After firing its entire photography department, the Chicago Sun-Times decided to turn to freelancers for photo coverage. So, if you send in your photos and they decide to use them, how much can you expect to get paid?
According to a freelance-rates memo posted on jimromenesko.com:
News/feature assignment, still photos only : $65
News/feature assignment, still photos and video : $85 (only if video is asked for, not on spec)
Sports assignment, still photos only : $90
Sports assignment, still photos and video : $110 (only if video is asked for, not on spec)
Since each assignment should consist of between 5-7 photos, that prices each of your still photo from less than $10 to $13.
Let’s see, if I can sell one assignment of still photos a day, 5 days a week, 4 weeks a month for 10 months, that’ll earn me around $13K a year.
If I spice things up with both still photos and video and, assuming I can still sell one assignment a day, etc. as specified above, that’s $17K a year.
Obviously, you can’t live on that but is it even reasonable to expect being able to sell one assignment a day? Can you sell 2 or more assignments a day?
If you are Peter Parker and selling photos of Spiderman to J. Jonah Jameson, editor-in-chief of the Daily Bugle — and considering all the foes Spidey has to fight everyday — you could conceivably make a good living. Wait, Spidey lives in New York and besides, even JJ was never that miserly [doesn’t he usually throw Pete a wad of notes, so probably more than $65?].
via pdnpulse