September 19, 2004
Amateur paparazzi thrive
A report by market analysts Continental Research claims the number of picture messages sent each month has almost halved within a year, reports The Independant.
"The report's conclusion belies the fact that mobile camera phones - estimated to total 7.5 million in the UK - have created niche markets for an army of amateur paparazzi, with users becoming the latest scourge of the rich and famous.
Some users are even becoming celebrity "stalkers" to cash in on their new hobby. The trend is most in evidence in celebrity magazines, which are being bombarded by snaps of the stars sent in by opportunist readers.
Maxim, Loaded (these two titles are really men's magazines... not "people" magazines) and Heat all have sections where these pictures are published.
Heat says it receives several hundred each week. The tabloids have entered the fray with the 3am Girls using picture messages in the The Daily Mirror's Seen a Celeb? section.
The amateur paparazzi don't just do it for fun. Some can get good money for their pictures from the magazines and tabloids.
Heat pays up to £200 a picture, with a free camera phone thrown in for good measure.
Maxim has a "Look Who's Stalking" section, and the latest issue has snatched pictures of singer Rachel Stevens, actor Ben Stiller and comedian Johnny Vegas.
The London-based Mobile Entertainment Corporation plans to launch a website that will trade in celebrity snaps and offer subscribers a picture-messaging service that tracks a chosen favourite celebrity every time he or she is spotted in public".
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