How do you mean that it is the currency most mags pay with?
How has your experiences been on how magazines pay?...and maybe a couple magazines for example to get a jist of knowing the local trade vs the national/international nice glossy stuff?
The bigger the mag, the less they pay for editorial. Interview pays $0, for example, but goes the extra mile with production. The local and regional mags, like Texas, Los Angeles, etc, pay, rates vary depending on usage. Vibe used to pay $1500 for a cover, but since they rarely paid the invoices, it turns into free.
There is of course usage, and bullshit digital fees (which they may or may not pay), and retouching, which they will always pay, but now a days mags send the shoot to a retoucher rather than the shooter. I used to be able to squeeze $6k out of three page spreads, mainly in retouching and usage.
Never front production fees for a magazine. They pay late, if at all, and you en up holding the bag with a pissed off vendor.
The only reason to shoot editorial is to get commercial jobs. That's it.
What Andre said is right, send a comp card with a link to your site and follow up a few days later with a call.
One word of advice on billing: I know the web is full of photo business experts extolling the virtues of a hard line, nickel and dime approach to billing of digital fees. That's bullshit. Its destructive, poisonous to relationships, which is how you get work. Unless you are Platon or Annie L., a PE is going to look at your line item for RAW processing and call bullshiot on it, show it to everyone in the office, get frustrated, and cross it out with a red pen, and maybe never hire you again. What works better is to take them to lunch and have a drink, for a productive, genuine relationship rather than an adversarial game.
After a few years the game gets old, and harder to play. As print ad budgets plummet and competition for even low end commercial work gets stiffer and stiffer, you have to ask yourself if its worth it. I decided it was a losing battle, as the magazines I shot for folded and catalogue work started degrading from locations and elaborate sets to seamless and static shots. I work in motion now, for the same clients I used to shoot stills. And you know what? I found all that money that was slashed from print budgets: its in web and motion.
