MAX Magazine Feels Really Sorry: How To Use Flickr Photographers To Maximize Your Company´s Profit

Your Flickr photo in MAX magazine:

MAX, the leading monthly german lifestyle magazine from the MILCHSTRASSE Publishing Group (acquired by the mighty Hubert Burda Media Group in late 2004) and a "Visual Leader" in photography since 15 years, started four month ago to publish multi-paged features of the best photos found on Flickr in the Flickr-Portfolio, usually around 6 pages. 

All this without paying a dime to the Flickr photographers (The Group Rules of MAX explain: "What' s the "crop" of my work? Fame - in one word! You will get no money, sorry").

Instead the picture desk of MAX writes additional letters to Flickr photographers asking them to actively submit more high-res image files, together with a short story, just for the fun and the honor of it, with no guarantee that the images will be published one day: "sorry, but see it as competition".

MAX claims to "present the latest and hotest art, cultur, music, film, literature, design, architecture and fashion trends". Some out there believe that this claim should be altered to "we present the latest trend in exploiting photographers".

More details, mostly in Kraut, here:

• Flickr: Germany/Discuss.
• MAX Magazine Flickr group with currently about 5,791 images from around 673 members.
• Official press release: Flickr/MAX cooperation announced in March 2006.
• fotoblog (via Fotostoria).
• The Rise of Crowdsourcing (Wired).

Tags: Flickr Lifestyle magazine MAX

Comments

[Tim L]

Manual Trackback
http://www.dokufoto.de/nachrichten/max-habt-ihr-die-eier-112/
(Kraut)

[Markus Merz]

Well, it's legal, it's Zeitgeist, it's fancy ... oh, and the Photos aren't bad either.

"Hi hi hi", might one hear the chief editors giggle. "Free content, great quality and those dumb amateur photographers are proud of being printed, hi hi hi." The age of consumer generated content or better user generated content is coming and will make many smart people rich.

"Leading lifestyle magazine"? Happy new world crap might be a better description.

Andy, I haven't been here for a long time. I should start to use your RSS more regulary :-)

Some more in German:
Medien, Hamburg: Lifestyle-Magazin Max zahlt keine Foto-Honorare für Flickr Fotos
http://sankt-georg.info/fotografie/93/Hamburg-Medien-MAX-Flickr-Burda-Magazin-Foto-Honorar