JohnPeel

Good luck with your proposal Razz but first a little explanation to my last post. Seems you might have to do your homework a little bit more. So Kent News Agency spent a minimum of £5000 sending staff over to Thailand and lost it? And Drummond got the story? What does that tell you? The Kent News Agency can only dream of what they didnt get, i guess.

Drummond undercharged? I doubt it. If he used a PI I am sure that man was rewarded too.

You also appear not to know Simon at Red Door News. You really have to study the news situation in Asia a little bit more. Journalists have come and gone. Even good ones from Fleet St. Andy Chant I understand also works for Splash and Big Pictures!

Also most of London if not Bangkok knows that Andy Drummond and Andy Chant tracked down Gary Glitter for NotW.

But if you intend to come to make a living in Thailand for the tabloids prepare for a lot of flack. And here on ThaiVisa.com too.

And of course the problems about being pro-active is that like Drummond you get sued for libel.

You didn't understand my post.

A KNP photographer was sent on order by the NOTW to come to Thailand to work with Drummond, who was also on order. "On order" the newspaper will pick up your expenses. They might also pay you "extra" on what result's you get.

Maybe Drummond got load's of money for getting a result...maybe he didn't. But he certainly didn't approach the NOTW with the story"in the bag" and sell it.

Chant and Drummond tracked down Glitter with a NOTW snapper called Rod Todd...Ask him what he think's about them

As to your second point, I certainly don't profess to know Asia or Thailand all that well. A news or photo agency is just an idea.

Chant & Drummond have been there over 10 years...of course they'd know what they're doing... I didn't say they didn't.

But maybe someone can do it it differently

RAZZ

You're clearly a snapper as opposed to a writer from your references to paparrazi work u wish to do here. Snappers are not usually the best informed when stories are going down . There is no way the News of the World would send a news agency from Kent to do the Bigley story when they can send their own staff. (They did) There is no way AD would work with Kent News Agency in Thailand. The idea is preposterous. And if Ron Todd was working with Andrew Drummond where are his pictures of Gary Glitter???!!!

I suspect you have no staff experience in Fleet St but more likely a freelance who has spents few weeks here listening to bar room stuff.

The News of the World had stuff in Vietnam who were pulled out and replaced by Andrew Drummond and Andrew Chant. Then they got the result. The NoW photog involved may have got a b..ll..ck...g. I dont know.

Publicity stunt following tourist murders?

I perused this thread with the sole intent of seeing how TV posters could twist it to put Thailand and it's people in a negative light, as that seems to be the favorite pastime of most, and I wasn't disappointed. Thank you Tony.

The point being the fact that a taxi driver returns cash to a customer who mistakenly left it would hardly rate a news story outside Thailand. This is Thai journalism telling the world 'We are honest!'. The story tellers seem a little suprised themselves.

One of the biggest problems with dealing with overseas media that you haven't dealt with before is getting paid.

When Douglas shot Poretsky in Chiang Mai I contacted media in Hawaii who I haven't dealt with before with a news alert.

The alert outlined what had happened and asked if anyone wanted material.

Shayne Enright from KITV, who I gather is the director of news there, emailed back asking what was available.

Over the day I had shot and cut down to a 4 minute tape the:-

Scene of the shooting

Hotel where the victim was staying

Chiang Mai police headquarters

Interview with the shooter - He says on tape when asked why he shot Mr Poretsky, "I didn't like him"

Chiang Mai court house

Chiang Mai prison

This included smuggling a camera into the police cells to get the taped confession. I had also written the story and had hi-res stills.

Shayne Enright asked for this to be sent. Which it was. He also asked for the hi-res still and the editorial. By this stage it had run to an 18-hour day - including talking to the stations reporters..

The next day the shooter was in court. KITV didn't want any more vision and said to send an invoice.

I sent them a standard day shoot invoice of $700 due in 7 days.

After receiving the invoice Shayne Enright emailed back saying that they only pay their stringers $150 for vision.

Well I'm not one of their stringers and for the shoot I had to pay translators, transport and internet transmission charges. On this score $150 doesn't even cover my operating costs, let alone standing costs.

It's purely ridiculous and the first time I've come across this.

I offered KITV4 a discount of $200 but Shayne Enright just emailed back saying that's what they pay and that's it.

The material is still on KITV4s website and KITV Hawaii won't pay.

Just a question. Did you news alert also include the price you were expecting? My experience both as a freelancer and when employing freelancers is to always state the costs before commissioning a piece or starting to write one. I don't think any news organisation is going to say 'go ahead, do this story' without knowing the potential costs, and even more so with someone they've not dealt with. Similarly I would never consider commissioning, for example, a photographer in the U.S., without first agreeing costs.

No it didn't contain the costs. It had the outline of the story and the when they responded with interest they were told what was going to be shot on the day. A five location shoot.

It actually worked out better than planned because I got a camera into the police cells were the shooter said on tape that he shot the tourist because "I didn't like him" ... "he was crazy".

The Aussie stations (and papers) asked how much for the package and some agreed and some declined.

KITV4 and KGMB9 were told the contents of the material and both just said "send it".

The Aussie media have all paid. KITV4 Hawaii won't pay. KGMB9 Hawai haven't paid as yet either.

Thing is, it's not the buyer who sets the price. They might set the level they are prepared to pay up to but the seller is the one who sets the price. No use going to the Honda dealer and grabbing a car and saying send me an invoice and then complaining about the cost afterwards.

It's also not like they are being charged above market rates.

But it highlights the problems of setting up an agency in Thailand. A legal judgement in Thailand worries who?

The nice thing here is that the use of the unpaid vision is a breach of copyright and leaves the station open to prosecution by the US District Attorney and fines of $40,000 for each use of the material.

As it's still on their website "each use" could be deemed each visit to that website.

As a former bureau chief, COS and editor, I have fairly realistic expectations of how much I'm going to pay for a photo, text or vision when buying and how much its worth when selling.

$150 for cat up a treee rescue maybe, but I don't expect to pay that for Burmese soldiers shooting monks or plane crash and survivor vision and stories or material from halfway around the world that someone spends a day or more working on.

Dealing with media outside the main broadcasters, or newspaper publishers in the US is rarely worth it. They do not have a freelance culture. You're probably going to have to bite the bullet on this one as there will not be many stories here with a Hawaii link. Had you asked them what they were willing to pay in the first instance you would probably have been gobsmacked. Cheer up, your day will come.

However, with all due respect to Chant and Drummond...they're not exactly proactive. When Ken Bigley was kidnapped in Iraq, the News of the World put Drummond on order to find his Thai wife. A mate of mine was sent over for Kent News and Pictures.

Drummond got onto his PI, found her and they had it in the bag within a few days. The result - a NOTW splash - for a couple of shifts as opposed to £10k or more if you'd done it yourself.

Although I don't know this guy...I like what he's been up to:

http://www.reddoornews.com/

E.g, first interview with Dr Hasnat Khan (ex bf of Princess Diana) and first live pics of Gary Glitter.

And just to add I'm no Rupert Murdoch or Mark Getty...But I wouldn't mind being one one day

RAZZ

P.S. It'd be interesting to meet up for a beer next time I'm in BKK.

Good luck with your proposal Razz but first a little explanation to my last post. Seems you might have to do your homework a little bit more. So Kent News Agency spent a minimum of £5000 sending staff over to Thailand and lost it? And Drummond got the story? What does that tell you? The Kent News Agency can only dream of what they didnt get, i guess.

Drummond undercharged? I doubt it. If he used a PI I am sure that man was rewarded too.

You also appear not to know Simon at Red Door News. You really have to study the news situation in Asia a little bit more. Journalists have come and gone. Even good ones from Fleet St. Andy Chant I understand also works for Splash and Big Pictures!

Also most of London if not Bangkok knows that Andy Drummond and Andy Chant tracked down Gary Glitter for NotW.

But if you intend to come to make a living in Thailand for the tabloids prepare for a lot of flack. And here on ThaiVisa.com too.

And of course the problems about being pro-active is that like Drummond you get sued for libel.

However, there's a whole plethora of local and regional news outlet's who do care about a pissed-up holiday maker dying in a car crash/topping himself over a bargirl/getting arrested for drug smuggling.

And all those £50, $50, €50 can add up

I think there's obviously room for generic "asian lifestyle pics" as well.

£50, $50, €50 would do the trick for... a freelancer, right ?

However, it could be possible to play the "syndication" through the nationality card.

A freelancer has usually some personal connexions on its native market, in some news rooms, magazines, with some editors etc.

Let's take an english speaking freelancer. He can produce a story, but he won't be able to sell it easilly...in France, Germany etc.

So why not imagine a kind of association of people, coming from various western countries. They could syndicate their work, and bring to the association their connexions, commercial contacts from their own country. And translation/adaptation work would be easy for them, accurate and fast to do.

This scheme could bring what usually is missing : volume.

Proximity, i think is a key word for business, all kind of business.

If we put on the side superstars (big names) and large organizations... a french editor for instance from a small or medium magazine won't bother to deal with a "foreign" journalist. And again, it's unlikely that the "foreign" journalist would be able, alone, to put a foot on the french market.

Voila, just an idea. En passant.

That is EXACTLY they way I was thinking. Great mind's think alike

Language skill's and a knowledge of various market's would be paramount to making a go of it.

Also, if you said you were XYZ agency based in Bangkok, with an all-sing, all-dancing website, all of a sudden you have a certain gravitas...It doesn't particularly matter that you're a few guy's with mac's and a couple of digi cameras. It's the perception that count's.

And volume is the key. You can produce 1000 news photo's, or 10 features that go nowhere. But if you have 1 big hit...you've cracked it...

Right...who's got the first pic of the Udon Thani man who married a snake?

RAZZ

Whoah dont think many people are going to buy the Udon Thani man married to a snake. Also think your comments about Andrew Chant and Andrew Drummond not being pro-active are way off the mark. They can also command very high prices as they did over the Ken Bigley story

Abusive and insulting posts and their subsequent responses have been deleted. Please do not resort to insults in order to make a point.

As for the editing of the title, until there is a confirmed news source, someone saying they heard from the consul is just not verifiable. Per admin regulations concerning these kinds of posts.

Hearing from the consul seems a pretty good source to me