I recently read an article about a photographer having an editorial “published” in Flanelle Magazine.  Huh, never heard of it so I clicked to see what I could find.

Now, I am NOT saying this is a scam but what it might be to potential clients of photographers is misleading.  A photographer claiming to be published, while sounding impressive, may be just a case of free content.

Read on . . .

So I looked at several posts in a Facebook forum for local photographers and investigated more closely the ones where they said they were published in such-and-such magazine.  What I found was that all were “print on demand” magazines, available through a service like MagCloud.  That means that yes, you can buy a print edition (and as MagCloud is a subsidiary of Blurb, a print on demand for books, I will say it likely is good quality) but you’re not buying from a stack of pre-printed magazines.  Instead, it is printed as soon as your order is received.

Now, what does this mean?  First, it means that this is not a well-known magazine that you buy off of a newsstand, like Vogue or Marie Claire.  Again, this is not to say the contents are not good.  But print on demand means the magazine does not sustain itself off of advertising.  Instead, it hopes you will buy a copy – for anywhere between $15 to $30, if not more.

I suspect the magazine also gets revenue through selling the pictures to stock companies.  Let me explain: when I looked at the terms of submission for any photographer wanting to send photos, the photographer has ton agree that the magazine has a perpetual and unlimited use license for the photos.  In short, while the photographer maintains the copyright, the photographer is agreeing that the magazine can use the photos in any way it wants.  So, who is to say that the magazine doesn’t take the photos and sell them to Getty Images, or Adobe, or Alamy to use as stock photography, i.e., those pictures you see on many a website or billboard?  Furthermore, I notice too indemnification language, meaning if you suddenly find your face gracing a bottle of shampoo and you did not sign a model release, you can go after the photographer for an unpermitted use of your image, but not the magazine.

It really is a good deal for the magazine.  I spoke with a friend of mine, a fashion/lifestyle photographer in the UK, about these magazines.  They get FREE content from photographers and writers, they get unlimited use of what is submitted (including selling it), and they make money selling copies.  Who buys the copies?  Depending on the magazine, while the photographer may have a few copies tossed around their studio to impress clients, a lot of these magazines cater to children photography or young teens.  So you have Mom, Grandmom, or doting Auntie to buy copies – but if you think the magazine will somehow launch your child’s modeling career, think again.

Okay, as I said, it is NOT a scam and is a legitimate business model.  It is all there in fine print to be read.  And in some cases, I think it is a fine idea.  I did something similar when I photographed weddings, creating a venue-specific magazine that featured my photography and gave free copies to the venue owner to give to brides when they would tour the facilities, providing a “takeaway” to keep me on their mind after looking at all of the sample albums at the venue.  A service like MagCloud or Graphistudio (I used the latter) can be invaluable for a business.  Let’s say you ran a clothing boutique – would it help your marketing to feature a quarterly “magazine” of what your customer can expect for Summer fashion when they come to your store in Winter and pick up a copy at the register?  And yes, I am suggesting you could hire me for the photography, of course!