Photo Ten Five Launches
Jain Lemos
Jain Lemos is a New York Times No. 1 bestselling book producer, noted photography publishing expert, author and innovator.
Photo Ten Five Launches
Photography News Portal Launched to Help Photographers Increase their Business; Founder Jain Lemos wants the industry to make more money; come together in one place. Note: The original format of Photo Ten Five was replaced in April 2019.
Photo Ten Five is an innovative venture that aims to relay relevant news to an audience primed for all things photography. This includes news and information helping professional—and even amateur—photographers increase their income. Photo Ten Five’s structure displays headlines linking to photography news, making information easily accessible and usable.
Founder Jain Lemos, a New York Times No. 1 bestselling photo book producer, is uniquely suited to head the endeavor. An industry influencer, she is drawing on 30 years in photography and publishing, working with top creative teams at Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount Pictures, HarperCollins, Chronicle Books, National Geographic and Lonely Planet. She is using her inside access and knowledge to deliver exactly what photo people are interested in.
“There are countless websites devoted to various aspects of photography, but none use simple, tailored headline linking to show relevant news and information at-a-glance,” she explains. Lemos says that all news is curated, stressing that Photo Ten Five is not an aggregate site. “I want to empower photographers and everyone in our industry with a wide range of topics and inspiration so they can access it for use in their own businesses.”
“It’s like having my own researcher on staff! Of course, visiting the site is a bit of a trap—I can’t help but keep scrolling for more,” says American Photographic Artists’ executive director Juliette Wolf-Robin. “With Jain’s wide industry experience and passion, she’s the perfect person to know what to include. I’ve bookmarked the page.”
“I want to empower photographers and everyone in our industry.”
JAIN LEMOS
Photo above of Jain Lemos during a lecture on producing books © 2018 Steven St. John.
Lemos sees Photo Ten Five as an opportunity to unite all of the players in a quickly changing landscape. “We’ve seen a lot of disruption and keeping up with developments is exhausting, especially developments that can help your business make more money (or hurt it).” she says. Name recognition is another key benefit and photographers are called out in headlines wherever possible.
The idea was hatched several years ago, but going head-to-head with giant rivals who have greater name recognition kept putting her off. Finally, she convinced herself she could do it so she just sat down and started. “Jain is always taking on things just above her perceived skill set, which is a requirement of flow,” says Rob Portil, TED Conference organizer and Orbital Web founder.
Initial traffic to Photo Ten Five is impressive. In the first 14 days, the site received more than 4,000 page views with an average session duration of more than four minutes. (A 2017 Content Marketing Benchmark report covering various industries discovered that the average session duration came out to 2 minutes and 17 seconds, with the healthcare sector leading the pack.)
Active photographers and editors asked to survey the site indicated that most of the linked stories were new to them, meaning Photo Ten Five is curating news and stories they aren’t regularly seeing on the original platforms. They enjoyed reading down the site’s headlines in all three columns and clicked through when the story sounded interesting.
Gary Crabbe, award-winning travel photographer, author and instructor says the headlines are very easy to scroll down and read. “I’ve definitely gone ahead and bookmarked the site on both my desktop and phone for easy access.”
The name of the venture comes from official communication codes. “We racked our brains thinking of a name that wasn’t already taken,” Lemos explains. Using the word photo was non-negotiable, so moving to numbers was the next step. She suggested trying radio codes and looking at the list, ten-five jumped out, which means ‘relay message’.
The attraction is for readers to submit news about their own endeavors to gain referral traffic. Virtually everyone wants clicks to their sites, so starting at Photo Ten Five means their stories will be seen by a more targeted audience. The site links to the original content or source of the article and doesn’t rewrite articles or reproduce stories in their entirety.
Photo Ten Five is geared for photographers, equipment manufacturers, photo technology and app developers, stock photo agencies, photo associations and organizations, photo tour leaders, photography educators, galleries, industry magazines and blogs, photo editors and all peripheral people.
There is no plan to have a paywall, instead the goal is to keep the site open and free so everyone can benefit from the exchange. The site is currently monetized through advertising and sponsorship plus special content areas and other participation opportunities that some visitors will want to join.
“Photo Ten Five is an opportunity to unite all of the players in a quickly changing landscape.”
JAIN LEMOS
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