TIME Magazine championed the cause of saving newspapers last week with a lengthy piece on how to do just that. Problem is, the whole magazine was about 14 pages thick. TIME and similar pubs have been getting thinner for a while now due to lack of advertising but, it’s becoming a chicken and egg thing. Which came first? shitty pictures and puff pieces cribbed form the wires and press releases because there is no money to pay contributors or a lack of advertising, necessitating the cutting back on paying contributors, therefor making our publication a waste of money and not worth grabbing off the newsstands?

I’m not breaking new ground here when I say newspapers are all but gone. Old world information delivery method in the dying days of evolving into a new delivery method. Those who made a living as photographers and writers for this medium, now desperately trying to hold on to the past. Shut the music down, turn off the lights and go home already, the party’s over. The party called magazines is also about to come to a sudden stop.

Don’t get me wrong, I love both newspapers and magazines. I still shoot for the New York Times once in a while, sell lots of stock to travel magazines and would love to be able to shoot more magazine features. Problem is, it’s damn near impossible to make a living at it. The pay generally sucks, they take forever to actually get a check out the door to you and they generally call on a Wednesday wanting something shot the next morning and delivered in the afternoon. I subscribe to about 20 magazines, love reading them and certainly love selling them stock but, if you’re new to taking pictures for a living and want to actually earn money, don’t waste a lot of time on publishers.

In May, I’m teaching a workshop in Los Angeles about how to build your business and the focus is mainly on how to find clients and sell yourself to them. Those clients being mostly end user businesses. Main Street, not Fleet Street, not Madison Avenue, small and medium businesses who need photography all the time, for all sorts of uses like websites, flyers, advertising, business cards, handouts etc. etc. etc.

Someone passed along a link to this blog HERE that contains a quick review of a book that talks about just this concept. I have not yet read the book so, I can’t offer any insight per se but, it seems to validate my idea that selling to other businesses, as a photographer, is where the future lies when it comes to making a living. I’m adding it to my Amazon wish list today and I’ll circle back with a review sometime in the future.

Shooting magazine covers and having NYT bylines is good for the ego but, reasonable day rates and working with clients who are fully engaged in what you’re doing for them is both profitable and rewarding.

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