Recession in the USA

Recession in the USA – am I bothered?
It seems everyone in the US is predicting a recession. The UK usually follows the US in this kind of thing, but what does it mean for me as a freelancer?

Well, initially, there’s the weak dollar. This is good and bad. When I sell pictures or video clips in the US, which I do on alamy, Science photo and shutterstock as well as a few other sites, the weak dollar means I get a pitifully small amount of cash. 2 dollars to the pound means I get roughly half of what I’d have got a few years ago.

On the other hand, increasingly the Internet means I can buy goods and services from the states – I can get someone to do a video interview for me, or buy in stock video or photos really cheaply. I can even order computer equipment from the states and get a really good deal.

The other issue is the recession itself. If there’s a UK recession, then how will I be affected as a freelance? Well, you’d think it would be a pretty bad story. It’s easy to get rid of freelancers.

However, in the magazine arena, there are two types of mag- those that depend on sales (so tend to go for anything that will sell more copies) and those that depend on advertising (so tend to go for anything that will increase their standing and reputation for quality).

I tend to work mostly for the 2nd group, which means it matters less if people can’t afford to buy a magazine every month. These ‘prestige’ mags aren’t likely to go under in a recession and any cut-backs will tend to be in in-house staffing, so there’s likely to be more work for me if anything.

In terms of TV documentaries, which I’m branching out into, there will still be the same number of TV channels and although advertising revenue may decrease, this will only lead to more use of bought in programmes like mine.

Illustration may be hardest hit as people prefer to rely on stock pictures rather than specially commissioned work, but then I supply the stock libraries so…




Science photo library
Got my notification of the last 3 months’ sales on Science Photo Library on Friday - £3,000 in royalties should be on its way. I really must do some more pictures for that library. They’re very successful and expanding my range of science pictures is always a good idea.