Thanks for the info! And I did forget about the US-to Canadian exchange
rate.
Jim
----- Original Message -----
From: Mike Johnston <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2001 9:48 AM
Subject: Photo Life Magazine contest: Is it a scam ?
> Jim wrote:
>
> > I should acknowledge that the prizes being offered in this contest are
very
> > nice. Nevertheless, with the kind of sponsors listed (Nikon, Lowepro,
> > Mamiya, etc.) the magazine should be able to afford running a contest
> > without charging that much to entrants. Of course, maybe I'm just
ignorant
> > of the ways of good old Amer-uh, I mean Canadian business! :)
>
>
> I can speak to this a bit, since I ran several contests for _Photo
> Techniques_. First off, the prizes are donated, but the sponsors don't
> provide any money beyond the prizes. It's relatively cheap for sponsors to
> provide prizes because they're only out their own cost, often a fraction
of
> retail, and they can charge it to their PR budgets, and the exposure is
> generally a lot cheaper than an ad.
>
> It does cost the magazine quit a bit to run a contest. The man-hours spent
> opening, sorting, acknowledging, judging, and returning all the entries is
> significant. (_Camera & Darkroom_ used to run a contest every month, and
had
> a staffer just to deal with all the entries. The contest that was being
run
> at the time the magazine folded was a "postcard" contest, and I understand
> crates full of postcards were thrown in the dumpster--along with all the
> back issues (!)--when LFP shut the offices down.)
>
> However, my position as editor was that photographers shouldn't
participate
> in "opportunities" that amount to a rip-off. We never ran contest
> announcements in the "News & Products" section, for instance, if the
contest
> required an entry fee. A lot of contests, juried shows, and pay-to-publish
> books are simply ways of making money for the organizers. I was always
> adamant that with our contests, the payoff was reader involvement with the
> magazine and goodwill, and that we should practice what we preach and not
> ask for an entry fee.
>
> However, with the last contest that was underway when I quit, we were
asking
> for an entry fee. The new "Director of Marketing" at the time was always
> looking for new ways to turn a buck, and insisted on an entry fee. I
wanted
> no fee. I lost.
>
> I did argue the amount down quite a bit, though.
>
> I strongly feel that magazines should run contests because of the
intangible
> benefits they get from doing so, or they shouldn't run contests at all. It
> shouldn't be a question of grubbing up a few extra thousand dollars.
>
> But that's just me--and I'm sure it's yet one more reason why I'm
publishing
> a scrappy little newsletter and no longer in the commercial magazine
> business <rueful smile>.
>
> --Mike
>
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