Author Topic: Editorial vs Commercial earnings (Read 1680 times)

ribtoks · « **on:** June 06, 2024, 01:19 »

Hey folks

We've worked together with Steve Heap to analyze how much editorial photos were earning versus commercial over the years and agencies.

Here's Steve's version: https://backyardsilver.com/what-sells-best-editorial-or-commercial-stock-photography/ (it also compares between photos/videos)

and here's Xpiks version: https://xpiksapp.com/blog/editorial-vs-commercial/ (updated with per-category analysis)

Editorial content kind of has it's place and might be more relevant in the "AI future". Did you see a somewhat similar picture in your earnings (if you track them)?

cascoly · « **Reply #1 on:** June 06, 2024, 13:10 »

my SS portfolio is heavily weighted towards editorial esp'ly since SS requires editorial submission when there's just a few people in the deep background (AS often accepts these where people are incidental to the image subject)

when traveling I often shoot tourist activities - guides talking to their group, cafes, street scenes, etc and emphasizing my fascination exploring markets with many shots of interactions, esp'ly the anachronistic sight of people for gods with brightly colored paper (most recently the most incredible seafood market I've ever seen in Cadiz and a huge 2 storied stadium-like market in Uzbekistan and was dominated by stalls selling horse - one ribs would be a complete meal )

i haven't done the detailed analysis Steven did, but just judging from a back-of-the-envelope view of recent at sales , my editorial sales are in the 30-40% range on SS, and may reflect the continued dominance by a factor of 2-3 for SS vs AS. my SS portfolio is much larger than AS but that's mostly due to AS not accepting editorial.

RalfLiebhold · « **Reply #2 on:** June 06, 2024, 14:50 »

Like Steve, I don't analyse everything statistically in detail. At Adobe, 8 of the first 10 best sellers are editorials. The same ratio applies to the other agencies.

Especially with regard to AI images, I see a competitive advantage in editorials.
Editorials are not so easy to reproduce and offer significantly more possibilities for individual keywording than, for example, a simple landscape shot.

Here's an example to illustrate this. I have several hundred commercial landscape images of the Chilean Atacama Desert. My bestselling image is one of the few editorials (there really aren't that many editorial motifs in the desert either

):

ribtoks · « **Reply #3 on:** June 07, 2024, 03:01 »

Quote from: RalfLiebhold on June 06, 2024, 14:50

At Adobe, 8 of the first 10 best sellers are editorials. The same ratio applies to the other agencies.

This is kind of interesting, given that Adobe is way more restrictive on editorial categories, than, literally, all other agencies.

Injustice for all · « **Reply #4 on:** June 07, 2024, 04:56 »

editorials are about 9% of my portfolio on Adobe and accounted for about 12% of my total sales.

on SS I sell 5 times more editorials compared to Adobe,usually at lower prices than Adobe,but not always.

among my 50 best sellers on Adobe 10 are editorials.

I also want to add that one of the most important differences regarding editorial between Adobe and SS is creativity.

on Adobe you can be more creative with editorials,while SS is more traditional in editorials,or more retro-style if you prefer.

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Author Topic: Editorial vs Commercial earnings (Read 1680 times)

ribtoks

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