Images Are Not Free
Germany Photo by Scoopshot Osama Salti
A somewhat prevalent discussion in the media space surrounds the topic of “free” content. In truth, there is no such thing. Based on the plethora of online images, for example, there’s an impression of little or no cost, but a close examination reveals many hidden expenses and pitfalls that publishers now face on a daily basis.
Let’s examine four ways that images, either online or user-generated, are not free:
Staff Resources: Media organizations may expend great time and effort validating user-submitted images. How much time? We often hear 30 or more minutes per image in an attempt to evaluate authenticity. Evaluation is not a guarantee; picture editors and other highly trained professionals would be much better directed at content creation instead of image inspection. If a typical publisher uses only 30 user-submitted images daily, at 30 minutes to validate each photo or video, that’s 15 hours of labor lost per day.
Other Hidden Costs and Revenue: Media organizations are continuously monitoring Instagram, Facebook and other social media outlets. Sometimes this practice helps develop leads or it increases the richness of stories or other content being reported. There have also been unfortunate cases when media organizations have published images from Twitter, etc., which is problematic since the content does not carry all necessary rights and permissions. This practice has lead to expensive legal issues. Unique content almost certainly helps drive traffic, and by definition hits and revenue, but another risk is that traffic taken from social media may be inadvertently driven to the media outlet that posted the content originally. A crucial factor is supplying unique, authentic content with context such as that created by media companies daily. This means “scraping” content from social media can be fraught with peril The optimal approach is engaging readers directly to capture relevant, authentic user generated content for cost-effective, immediate publication. Unique content will drive readership and it also allows the monetization of your content.
System Cost: Developing your own “UGC system” is extraordinarily expensive and it is never “turn-key”. These systems typically require support staff, hardware, maintenance, upgrades, etc., and that’s just the basics. As smartphones and their operating systems change, you must also adapt accordingly. While manually evaluating each user-generated image is costly, a whole new infrastructure is even more so. Companies, can, and have, spent more than $500k to develop a system that is less than optimal and expensive. Plus, $500k would easily translate into added content staff or image purchases.
Focus: In the final analysis, it’s important to consider the media mission, especially at a time when companies are driven by a 24-hour, global news cycle, and doing much more with reduced staff resources. Assuming creating and distributing content is the core business, redundant publishing steps, creating new content systems that siphon content dollars, or risking legal issues are not part of the new medial reality.
Petri Rahja and Dave Rickley