Editorial use is a legal concept that most creatives are aware of but few understand fully. It is also one of the trickiest and most misunderstood licensing situations for photographers. It’s so confusing because it’s not just one thing – there are actually two very different types of editorial use. And both have very different implications for how and where your images can be used, which in turn affects how much you can charge as a photographer. Luckily, putting all this in simple terms doesn’t require any complicated math or insider knowledge. You just need to know what we’re going to explain here. Luckily for you, that’s exactly what you’ll get from us now!
Let’s start by defining what we mean by editorial use. “Editorial use” means the use of an image in a publication (e.g. newspaper, magazine, online publication – not an advertisement). It can also mean use in a non-print medium like a TV or radio program. In both cases, editorial use is a non-commercial use of an image, i.e. it doesn’t generate any direct profit for its users. If you’re a photographer, this means that your image usage rights are different depending on whether your image is used in an editorial or advertising context.
When determining whether an image is used in an editorial or advertising context, the first thing to look at is how the image is being used. This is because the type of publication or company you are dealing with is not as important as the way in which the image is used. No matter what industry you’re in, one thing is certain: you’ll always be dealing with people who don’t know the difference between editorial use and advertising use. You’ll also be dealing with people who mistakenly think that editorial use means that they don’t need your permission to use your imagination. Unfortunately, it’s the mistaken people who do the most damage to photographers’ income. So let’s see how you can make sure you don’t end up in that unfortunate group of people!
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The easiest way to understand the difference between the two types of editorial use is to look at their respective rights. – Traditional editorial use: Traditional editorial use (TEU) is the most common type of editorial use. It also has the most complicated rights. TEU is also the type of editorial use that is most likely to lead to disputes. The rights for traditional editorial use are outlined in the following table: Editorial Use License Creative Commons attribution No commercial use No derivatives Share alike Print/online distribution rights Physical distribution rights Publicity rights No resale
Let’s get this out of the way: Editorial use is not free. There’s no such thing as a free lunch in this industry. You earn your money with your creativity. If a company wants to use your images, they have to pay you for them. Now, if a publication or company approaches you and asks to use your image without offering to pay you, you can bet your bottom dollar that they are trying to abuse the editorial use license. This is extremely rare, but it does happen.
Taking advantage of the two types of editorial use (traditional editorial use and royalty-free editorial use) can significantly increase your revenue as a photographer. But you have to be careful because each type of editorial use has a different set of rights, which means that you can earn very different amounts depending on which type of editorial use you choose for your images. The only way to make the most of these rights is to understand exactly what they mean and how they differ from each other. Luckily, that’s what we’ve explained here!
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