Dear dimwit on the phone

And, of course, they can download all my articles on the website for free, reproduce them, frame them, shit on them, whatever.... all without even forking over 75 cents to buy the paper. And, no, I never see a dime, either.

Some financial geniuses, these management types.

 

At one of my shops, we got 25 percent of the profit. So, on a $20 picture, it would come out to $3 to $5, depending on the item. Nothing to write home about, but I'd get an extra $100 a month, which was better than nothing.

 

Wow ... that was almost word-for-word what I told a principal, assistant principal, athletics director and some parents when they complained about a story we did when two starters from Podunk High's boys basketball team got kicked off because they got nailed for DUI and alcohol possession by a minor ...

I especially love it when they whine "But they're just CHILDREN!!!!!"

 

I don't see what's wrong with staffers not being paid for reprints.

Yiu are working for the company. They are payoing you to be there, you are there on your credential.

They own the stuff.

Now when I was freelancing, it was different. They only owned what they printed in the paper/on the web.

The rest belonged to me.

 

Dear Local Mom,
I know your daughter is upset that her team lost a game they should have won because she failed to make a routine play. I'm sorry that they didn't put it as an error on the scoreboard and she was distraught when she read in our paper that she made a two-out error. I'm also sorry that, after you informed me it wasn't an error and you know because you checked with a league official, I went to the trouble of tracking down the league official who told me no one spoke to her about the play and it was, indeed, and error.
Sorry I ruined your daughter's life.
-Rhody

 

You just cost that girl a scholarship, Rhody. Way to go. [/bluefont]

 

Well, I don't see how you could have ruled that an error. An error implies that there was a mistake of some kind and even if the girl was catching a routine pop up, got in position, had enough time to file her nails and hold a conversation and still dropped the ball, that's not an error, that's a clutch hit by the opposition! </every clueless idiot parent ever>.

 

Ugh, seriously? I was there, and there is no conceivable way that play could not be ruled an error. It was Knoblauch or Buckner-esque, since it was literally the difference between her team winning and losing.

 

For the photog, it was extra work in which they would then complain that she was putting in overtime for.

For myself, it was about talent. If I was that damn good about getting shots that people wanted to keep, I should be rewarded. If I sucked at photography, the paper wouldn't have made the money.

 

Or blamed it on another kid?

 

Eh, I kind of side with the company here. You were already compensated to take those photos. What the paper does from that point on is its prerogative. It's no different than demanding a slice of advertising money if an ad rep takes one of the sections you laid out and tries to sell your paper to some advertising big wig because you put out quality work.

 

We sell photos off our Web page like many other papers, with the photographer getting a small taste. If the policy changed, I'm sure the number of "extra" photos taken at an event would suddenly drop -- if I'm only being paid for what runs, I'm only taking or submitting enough to be run.
I don't know of very many average- to small-sized papers employing their full- or part-time photographers any more; it's mostly covered by freelancers and regular staff.
Freelancers are paid for their product, not their time.
As for the regular staff, if they're having to do both, they should be compensated somehow for both.