Abstract
The term co‐creation refers to the emergence and rise of consumers’ participation in making and circulating media content, participation that has become a salient source of economic and symbolic value. The recuperation of this content for commercial purposes has been progressively acknowledged, but less is known about how these co‐creative practices shape the work of professional media producers. In this article, I investigate this issue by exploring the work of professional climbing photographers. Climbing magazines and brands now use consumers’ produced content and the latter circulates on the channels traditionally reserved for professional content. Professional photographers, therefore, have to develop different strategies to secure work opportunities, and their work is becoming increasingly multilayered. In addition, while the co‐creative practices may be pleasurable for consumers, their impacts on the work of professionals are not as they result in an increase of labor effort to sustain professionals’ livelihoods as media producers.