Does the world need yet another place for people to upload their video and stills? Well, it’s got one and it might just have more of an impact than most. Demotix sells itself thus:
“Think of it like Flickr or YouTube, but only for original photo/video news. They/You tell us what is going on, we tell the WWW and the world’s mainstream media.”
It certainly has some interesting and topical stuff. Other sites that offer independent material from around the world are often out of date or geographically very selective. Demotix seems to have more variety.
Today for examle, the latest pictures are of a shot-down Chadian helicopter and an anti-FARC demo.
It’s good stuff, although often off-beat and colourful rather than front-page grabbing.
Crucially it is trying to network itself in to mainstream media. I found out about it via Telegraph “assistant editor responsible for work flows” Justin Williams, because his paper has signed up for the Demotix feed.
So I can see that the business model might work. I can see that it’s easier for a mainstream news picture editor than just combing through YouTube or Flickr every morning. And it’s better for the contributers because they might get paid. This is the deal:
Basic, non-exclusive rights to your photos will sell for anything between $80 and $1,600 USD.
* Non-exclusive rights to your video: $500-600/minute* Exclusive rights: whatever we can get. And some photos and videos can go for $100,000s. In all cases, you get exactly 50%.:* you retain the copyright* we broker them exclusively across all spaces* we split the fee
And there is lots missing
Where are the positive stories about the millions of people who work in social care.
It often seems that we just don’t exist
World, celebrity and football seem to be all that complements politics.
But caring…well I suppose that very infamous person ‘ somebody else’ does that.
So a new way of gettting news but what news!!
Sorry Brummy sarcasm
Couldn’t we have once a year ‘ Good news’ day
Life isn’t all negative you know
Rachel,
Thanks for your comment. Here’s a genuine question. Why not create a website for people to upload stories about social work – so social workers or clients or relatives or anyone else could post narratives of what it’s really like, including the rewards and successes of the profession?
Would anyone use it? Does it already exist? Does the specialist social work media not do that?
I think that the job of news is not the highlight the positive. If it did, then TV bulletins and newspapers would be swamped with ‘good news’. Every day millions of good deeds are done in people’s ordinary lives. But perhaps online media offers a space to detail and celebrate that?
regards
Charlie Beckett
dear Rachel, and Charlie,
the point of Demotix is that you CAN upload all the stories about social work,social workers, caring, you name it… and all the good news stories you want.
Demotix is your news site. We have zero editorial policy other than what two pics go on the front page.
But we do have about 500 people a day – and we’ve only been open a couple of weeks – regulalry checking in and scouting round the site to find what has been uploaded.
So if you reckon there should be more ‘good news’, create a profile, and upload some. DOn’t leave it to ‘someone else’ – as you put it!
And if it’s particularly good, we’ll almost certainly get into the mainstream media.
All best – and thanks for taking a look at us!
Turi
CEO, Demotix
Rachel and Charlie,
Let me tell you about Indiconews.com. It’s a new user generated news site and an originator of citizen news via video, image and text for dissemination beyond indiconews.com itself. It also acts as a usefull tool for individuals, communities and other organisations.
Our readers will definatley be interested in hearing about news in the social care/work sector and how this affects yours and the people you work with live’s. If it is of interest to you and your community, then indiconews.com wants to publish it!
You can also drill down news by topic, reporter, zip code, key words, time etc so you can locate and engage with relevant content and other users on as broad or focused scale as you want.
Its free to join at http://www.indiconews.com/register.php so why not give it a go. Have your voice heard!
Best wishes and looking forward to seeing your articles
Katherine
Interesting.
There may be more opportunity in video than in photos imho.
I’m not sure if there is enough of an opportunity to add value between photo/video journalists running their own site – which for photos can be done with a full set of features for effectively nothing, and the big players who are adjacent to the same space.
Whether it works will turn on connections at both ends, and the ability to absorb costs while building a business.
How will they compete with Alamy/Getty for photos (or if they go into video) on the one hand, and Youtube and friends if they start offering “walled gardens” for a “tenner plus 10% commission” as part of their service.
The prices look to be in line with the big players, while the commission rates are higher than (e.g.,) Alamy – who take 35%.
So – deep pockets needed for a 2-3 year run in and I reckon they will need to shave a third off the prices at both ends to make it fly, unless the connections are really good.
Best of luck to Demotix, however.