How this register works

Cover Charge records what fashion magazines ask photographers to pay in order to be published. It is a register, not a ranking. We do not score magazines and we do not certify them. Every line traces to a source with a date.

What each label means

Fee declared

The magazine publishes the amount itself. We link the page. This is the strongest thing we can say.

Fee reported

A photographer stated publicly, on a date we cite, that they were asked for this amount. The magazine has not published it. Treat it as an account, not a price list.

No fee, per the magazine

The magazine states on the record that submitting costs nothing. We link where it says so.

No fee declared

We found nothing stating a charge, and nothing stating there is none. This is not the same as free. In this industry silence is common, and silence is not a source.

Not published

We looked and found no amount we can stand behind. The sources listed show what we checked.

Incomplete entries stay published

We list a magazine as soon as we can say something useful about it, even when much is still missing. Each entry carries its own open questions in plain words, so you can see exactly what we do not know rather than guess from a blank cell. An entry with nothing to show at all, no source, no account and no stated question, does not go up.

Where the data comes from

• Magazines’ own submission and open-call pages, read one at a time and linked.
• Public accounts from photographers, quoted with their date and origin.
• Trade press and public announcements.

We do not bulk-extract listings from submission platforms. Pages are consulted and cited individually.

How often it is checked

Every entry carries the date it was last checked. Past six months it is flagged as not recently checked, and stays flagged until someone verifies it again. An unflagged entry is not a promise that the magazine has not changed its terms since.

Corrections and right of reply

Anyone can ask for a correction, including the magazines listed. If you are the publisher and you disagree with something recorded here, your reply is published on the entry, next to the claim it answers. If a claim turns out to be unsupported, it comes down.

Independence

We take no money from the magazines in this register, and no money to place, remove or rank an entry. Cover Charge is made by Folio, which is not a submission platform and earns nothing from where you decide to send your work.

What this register is not

It is not legal or financial advice, not an accusation against any magazine, and not a judgement about whether a fee is fair. A magazine charging for a service is entitled to do so. What we think you are entitled to is knowing the number before you send the work.