OT - Working with News Agencies?

In the past couple weeks I've been contacted by 6 different news agencies, all of which are based out of the UK. They want to sell my Perseids image to newspapers and magazines in the UK. All of them offer a 50/50 split on whatever the sell (except for one offering 60/40).

Has anyone done this before? It seems a bit fishy to me, but maybe this is normal in the UK? It seems as though it would be more lucrative to contact the Sun directly to license, but maybe there is a law preventing this?

David - it might be worth dropping a line to Jon Cornforth (Seattle-based pro wildlife/landscaper, http://www.cornforthimages.com/). He has had images published in the Daily Mail (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1376091/Amazing-images-whales-flight-feed-waters-Alaska.html) that appear to have been sold through a UK agency (http://www.barcroftmedia.com/) and might be prepared to share his experiences.

I don't know Jon personally, but he's always very responsive on Twitter etc.

Hi David, I've done this before (also with Barcroft and Daily Mail). It actually worked out pretty well - it let to a couple spinoff licensing and print sales, on top of the agency's paid fees. What these companies like Barcroft do is they create little pre-packaged "articles" that go along with the photos, then they market the news articles as a ready-to-publish content package. I guess sort of similar to how Associated Press distributes news stories. They also will want to then act as a stock agency for future publications of your work.

HOWEVER, be very careful reading the contract. The company I worked with wanted exclusive worldwide licensing rights (which they didn't mention before sending the contract). But, I asked them to adjust the contract to much narrower geographic and time-limited terms, and it ended up fine.

I've worked with Caters and also had no problem.

Thanks guys, this is great info and I feel comfortable moving forward....I just have to pick one to go with now!