Harry and Meghan’s paparazzi chase exposes a fading business

By Allison Schrager

A car chase through a major city; a member of the British royal family pursued by paparazzi desperate for their money shot. Prince Harry and Meghan’s stressful experience trying to escape photographers Tuesday night in New York City felt all too familiar. It immediately drew comparisons to the tragic car accident that killed Princess Diana — Harry’s mother — in a similar situation. But how similar was it, really?

The incident wasn’t so much history repeating itself as it was a harbinger of the future of our economy as technology steadily changes the nature of our jobs. It was a reflection of how much the world has evolved for the paparazzi — and for all of us — not how it’s stayed the same in the 25 years since Princess Di’s death.

Technology has destroyed the economics of celebrity pictures. And the fact is, being chased and hounded by the press isn’t as common these days because it’s just not worth it for the photographers. Harry and Meghan, far from representing a persistent problem, were an unfortunate exception.

Also Read | Harry, Meghan in 'near catastrophic' paparazzi car chase, spokesperson says

I spent a lot of time with New York City paparazzi a few years ago when I was researching my last book. I went with them on several stakeouts. Most of the time it was pretty boring. We’d wait hours for a glimpse of Gigi Hadid leaving her apartment. But when she did appear, we all felt the rush of adrenaline.

As we waited for those few seconds, the experienced paparazzi would tell me about the old days. They spoke fondly of the “Golden Era” starting in the 1990s when glossy magazines paid photographers large royalties for exclusive pictures of celebrities. This all came to a peak in the late aughts, around the time Britney Spears famously attacked the paparazzi with an umbrella. Back then, a picture of a celebrity getting coffee or pumping gas could fetch a photographer $10,000 to $20,000. And because the rewards were so big, celebrity clashes and car chases were more common and often in the news.

But that market collapsed after 2008. At first, it was because people stopped buying glossy magazines in the recession, consuming celebrity content for free online instead. In the meantime, as in many other industries, photo agents (the intermediary between the paparazzi and the magazines) consolidated to only a few players who commanded more market power over the paparazzi. Demand increased for more photos from media websites. So the agents, wanting more stable, higher income, switched to a subscription model instead of being paid per picture. The result was the paparazzi would get maybe $10 or $20 for a photo that used to fetch $10,000 or $20,000.

Many paparazzi packed up their cameras and found something else to do.

Today, certain pictures — for the most elusive celebrities doing something at least somewhat interesting — will still fetch a big payday. But the celebrities often undercut the media by posting the big money shots themselves — a new baby or a breakup — on social media. This is why celebrity car chases are so rare today and all the more dramatic when they do happen. Harry and Meghan are among those who can still bring in a payday, though it’s still not nearly as much as it used to be.

It’s too easy to see the photographers as vultures intruding into private lives to make a buck. But in reality, they are the bottom rung of a larger ecosystem that benefits many different people, including the celebrities themselves and the fans who search out celebrity photos online.

The paparazzi face the same challenges in a transforming economy as people in other professions. Technology is changing how we all earn a living, most industries are consolidating into a few big firms, and these changes mean some jobs are no longer viable. The paparazzo I spent time with left after 25 years in the business because he just couldn’t support his family anymore.

This is the price of progress, but it can feel sad for the people living through it because it means something is lost. Our culture changes and jobs that were the basis of a community no longer exist. This is true even in professions we often don’t think about. The former photo editor at US Weekly, Peter Grossman, once said to me, “What is our culture if everything we see is carefully curated by those who make it?”

Harry and Meghan have a frosty relationship with the paparazzi and are trying to change the industry. But in many ways that’s unnecessary. The market is already doing that for them.