A SURVEY OF MARKETS

What follows is no attempt to list and cla.s.sify existing markets, but to offer a generalized survey of magazine needs by cla.s.s. While the success of the small-town press-photographer is not in proportion to his city's size, the magazines which find their ways to him month after month do not disclose the whole field of markets to him. He needs something more--something to reveal to him the broad needs of magazines. This chapter has as its mission the summarizing of the needs of magazines of every cla.s.s.

Thus, photographs taken all over the world, showing the beauty and commerce of the old and new eras, are eagerly sought by several magazines. _Travel_, 7 West Sixteenth Street, New York, wants photographs of out-of-the-way places, unusual methods of producing world necessities, and photographs of general travel interest.

The same may be said of the _National Geographic Magazine_, though the photographs and articles used by this publication are so specialized and exhaustive that it is rarely a free-lance writer can supply their needs--for they maintain their own staff of writers and explorers.

However, if you are able to catch vivid photographs of wide travel interest, here is a most excellent market.

If you are interested in picturing homes, _Country Life_, _Garden Magazine_ and _House Beautiful_ are waiting for your prints. These magazines are very artistic and use only the best work; but they are interested in unusual gardens, beautiful lawns, landscaping, interior decorating. A house remodelled from a common building to an unusual or striking residence will find ready sale to them if photographs of the "before and after" variety are offered. Nature, sport, and building in the country are the specialty of _Country Life_, Garden City, New York; _Garden Magazine_ is interested in nothing but gardens and ornamental horticulture, preferably of the personal experience trend. Same address as _Country Life_. _House Beautiful_, 3 Park Street, Boston, wants photographs of unusual types of interior decorating and landscape architecture. What a wealth of material a well-kept, modern home contains! Owners should readily give consent to photograph if the photographer explains his purpose.

_Arts and Decoration_, 470 Fourth Avenue, New York, also uses garden and house material, but runs also to the arts. Photographs of architecture, interior decorating, etc., here find another market.

So it is with the broad field of country-life magazines generally, as an example. House furnishing and "before and after" remodelling pictures are easily obtained and easily sold if well done.

Every cla.s.s of magazines uses photographs: Literary magazines, Women's, Farm journals, Juvenile, Religious, Outdoor, Photographic, Theatrical, Musical, Art, and Trade publications. The following notes generalize the needs of each of these fields.

GENERAL MAGAZINES

This excludes most fiction magazines; those which do use photographic ill.u.s.trations buy the work of professional studios already established and perhaps specializing in that type of ill.u.s.trating. The beginner may develop into one of these ill.u.s.trators--many magazines use them, as _Love Stories_, _Cosmopolitan_ for special articles, _National Pictorial Monthly_, etc.,--but these markets are not open to the free-lance photographer.

_Current History_, Times Building, New York, New York, is an example of a news-magazine which uses timely photographs of wide interest.

_The Literary Digest_ is of similar nature, but this second magazine does not buy photographs from the open market.

The Curtis Publishing Company occasionally uses photographs of a scenic or artistic nature as fillers. These magazines comprise _The Sat.u.r.day Evening Post_, _The Ladies' Home Journal_, _The Country Gentleman_.

These are always available, and a glance through several numbers of each will disclose the type of photograph wanted.

_Grit_, Williamsport, Pennsylvania, uses many photographs, and short articles written around them. This publication wants common, human-interest subjects treated carefully.

The needs of _The Ill.u.s.trated World_, _Popular Mechanics_ and _Popular Science_ have been made very clear in previous portions of this book.

_The Scientific American_ always wants photographs of new inventions of wide interest, accompanied by brief articles. Address 233 Broadway, New York, New York.

_Physical Culture_, 119 West 40th Street, New York, New York, always wants photographs of persons having splendid physical development. A glance through this magazine will disclose the types of poses desired.

Straight front, back, etc., views are never used; action in the picture is essential.

WOMEN'S MAGAZINES

These magazines use generally pictures of home improvements, remodelling of residences, flower gardens of unusual variety, and use short ill.u.s.trated articles on house-building, interior decoration, rugs, gardens, domestic science, etc. The magazines listed below are only a few of the many which use photographs and ill.u.s.trated articles of interest to women.

_The Ladies' Home Journal_, Philadelphia, Pa.; the _Woman's Home Companion_, New York; the _Delineator_, New York, and _Good Housekeeping_, New York, are all generally fiction magazines with a homey flavor which do not offer a good market for separate photographs or short ill.u.s.trated articles, although they are in the market for suitable material of this sort, in a limited way. Others are:

_American Cookery_, 221 Columbia Ave., Boston.

_Better Times_, 70 Fifth Ave., New York.

_Canadian Home Journal_, 71 Richmond St., West, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

_Farm and Home_, Springfield, Ma.s.s.

_Mother's Magazine_, 180 No. Wabash Ave., Chicago.

_New England Homestead_, Springfield, Ma.s.s.

_Vogue_, 19 West 44th St., New York, uses exclusive photographs of society in New York, Newport, etc.; photographs of handsome homes of well-known society people, beautiful and unusual gardens, etc.

_Woman's Weekly_, 431 So. Dearborn St., Chicago, uses short articles of home interest, ill.u.s.trated.

FARM JOURNALS

The needs of farm journals are specific. They form an important division of published magazines, and a large one which uses a great amount of material. Articles on farm improvements, etc., are always used, and photographs also. A conjunction of the two, in an ill.u.s.trated article, forms a much more marketable commodity. The farm work is composed of many divisions--agriculture, bee culture, botany, breeding, cheese-making, etc. The following are a representative few of the agricultural markets which are always buying material:

_American Agriculturist_, 315 Fourth Ave., New York.

_American Bee Journal_, Hamilton, Ill.

_American Botanist_, Joliet, Ill.

_American Breeder_, 225 West 12th St., Kansas City, Mo.

_American Farming_, 537 So. Dearborn St., Chicago.

_American Forestry_, 1410 H St., Washington, D.C.

_American Fruit Grower_, State Lake Bldg., Chicago.

_American Poultry Journal_, 542 So. Dearborn St., Chicago.

_American Seedsman_, Chicago, Ill.

_Bean-Bag_, Syndicate Trust Bldg., St. Louis, Mo., is devoted to the bean industry.

_Canadian Countryman_, 154 Simcoe St., Toronto, Ontario, Canada; material of Canadian interest.

_Country Gentleman_, Independence Square, Philadelphia.

_Dairy Farmer_, Waterloo, Iowa.

_Farm and Fireside_, 381 Fourth Ave., New York.

_Farm Journal_, Philadelphia, Pa.

_The Horse World_, 1028-30 Marine Bldg., Buffalo, New York.