Publish Where You Get Your News: Online

Two recent articles have highlighted the importance of ditching your preconceptions about what constitutes the pinnacle of getting published and start embracing online media outlets – especially if you’ve been dreaming of getting hired by print publications you’d never dream of paying real money to read.

Firstly, at PDNPulse, Conor Risch has a summary of the speakers during the VII seminar at PhotoPlus, which resonated with me personally because it coincided with (or inspired, perhaps) the retooling of the Meridian format to be more hospitable to our own projects.  It was Katherine Harris, photography director at The Daily Beast, who pointed out the disparity between young photographers’ ideal clients (large printed publications) and what they actually read (online).

The next day, Greg Ceo recalled on his blog a similar discrepancy in a class of photography students; some of them wanted to go into photojournalism, but exactly none of them actually spent money on newspapers.

My obsession with National Geographic comes to mind.  Personally, I dream about putting my photo inside that classic yellow border, but I only read printed copies of NatGeo because I pilfer them from my parents’ house whenever I visit.

I think my new goal in life will be to have an online outlet that will publish any story I want to tell.  Oh…wait, I already have that.  I better get to work.