Editorial Images

When people refer to editorial images, they are actually talking about the useage of the image. Editorial use of an image refers to when an image is used in an editorial manner – showing something that is newsworthy, of public interest, or educational. This means the image is not used to gain any commercial benefit by either the photographer or user/licensee.

Generally speaking, unlike regular stock photos – which are used for commercial purposes, editorial photos used in ways that are informational or educational in nature. Editorial stock images are most often used to show real life situations – in magazines, newspapers, informational periodicals and electronic media, educational materials, etc.

Reading newspaper (file#:a58225)

Unlike regular stock photos, images used for editorial purposes do not require model or property releases. However, they may not be used in any illegal or defamatory way; they can not be incorporated in a logo, trademark or service mark; and they must be accompanied by a credit adjacent to the image (credits are usually in the following format: photographer’s name/stock agency name).

A key to selling editorial images is to include accurate captions/descriptions with your photos. Editorial image usage is based on illustrating an idea/concept or topic, or to show things that are hard to describe accurately with words. Buyers looking for images for editorial use are dependent on your caption/description to understand what your image is depicting.

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