Article Surfing Archive

Here's a really simple way.

to not only sell your work, but get your name all over the place.

At one time, getting work published in the local press was seen as an excellent way to earn some cash, gain a lot of experience and make a reputation as a photographer.

Unfortunately it was easy to saturate what used to be a limited market so things got more and more competitive.

Things have changed over the years. Most towns and cities now have far more local newspapers serving them,and most of them are free sheets that rely on advertising for their income. This has turned things around so that now, the publishers are working in a much more competitive marketplace.

Not only are they competing among themselves for advertising, but they realise that it is much more difficult to get readers to open their newspapers. This is because, in the old days folks would go to their local newsagent and buy their favourite newspaper. Having actually paid for the thing it was a certainty that they would read it.

Nowadays, with free newspapers being delivered to their home two or three times a week, there is no guarantee that any of them will be read.

This means that editors are much more receptive to new work.

Provided, of course, that it is presented in a professional manner and is likely to be of interest to his readers.

A local newspaper editor would probably tell you that his job would be the easiest job in the world if only he could have a reporter and photographer on every street corner in town. Clearly, he will never achieve this but every little helps! And let's face it, if your work is worth paying for the last place he wants to see it is on the front page of one of his competitors.

Searching out the goods

Remember that an editor wants something different to set his paper apart from the others. Something that will make folks open and read his paper so that he can sell more advertising space.

You would be surprised at the kind of things you can dig up that would interest him and, more importantly, his readers.

Here's an example that came my way earlier this year. There was no way that I could predict this, but it has certainly given me food for thought since.

As I've mentioned in previous articles, I provide photographs and occasional articles for a golf magazine. I was having a coffee in the club house at a local golf course one morning, basically mooching around hoping to find something of interest for the magazine, when one of the staff members mentioned that they were preparing a party for one of the members later in the week.

It turned out that one of the clubs' earliest members was still playing golf regularly and was about to celebrate his 90th birthday. Talk about pennies from heaven! I could almost guarantee publication in any of the local newspapers as well as the golf magazine. After all, how many people do you know who can play a round of golf and score less than their age?

In this one little scenario I had a human interest storey with a twist, something that's always interesting, and a novel sports item.

And who knows? there may even be a repeat when he reaches 95!

It certainly beats another golden wedding, anyway.

These little cameos are happening all the time, you just need to hunt them out. In this case I was in the right place at the right time.

A secret to this kind of success is widening your sphere of interests.

Get out to different places occasionally. Try to have a drink or a meal somewhere in town you've never been before.

Go for a walk in the park occasionally. Watch some of the local sporting events, but try the sports that don't normally make the news. The local footbal teams are always in the news, but my kids take part in local equestrian events that never get a mention in the press.

An event that I missed recently was an international bowls match that took place in a park in my home town. It may sound boring, but in the world of bowls it was big news as there were teams from all over Europe in a little Northern England town playing an important fixture over three or four days. Many of the players were very complimentary about the reception they got and the scenery they found in a place most had never heard of, so it would have made another nice little story.

So you see, you only need to dig them out, before someone else does...

(c) Copyright 2006 Mike Pepper