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Tribune Interactive Creates Photo Galleries Using Creative Commons Images from Flickr

Posted by Will Sullivan at 7:20 AM on Jul. 2, 2009

[UPDATE: Tribune Interactive has removed a photo in one of these galleries -- the image we used for our home page illustration -- because it appears to have been altered. Read more here.]

Most newspaper Web sites have user-generated photo galleries, for which the organization passively solicits photos from the audience on different topics and local events. Tribune Interactive has taken user-generated content to a more proactive level this year, by seeking out photos posted on Flickr, a popular photo sharing site owned by Yahoo, and then posting them to topical galleries on Tribune Web sites, such as this "Top Ranked Universities in the United States" gallery.

The photos are licensed under a Creative Commons license, which is a popular copyright doctrine for Web content, controlled by the content creator. Flickr allows users to tag individual photos or whole galleries with different Creative Commons levels of restrictions, from no commercial usage to only attribution required (which is the most common license for photos used by Tribune).

Brandi Larsen, director of content for Tribune Interactive, said in an e-mail interview, "One of the things that bloggers do well is to find cool content, package it and repurpose it. That's what our department does with ... content. For us, it was a natural leap to look outside our front doors and see what else is happening in cyberspace."

Larsen said they've been using photos from Flickr for the better half of the year and that the content is shared across the entire Tribune network of newspaper, TV and radio sites. "We made a newsroom decision to use Flickr to fill out content that we couldn't get from other sources."

She said the recent "Awkward Tombstones" gallery has been one of their top 10 traffic drivers since it was created.

Larsen said that they hadn't contacted any of the photographers whose work they used in that gallery, but they've never run across a photographer who did not want them to use their work. "When we contact them, the photographers are often really excited and happy to see their work on our Web sites."

This rings true, at least from the two Flickr photographers who responded to my messages.

Tijl Vercaemer, known on Flickr as "Skender," had a photo of his included at #21 in the Tribune "Awkward Tombstones" gallery.

Vercaemer, an electronics engineer from Gent, Belgium, said he sees several benefits for creative commons content:

The benefit of CC for publishers seems obvious to me: free content. I work as a volunteer for a small magazine and although we create most of our content ourselves, we sometimes use CC pictures. For content creators who are not interested in making money out of their content, the benefit of CC is that their work reaches more people and they get more feedback on it. I'm not sure about the benefits for people who try to make a living out of their content, but in some cases I guess it could generate good publicity. In my case, I take pictures anyway, so if they can be useful to someone else, that's nice. Also, CC pictures attract more visitors to my Flickr page and more visitors means more response. And it's interesting for me to hear what people do or do not like about my pictures."

Brian Wright, known on Flickr as "BaronBrian," is another photographer whose work was included in the "Awkward Tombstones" gallery (photos #11 and 13).

Wright works days in an Oklahoma City call center and said he's been improving his portfolio as a semi-pro photographer on Flickr. When I contacted him through Flickr mail he was unaware that Tribune had used his photo and responded, "I'm a little flattered it's been used, although I do know that one of the reasons it was probably used was because it was free."

"For me, it was just a way of giving back a little," Wright said. "I've been online for years and seen lots of free media that really spoke to me, entertained me and in a few rare cases even moved me. So when I found out about Flickr I felt like to go Creative Commons was a way to pay it forward to the online community so that others could see my work and do what they would with it. Honestly, if I never sold a single work I'd still do it because I love it."

So what does all this mean to the professionals who have that same passion, but also try to make a living from their work?

When asked what internal Tribune staff (specifically photographers) thought about this, Larsen said, "The internal feedback from across the network has been universally positive."

Three Tribune staff photographers I contacted declined to comment.

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