We’ll be happy to take anything you can send us,” enthused the reply,
adding: “Of course, we can’t pay you anything for it.”
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Now just how did that “of course”
creep into our industry’s thinking?
Grabbing
all rights then making more out of selling a feature on to other
outlets than was paid to the mug freelance journo in the first place is
a further example of the “something for nothing” management mentality
which is currently blighting our industry.
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And has anyone else noticed just how small bylines have now become in most publications?
One
major glossy title I came across no longer even gives the editor’s name
on the flannel panel even though it is a legal requirement but it does
credit the advertising admin lady and all the space sales people.
Roger St. Pierre St. Pierre Editorial Services Dulwich
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
