# How much do newspaper photographers make?



## Sharkbait (Jan 2, 2005)

The local rag with a circulation of around 18K is looking for a photographer.  Any idea what that kind of position would pay?


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## mentos_007 (Jan 2, 2005)

here photographers get scores... I mean, that depends on how much space will his/her publ;ished photo take. If it's 1/4 of A4 they got 4 points and so on... after a month the boss sums up the score of a photographer and share the whole amount of cash that is for all photographers. So the more of your shots are published, the more you earn. But here it is about $600 for a month (remember it's Poland where the average salary for a citizen is $300)


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## LizM (Jan 2, 2005)

The general average seems to be $20,000 to $25,000 base plus bens and there should be a cut of reprints as well.  Ideally the paper supplies the photo equipment.

Some papers pay more but $20 to $25 seems to be a standard of sorts.  And a lot of papers don't even hire photographers as such.  They advertise for reporters who "can take pictures".

Check out www.journalismjobs.com for some good info.

Good luck!


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## mattvillano (Jan 2, 2005)

It's not the highest paying job in the world, but it can be fun if you enjoy it.  I took a class in photojournalism last semester with Thomas Franklin (he shot the firemen putting up the flag on 9/11)  He's helped me get freelance jobs with weekly papers where I make dirt but he works for a large daily in Bergen County NJ and he says the pay is pretty low, around 30K.   The whole industry is in a slump and is being bogged down by the big agencies and massive amounts of people trying to get into the field. But the paper does supply all the equipment.


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## doxx (Jan 2, 2005)

forget about it if you want to make some decent money.
You're better off working on your own - doing portraits
and weddings...


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## Hertz van Rental (Jan 2, 2005)

doxx said:
			
		

> forget about it if you want to make some decent money.
> You're better off working on your own - doing portraits
> and weddings...



In the UK a lot of the photographers for local papers do this as well to supplement their income - and often do work for more than one paper. The pay isn't very good. The big dailies don't seem to have staff photographers anymore but rely on freelancers. There are a lot of them. When you do get published in a national they pay per shot but it's decent money. Last one I did for a daily was about 5 years ago and I got £250 for one picture. But you have to submit a fair few to cover your costs every month. Unless you get a realy big exclusive....


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## danalec99 (Jan 2, 2005)

What about the photographers with the agencies (Magnum, VII etc) ?? Does anyone know if they are compensated well?


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## Shutterbug (Jan 4, 2005)

Jeez, I was ripped off. I did a summer job at this crappy paper over the summer and did some great work, and I got maybe 30 bucks a picture.

It's enough for a starting 16 year old, but still


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## raider (Jan 11, 2005)

man, I gotta scratch Poland off my 'places to retire' list.


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