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Crash of the Stalker Press
The price for paparazzi photos is down 31 percent, according to an exclusive Daily Beast survey, Nicole LaPorte reports. Plus, view our gallery of celeb photo prices then and now.
It’s hard to believe that it was a little more than a year ago that People magazine made headlines by forking over $14 million—in partnership with the fabloid Hello!—for the first, exclusive photos of Brad Pitt and Angelina’s newborn twins, Vivienne and Knox. The sale was more than three times what People paid for the couple’s firstborn, Shiloh.
Click Here to See What 10 Classic Paparazzi Photos Sold for Then, and What They Cost Now.
More recently, however, the celebrity media bubble has burst—destroyed by the recession, among other factors—leaving hordes of paparazzi, the agencies that employ them, and the magazines and Web sites that showcase their wares, facing a new, very bleak reality.
The Daily Beast recently quantified just how far the paparazzi market has fallen. Taking a basket of photos sold by the paparazzi agency x17 Inc. during the golden years, 2005 to 2007, we created an index that compared the prices those snapshots fetched then with estimates of what they would garner now. All told, a typical celebrity shot sells for 31 percent less than it did in 2007. The dropoff has been more dramatic at the high end of the market. Six-figure photographs are down more than 50 percent.
“Every day I’d get to work, it was like going to the trading floor,” said one magazine editor, who wished to speak anonymously. “The phones would be ringing, you’d be doing these crazy deals.”
“We had to look through tax papers today,” said Brandy Navarre, herself a symbol of flush times, and co-owner with her husband, Francois Navarre, of x17. (The couple was featured prominently in an Atlantic Monthly cover story in March 2008.) “We were looking at forms from 2007 and my husband was almost crying. You can’t believe the checks that were coming in, in ‘07 versus now what we’re getting. It’s a different world.”
It’s a world in which Nicole Richie is the mother of two; Britney Spears is, astonishingly, under control; and Lindsay Lohan (whose troubles continue) has become so ubiquitous that she’s devalued her market value.
“Lindsay photos are not rare to get,” Navarre said. “She doesn’t really hide. So unless she does something really surprising or sensational—snorting coke, kissing Samantha—her images are between $500 and $1000.”
It’s also a world in which magazines are spending far more cautiously, as opposed to tossing money at every picture of an Olsen twin leaving her apartment.
“We make smart investments,” said Mark Pasetsky, managing editor of the American version of OK! magazine, which, earlier this year, was reportedly losing half a million dollars a week.
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Nicole LaPorte is a West Coast reporter for The Daily Beast. A former film reporter for Variety, she has also written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Observer, and W.
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Nicole LaPorte is a West Coast reporter for The Daily Beast. A former film reporter for Variety, she has also written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Observer, and W.
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Nicole LaPorte is a West Coast reporter for The Daily Beast. A former film reporter for Variety, she has also written for The New Yorker, the Los Angeles Times Magazine, The New York Times, The New York Observer, and W.
my3sons
Would it not be great if it was not the economy but us evolving?
tedbrandy
I agree.
meh1100
I agree. This is one industry I would love to see fall apart.
Granite
What if we became actively involved in our own lives and the lives of those in it? Might knock the Earth off its axis! LOL!
djanimaequeen
Imagine that. People more interested in topics with substance.
Americans are stuggling right now to make ends meet and live their lives. Who gives a rats ass about pampered out of touch celebrites? It's about time I'd say.
sophia5
Maybe wishful thinking.
Maybe it's a combination of people trying to pay their bills,
and just burned out by the same old recycled
Paris, Britney, Tom & Katy, Brad & Angelina ?
CarrieAnn
TV killed the print gossip rag. And the photography market was introduced to supply and demand. New photogs and agencies popped up that were willing to sell at lower prices, and then the economy tanked and the rags could no longer afford the higher price tags. All combined to create the current climate. There's a special unemployment line for papparazzi.
tablloyd
ok! is the american version of ok!-not the american version of hello. getting a basic fact wrong early in the story makes one question the rest of the article-particularly photo prices. it's in the best interests of the paparazzi to inflate their prices for public consumption.
roger55
Where is our law . This is called stalking . And who care,s about a bunch of self centerd brat,s anyway ???
kevefx
It is X17 who has single handedly destroyed the industry. Their under the table employment of illegal aliens and ex cons have created a new aggressive pap that doesn't belong on the streets let alone in a business. They have recently released all these guys from employment and they have turned to desperate measures to make a buck in this imploded industry. 15 guys on Brittany that have nothing to work on now. They have turned to Jennifer Garner whos only crime and misbehavior is being a mom. Yet these guys treat her the same as the old Brittany. They even follow the kids around, by themselves. How messed up is that. I feel so bad for her. X17 is the devil for the entertainment industry. If that company was never created we would not be writing this article. New laws have been implemented to try and control these Savages of the streets but how do you control a wild animal??? These guys have also resorted to doing cash deals because their illegal status wont let them be employed legally. Bringing all prices down. You do the math... Meanwhile the Photojournalists have been mixed with these criminals and are treated the same. People who have families to care for, who respect the law, this business and the Celebes themselves. Weed out the scum bags that X17 has created and maybe things can go back to normal. X17's greed and the greed of their tactics through photogs has ruined this business. DO NOT BLAME IT ON THE ECONOMY REGIS!!! I could go on but I think you get the idea. If you want to know about the industry, talk to people who drive the industry not the people who kill it. Its all lies!
Gloriapine
I wonder if the rise of Twitter & Facebook has anything to do with it. I would bet people are spending more time keeping tabs on people they know (or celebs they feel like they know via Twitter) than on people they have no personal relationship with.
I'd bet that many Facebook addicts would agree it's a lot more interesting to get friend status updates than see ridiculously cliched celebrity street, airport or red carpet flicks, read information of questionable veracity or bother themselves with talent-lacking C celebrities.
ChinLee3
Remember when celebrities were know for talent and not their latest nipple slip?
Thank you.
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