Interesting thread guys. I'm hoping I can add a little to the mix. I can certainly understand the some of the frustrations here... so I'll just add my two pennies worth.
I'm a freelance photographer - but I've been regularly contributing to two weekly local newspapers for the last two years - they usually run between 6-8 of my photos each week of sporting events in Essex.
The papers both have staff photographers and use a pool of freelancers. The only way I managed to build my reputation was through being pro-active, professional and by building a relationship with the two sports editors in question.
I think the key word here is 'news' - with local papers in particular, it's not always the very best shot that gets published, it's the shot that fits in with the story - better still, it's the news-worthy shot that becomes the headline for the story.
Also, if I submitted as many as 10 similar photos to my editor, I'd get roasted. He simply doesn't have time to browse through that many shots of the average event. If they are going to use 2 shots from a game, I submit 5 or 6 pictures of diverse action with FULL CAPTIONS in the IPTC data. It helps the editors to have good captions as that again saves them time when putting the paper together. It also means that your images are searchable when held on file and can be used as 'stock' pictures at a later date - i.e. more potential revenue.
It's right to say that local paper photogs get assigned to events. However, if you're proactive, you can (to an extent) pick and choose the events you want to cover. I e-mail in a possible schedule for the following weekend every Monday morning based on my location, teams I regularly cover and try to include a diverse range of sports... Again this saves the editor some work and more often than not, my schedule is accepted. Bear in mind also that the staff photogs would like to have the weekend off - so a pro-active freelancer can be a good thing - as long as the paper has a reasonable budget.
I started off wanting to cover my local team but as soon as I broadened my horizons a little, it opened up a good market for me.The more venues and sports you can cover, the more business cards you can hand out, the more people that see your face, the more opportunities there are to sell those other shots that the paper doesn't use. And, like I said above, those other shots are likely to be your 'better' ones!
If you take a look at my website www.tgsphoto.co.uk
you can get an idea of the kind of events I've been covering recently.
The key point is to keep plugging away, the opportunities will come - don't submit too many shots, caption them well, think 'news' and be proactive.
Good luck!
) but these three photos would have fit much better with the retelling of the game.
