Today's San Francisco Chronicle has a story on the very front page of their business section about hobbyists taking work from professional photographers. It's here if you can bare to read it. I guess the chronicle - which is near the top of the death watch list for major metro daily newspapers - got tired or writing about the fall of newspapers and decided to focus on the the economy of free and the future of still photographers."It'd be nice to get paid, but I don't really care," said the San Francisco resident. "What are they going to pay me, a hundred dollars? I'd rather get copies and show them to my friends."The software engineer they interviewed had given his photo to 7x7 Magazine in exchange for a few copies of the magazine. 7x7 has never been a lucrative client but they have been a great display space for San Francisco photographers and they have financed some great portfolio development projects for photographers including Erik Almas.
With an entire issue filled with images they found on Flikr and plans for more such issues one has to wonder what value of the magazine is delivering. I would have to say it's value is about what they are paying for images $0. If they are just republishing work you can find yourself on Flikr then the publication isn't contributing much more then paper and ink. Free certainly has to be an enticing prospect for any publisher but I don't see the payoff f0r readers or advertisers. 7x7 is a style and lifestyle magazine. Their job is to be ahead of the public, finding trends and reporting on them in a beautiful way that also provides gorgeous display space for advertisers. How well can they do this by scouring Flikr for your old photos. It's not that there aren't lots of nice photos on Flikr its that I don't see how this strategy makes the magazine relevant.
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