Breaking our editorial standards isn’t worth fighting the 13Fest crowds for a picture of sweaty students and performers.
We’ve decided not to send a photographer or videographer to “13Fest.” That’s because the contract the event organizers wanted members of the media to sign is unreasonable, broad and, frankly, it goes against our journalistic integrity.
News personnel covering the event, including photographers, videographers and reporters, are required to agree to the following terms:
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“You shall own the copyright to all media you’ve created and shall have the exclusive right to make reproductions; but not sell them for personal profit. Prime Social Group reserves the right to have any photos or videos taken at the event, by you or anyone else to be removed from the internet and any other form of publication. Refusal (sic) to (sic) comply WILL result in in legal action and a ban on all future Prime Social Group events.”
Content produced by Post journalists belongs to The Post and its employees. If we choose to sell the content, we solely have the right to do so — a profit that’s split between the publication and photographers. We’re not taking the photographs if we can’t use them as we please.
Post content is also published at staff members’ discretion. We choose where content goes and how it is displayed. We don’t publish content someone has the right to take down.
And we’re not interested in lawsuits.
We have agreed to similar Number Fest media restrictions in the past — to a fault — in order to cover an event that is important to students.
So we’re going to do things a little differently this year. We will purchase two tickets for our reporters to attend the event. They will write about what they see and how the crowd reacts to the musical acts. Any interviews they conduct with festgoers and authorities will be conducted outside the venue. Our photographers will look to capture images of students en route to the fest, but we won’t have any images from the event grounds.
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Breaking our editorial standards isn’t worth fighting the 13Fest crowds for pictures of sweaty students and performers.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of The Post's executive editors: editor-in-chief Jim Ryan, managing editor Sara Jerde and projects editor Allan Smith. Post editorials are independent of the publication's news coverage.
