With more people having cameras today, the big name news companies are often the last ones to get pictures and live coverage of a scene. Even when the terrorists hit Mumbai, it was Twitter users that brought us live updates of what was going on before the news even had a chance to get there. This really makes the news agencies jealous, but rather than fight us, they are now willing to pay really good money for newsworthy photos, and they are not the only ones.

In fact, there is a website out there that will absolutely revolutionize the way editorial pictures are sold, and it’s a site called Demotix.com.

What they do is accept all kinds of news photos and videos taken from anywhere in the world, and then they pump them out to news organizations who in turn buy them. Demotix is currently paying out 50% of their profits to you and the pictures that sell will often bring in a nice chunk of change.

This is from their website:
“We’re raising Street Journalists to professional rates (comparable and
competitive with all the big, established news wires and photo agencies)
because that’s what your material is worth. In number terms, that means your
non-exclusive images will sell for anywhere between $150 – 3,000; and your
videos will sell for $500-1,000 / minute. Exclusives? The sky is the limit.”

It’s an amazing concept. This gives average, every day people the opportunity to be freelance photo journalists and make the same kind of money that the big names make.

This kind of business can pay very well, especially if you live in a bustling city where lots of news is happening all the time.

Selling pictures on Demotix is great for those who also don’t want to be tied down by appointments and schedules. Although it is a little more risky as you don’t know which pictures will sell and which ones won’t, it’s a great opportunity for the adventurous.

But if you are just starting in photography, I would recommend trying to build up your base first and get some gigs going before freelancing alone.

Editorial images are also accepted on some micro stock photo sites. I have sold many of my news photos on Dreamstime.com and this is nice because they are photos that I could not use otherwise.

What kind of photos are considered newsworthy?
Well you don’t have to capture an explosion or some horrible event for your photo to sell like crazy as an editorial image. Any picture that tells a story or documents an event can be useful.

Think about it from the buyers perspective. The only ones who will be using these editorial images are magazines, newspapers and other news outlets. So think about why they would want to use your image, or what it would be useful for.

And of course, if you DO happen to catch a catastrophic moment you can make a ton of money. You can listen to police scanners and try to chase the news if you want to, but it’s usually best if you just happen to be there at the time of the event.

Try not to get in the police officers way if you do happen to be on a scene first. You may be able to get some pictures that the news crew will miss when they arrive if you do beat them to the scene.

Shooting editorial images is still a fairly new concept for average citizens, but it is a market that is busting at the seems right now and it also a lot of fun. I encourage you to check out the Demotix.com website and submit some editorial images to Dreamstime.com to see if this is for you.

Related posts:

1. Get As Many People as Possible to See Your Pictures.
2. Use Micro Stock as Spring Board to Major Income
3. Find those businesses that NEED a photographer like you.
4. Photograph Events that Pay Tons of Cash