I'm accustomed to getting it for free ...

Holy crap. Then they're a bunch of douchebags.

That's insane. Eleven hours away and no sharing? Wow.

 

The last shop I worked at (Florence, Ala.) we routinely shared prep stuff with the next paper over, the Decatur Daily.

Why? Because the folks at both papers understood how freaking difficult Friday nights are and that the combined reach would help leverage both papers' efforts to round everything up by the end of the night.

 

Like I said, if you'd call 12-13 years ago and ask for a photo, MOST papers would either treat you like you're a leper, or instantly pull out their rate card for reprints.

But through a lot of arrangements which proved beneficial to both parties, we've evolved to this ... most of us.

 

I'll PM you.

I remember the first time I went begging for a photo. It was a women's basketball game – Ole Miss at Kentucky, I think – and I called Lexington. They sent a photo, maybe even two.

The next day, the ME says, "How'd we get that photo?"

"We asked nice. And they gave it to us."

"Oh."

 

i can't wait for the day when a certain midsize paper in east texas calls asking for a favor. called to ask the paper if they could zap us a photo from a friday night football game clearly out of our coverage area and was told "no problem" by the photo editor. then comes deadline time when we're expecting the photo and nothing comes. we call and are told "sorry, the m.e. says no can do." bastards, karma surely will get them.

 

I've had that conversation with a boss before.

Here in Cali, the "courtesy" doesn't seem to be quite as common as it was at my last paper in Georgia. I've never had any problem asking, and I don't have any problem reciprocating. What goes around comes around.

 

It took our SE about two years to figure out that I could manage to get something pretty much when I needed it, just by asking nice. He never lived in that reality back when he worked the desk.

It made for a pretty cool two years, because every time I did it, it was like he was impressed all over again. In fact, it still has that effect if I wrangle something he really wouldn't expect us to have.

 

The only time I've ever been told, it'll cost you ...

Called a director of an athletic conference (D-IAA/I, but still podunk), and told them my situation. I needed a couple of shots for however long our volleyball team was in the tournament. Can you help me out, because I noticed on their Web site they had decent art.

Well, she said sure. I'll have somebody call you. Next day I got a call, guy wanted $75 per and he was the guy that was working the job for his newspaper, the conference, and hoped to be working it for us.

When he gave me the price, true story, I told him we didn't like volleyball that much.

 

we had it cost us once when we had a team in the state finals. the local paper, six hours away from us, had a photo guy there all week shooting for them. he must have raked because i believed he charged around 75 per photo.

 

For the most part in South Carolina people share. I've never had anybody, that I can remember, turn us down. I do remember when the SE at Myrtle Beach (this was about six years ago) called and asked if we could send our gamer on one of his local teams that was playing in our coverage area for the playoffs. "Sure, no problem." He asks how much we charge to send our gamers to other papers and I tell him we do it for free all the time. We just ask that people return the favor when we're in a jam. He was shocked. "You're going to send us your story for free? Really?" By that point, I had already worked out deals with four or five other papers where we exchanged stories for free on Friday night games.

 

Maybe I'm a little too much "We are all in this together." but if a competing paper asked for a photo or mug, I would send it.

 

Just make sure they credit your paper. That way their readers knows their paper is your bitch.