I'm accustomed to getting it for free ...

I've done a lot of stringer work, too. But this discussion, it seems to me, relates to transactions on a paper-to-paper level, not a paper-to-vendor level. And that relationship seems to be different, from my perspective.

But I may have missed a point you were making. It's late for me. I can see that you're saying the free swapping accrues to the benefit of the newspaper's owners if no cash changes hands.

Okay.

Anyway, I'll gladly pay reasonable amounts for reasonable amounts or work. We all (mostly) do.

If you string a game for me, you get 100 percent of the money. Minus, of course, the part your Uncle Sam wants.

If a paper decrees $75 per photo, I have a feeling none of it goes into the shooter's pocket, at least directly.

That doesn't seem to benefit the shooter at all, or create any incentive to cooperate.

For me, the math on their end of this particular transaction just doesn't add up. Would they rather have 100 percent of $50 or zero percent of $150? For me, that's what it boiled down to in this case.

If they don't want to help, I'd rather they just say that.

 

henry - first, let me say i'm not calling bullshit on anything you're saying. as i said in my original post --a post where i was making more of an observation than a statement -- i kinda like the sharing that takes place in the region where i work now ... but that's because i write very little.

when i did write fulltime, in the other region, i, not the company, was paid for basically rewriting my lede, adjusting a few quotes -- or getting an extra one or two -- and sending an e-mail with the story. when i became an editor in that region, i knew i'd need to pay every non-staff writer (employee of another paper) $50 to $75 for a gamer -- they named the price -- and/or a photog between $50-$100. it's just the way things worked there.

now, i see all this free "stuff" going on, and i like it because it's much less paperwork for me in the long run. but i still feel as though the fat cats are getting a little porkier in this area of the country.

 

Let's make a clarification here, too.

Stringing is one thing. I would expect to have to pay for somebody writing a story.

Having a photo editor go into his archives, pull out a photo for me and drop it in an E-mail as an attachment -- no. It is my expectation not to pay cent No. 1 for that, because I would freely do that in a heartbeat for any other newspaper, and do on a regular basis.

This is something which has evolved over the past 10 years or so, and papers which charge anything for that are standing in the way of everyone's progress.