Selling Editorial Photos

Do you sell editorial photos? Did you know you could?

What are editorial photos?

Editorial photos are informational and educational in nature, unlike stock photos which are commercial. They are suited to publications rather than sales material. News photos showing current events and famous people are the most popular type.

Another key difference is that editorial photos do not require a model release in most circumstances. This limits buyers from using the photos to sell products or services, keeping them exclusively for news and educational publications.

Where can I sell them?

If you get an exclusive shot of a high-profile news event you can sell it for a large price to news organizations or agencies such as Getty Images’ new acquisition, Scoopt. But for news and other editorial photos that aren’t front page material, you can sell them in the microstock market alongside your stock photos.

Shutterstock allow you to sell editorial images simply by ticking the ‘Editorial - does not require release’ box during submission. Buyers are then informed that the images cannot be used for commercial purposes.

Dreamstime will pay you $5 for every accepted editorial photo you submit. However, they still require a signed model release for all recognizable faces in the photo, and removal of all brands and logos.

Both these agencies apply almost the same quality requirements to editorial submissions as they do to stock. Just because a photo contains a celebrity or the latest headline event, doesn’t mean it can be lower quality.

While not microstock, Alamy also sell editorial images. More of their buyers are in the market for editorial shots, and while you won’t sell as many, you’ll earn a lot more for each sale.

Do they sell well?

There are always star performers - the images that sell extremely well. However, the majority of editorial photos don’t sell well in the microstock market. Microstock is a market for stock photos, so the majority of buyers come in search of commercial stock, not editorial.

So What?

If you have photos in your collection that you haven’t submitted because they contain recognizable strangers, consider their suitability for the editorial market. Dreamstime won’t accept these because they still require a model release, but there’s no such requirement at Shutterstock. You may be sitting on a gold mine!

Many photos are rejected by microstock agencies as “not suitable for stock” or “not commercial”. These are hints that the image may be more appropriate in the editorial market. Consider if they would be used by publications to inform or educate, or if they contain news related subject matter. If so, give them a second chance by submitting them as editorial photos.

What about You?

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Tags: Alamy, Dreamstime, Editorial, Microstock, Shutterstock