This story included short items on Randomeye, Allsport Copying Empics Web Site, new pricing for web & power point user at Getty & Corbis, Sygma images going into database, Promotions and Resignations at Corbis and Elsner back to consulting.
Commentary by Allen Russell, Dir. of Photography at Index Stock and past president of PACA on the state of the stock industry from the photographer's perspective.
Is there a logical reason for dividing revenues 50/50 in 2001, given the changes in the industry? Is this percentage fair?'' This story looks at the history and draws some conclusions.
Convergence has acquired Images Colour Library Ltd., (ICL) a UK based image library for $5.2 million and Zephyr Images for $2.15 million. Sheldon Marshall, former CEO of VCG, is COO of Convergence.
Getty reported 4th Quarter 2000 revenue of $129.4 million, up less than 2% from $127 million in the 3rd Quarter and below analysts's estimates. E-commerce sales represented almost $49.3 million of 4th Quarter revenue and $165 million for the year. Under 25% of gross revenue was paid to image creators in 2000.
The Photographer Income and Expense Survey for 2000 is available online for photographers to fill out. Any stock photographer, subscriber or not, may reply to this survey by going to http://www.pickphoto.com/sso/survey2001.htm Results will be published at the end of April.
Photographers contracted to Stone, The Image Bank, FPG and other VCG brands have formed a new group called StockArtistsAlliance (SAA) to jointly retain counsel to negotiate the new Getty contnract. This story included a letter outlining issues not dealt with in the contract outline supplied by Getty (Story 373).
ASMP has filed a complaint with the SEC against Getty Images for failure to report to the SEC Penny Gentieu's suit involving copyright infringement, false designation of origin, breach of fiduciary duties and breach of contract. ASMP alleges this could result in an award in excess of $2 million plus attorney fees and costs, and thus is significant information for Getty investors.
Getty has provided their photographers with an outline of features for a new streamlined cross brand contract. Details of the features are listed in this story. Getty expects to release the entire contract sometime in the next two months.
On the surface Getty's new contract outline is an improvement over existing contracts, but there are still a number of issues that should be examined closely when the contract is finally released. This story outlines some of those issues.