When Readers Pop the Question

How to Answer When Readers Pop the Question.

Every working photographer at an event as heard this question from readers 1,000 times: "How can I get a copy of that?" There may be many ways to answer but the way that makes the most financial sense and in the long run makes the readers the happiest is "at our newspaper's website" while handing a business card over to the reader that has photo ordering information on it. "We'll have these uploaded with in 24 hours." This increases traffic to the paper's website and makes it easy for the reader to make a purchase.

Photographers from MNP papers can get a custom design and a their first 100 cards for free. Just send the information for your cards to your MNP Region Manager and the cards are on the way.

With graduation season approaching this might be just the time to start this approach or stock up on cards.

When I'm 64...or more

What is your photo legacy? How will the photos we take today be remembered 25, 50 or 100 years from now? If they are not printed on archival materials they will be remembered every bit as well as the '93 vacation video shot on Betamax. I'm sure some people who sang for Edison thought they were making a permanent record of their voice, and the guy that bought 50 lasers disc movies thought it was a good buy because he could enjoy them for years. Backing up my tax records to 5.25 inch floppies was certain to last longer than making a Xerox copy.
The point is this: Newsphotos shot digitally and stored digitally will not be available to be seen after more than 8 or 9 years goes by if no one copies them to the next generation of storage. For those of us who are working photographers that means our life's work goes away, UNLESS they are printed on archival materials. Modern color RA-4 paper can be expected to last over 100 years without "noticable fading" under normal display conditions. Who knows how many 100's of years if kept away from the light in an archival quality photo album. So, print, print, print. Decorate your home, your office, the lobby at the paper. Give photos as gifts. Donate prints to the library, fire house, town hall, homeless shelter, old folks home, hospital. As a bonus you will spread the fame of your photography and the newspaper's brand as you go.

The next generation of your community will thank you for it.

A Marketing Lesson from Sea Lions

Years ago at the National Zoo in Washington DC my favorite thing to do was feed the Sea Lions. Back then you could by a big bag of peanuts in the shell and were encouraged to toss them into a pool just over a low rail to the sea lions' pool. What made this particularly fun was that the smartest sea lions would wave a flipper at anyone holding a bag of peanuts to catch the humans eye and attract more peanuts than their less animated pool mates. A staff member explained that this waving behavior was not taught to the animals but rather learned on their own because it brought results.
This simple lesson of motion catches the eye and brings rewards is also known to the smartest newspapers. Those papers catch the attention of humans by using one of the free MyNewsPhotos dynamic badges on their homepage to direct readers to the photo gallery. See examples.

May you wave your flipper and attact lots of peanuts.

A 5000% improvement?

Pictures don't lie but they can only tell a small bit of truth. How do we reveal more of the truth? More pictures. As journalists giving an accurate account of an event should be the top priority. It's time all newspapers understood the value of the a online photo gallery. It is like having an unlimited supply of ink and newsprint. Instead of sending out a photographer to a story and chosing one image of the 50 available we can now share all 50! By putting all 50 in the online gallery we are:
1. Telling a more complete story for our readers.
2. Increasing page views and visitors to our website
3. Multiplying the odds of selling a photo by 50.