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Articles from September 2013

PACA And Cengage Develop New Licensing Strategy For Educational Use

By Jim Pickerell | 1356 Words | Posted 9/30/2013 | Comments
Given the changing and growing demands publishers are facing when developing an educational program, PACA’s Editorial Relations Committee and Cengage Learning have worked together to create a new “Preferred Provider” Insert License Agreement that helps meet the publisher’s needs while providing image vendors of a better understanding of how their images are being used.

Decline In Creativity: Is It About Budgets?

By Jim Pickerell | 982 Words | Posted 9/26/2013 | Comments
Art Directors and Graphic Designers lament the decline in creativity. They say this results from a lack of Time and a lack of Funding which leads to a lack of Inspiration. 75% say they have too many competing priorities to leave time for reflection.

Study Reveals Decline In Creativity

By Jim Pickerell | 596 Words | Posted 9/25/2013 | Comments
Professional creatives are struggling to produce creative and effective campaigns in an increasingly stressful work environment, according to a new survey released by iStock by Getty Images during Advertising Week 2013 in New York City. One in two (48 percent) of creatives believe levels of creativity in their industry have stagnated or declined in the last decade and nearly one quarter (23 percent) of creatives spend less than two hours of their day doing ‘creative’ work, according to the study’s findings.   

Advertising Revenue Declines Expected For Print Media

By Jim Pickerell | 336 Words | Posted 9/25/2013 | Comments
The MAGNA GLOBAL Advertising Forecast released early this year reported that the Global advertising spend in 2012 was $495 billion up 3.8% from $479.9 in 2011. But, in 2013 newspaper and magazine ad revenues are expected to fall. The U.S. was the largest market with $153 billion in revenues in 2012. Japan, China, Germany and the UK complete the top five.

Woman Sues Getty: Falsely Labeled As HIV-Positive

By Jim Pickerell | 355 Words | Posted 9/20/2013 | Comments (2)
According to the New York Post Avril Nolan, 25, has sued Getty Images for $450,000 after discovering her unreleased picture splashed across a quarter-page color ad in the free newspaper am New York on April 3, 2012. Next to her face were the words "I am positive (+)" and "I have rights." Nolan is perfectly healthy, never had HIV and never signed a model release to allow her image to be used in any kind of advertising.

CueSongs Catalog Powers Image Source New Music Offering

By Jim Pickerell | 446 Words | Posted 9/20/2013 | Comments
CueSongs, the one-stop music licensing hub for online and digital media, achieves yet another strategic partnership announcing it has reached an agreement to become the exclusive music partner of Image Source, the leading independent image agency, to power its new music licensing service unveiled today.

iStockphoto Rebranded

By Jim Pickerell | 584 Words | Posted 9/18/2013 | Comments
Getty Images has rebranded iStockphoto to just .iStock. with of sub-head of by Getty Images. The new logo is white on black instead of the former red iStockphoto. The rest of the site looks pretty similar to what was offered before.

"Ask James" Is Back At Alamy

By Jim Pickerell | 296 Words | Posted 9/18/2013 | Comments
Alamy is soliciting questions for the next installment of it’s popular “Ask James" feature. Between now and September 23rd contributors can pose questions to James West, CEO of Alamy.  He will answer as many as possible in one or more 10 minute video sessions.

Decline In Return-Per-Image

By Jim Pickerell | 1147 Words | Posted 9/16/2013 | Comments (1)
Every photographer is aware that the average annual return-per-image has been steadily falling over the last few years. The numbers in this story based on the size of Getty's Premium image collection and the revenue it generates give an indication of just how much it has fallen.

Jonathan Klein Interviewed By Oliver Laurent of BJP

By Jim Pickerell | 278 Words | Posted 9/16/2013 | Comments
At Visa pour l'Image in France earlier this month Olivier Laurent of the British Journal of Photography interviewed Jonathan Klein, CEO and co-founder of Getty Images. Among the issues discussed were falling prices, the future of the industry, the need for new economic models and the role of smartphones in a market in flux. The entire article can be found here.

Major League Baseball Extends Contract With Getty

By Jim Pickerell | 528 Words | Posted 9/13/2013 | Comments
Major League Baseball Properties (MLBP) and global digital media company Getty Images today announced a long-term extension of their successful partnership. Getty Images will continue to serve as the exclusive commercial photography partner of Major League Baseball (MLB) and exclusive licensor of the entire MLB image archive.

iStock Earnings Per Download

By Jim Pickerell | 649 Words | Posted 9/12/2013 | Comments (1)
Getty is telling debt investors (people who buy corporate bonds and corporate debt) that 70% of iStockphoto revenue is generated by exclusive images. They also say that total iStock revenue annually is around $300 million. iStock revenue declined 9% in Q2 2013 compared with Q2 2012. Thus, about $90 million of Getty’s revenue comes from non-exclusive images and $210 million from exclusive

Shutterstock/Facebook Agreement: New Update

By Jim Pickerell | 220 Words | Posted 9/12/2013 | Comments (1)
After reading about the new Facebook TOS I began to wonder if Facebook would be able to resell images their advertisers acquire from Shutterstock as part of the new Facebook/Shutterstock deal.

Getty Facing Possible Debt Ratings Cut By Moody’s

By Jim Pickerell | 789 Words | Posted 9/11/2013 | Comments (2)
Getty Images rising debt compared to earnings (EBITDA) is worrying debt investors. Moody’s is reviewing the company to determine if they need to lower their Rating of the company’s debt. Getty has $2.6 billion in outstanding debt including an approximate $1.9 billion term loan, $550 million of 7% notes due October 2020 and $150 million line of credit. Gross revenue for the year ending June 30, 2013 revenue was $897 million.

Buyers Survey Conducted By Visual Steam

By Jim Pickerell | 710 Words | Posted 9/10/2013 | Comments
In June 2013 VisualSteam conducted a survey of over 1,000 art buyers, designers, creative directors, photo editors, service managers (and more), from agencies, design firms, publishers and corporations in the U.S. to determine “What Buyers Want.” They received a statistically valid response. For detailed results see the 5 page pdf or a longer video presentation here.

Disability Images Covers An Unrepresented Niche

By Jim Pickerell | 275 Words | Posted 9/10/2013 | Comments
Disability Images has created a body of work that focuses on empowerment and accessibility, and reflects the lives of people with disabilities who run companies, have families, participate in sports, study, learn and enjoy life.

Alert: Post Photos On Facebook, They Can Sell Them!

By Jim Pickerell | 264 Words | Posted 9/9/2013 | Comments (1)
As of September 5th Facebook has modified its Terms of Use to allow the company to sell virtually anything that is uploaded to the site, including all your photos, your identity and your data. Facebook has explicitly removed the privacy protection from the commercialization rights.

Can Getty Take Market Share From Shutterstock?

By Jim Pickerell | 1134 Words | Posted 9/4/2013 | Comments (1)
Clearly Shutterstock is on a growth curve in terms of number of images downloaded and revenue. According to debt investors (those who trade in corporate bonds and corporate debt) Getty’s revenue has been declining over the last three quarters and the company’s expenses have been increasing due to increased marketing costs. To get back in the game Getty has to try to take market share from Shutterstock.

Should Wallpaper Use Be Free?

By Jim Pickerell | 580 Words | Posted 9/3/2013 | Comments (2)
Many Internet users seem to believe that it is OK to use any image they find online for wallpaper on their site. The next step is to grab a bunch of images they like and create a site that makes the images available to others for free wallpaper use. And, once they’ve gone to the trouble to create a site the site owners figure they might as well make a little money by selling a few ads.

Shutterstock/Facebook Agreement: Additional Clarification

By Jim Pickerell | 664 Words | Posted 9/2/2013 | Comments (1)
After the announcement of the Shutterstock/Facebook agreement that makes images available FREE of charge to businesses that advertise on Facebook, I contacted Shutterstock for additional clarification.

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This stock photography news site focuses on the business side of photography with a special emphasis on stock photography. Our goal is to help photographers maximize their earnings based on the quality of their work and the commitment they are prepared to make to the trade. The information provided will be applicable to part-timers as well as full time professional photographers. We’ll leave it to others to teach photographers how to take better pictures.

Jim Pickerell launched his career as a photographer in 1963. In 1990 he began publishing a regular newsletter on stock photography. In 1995 the information was made available online as well as in print and was gradually expanded to a daily service. Click here for Pickerell's full biography.

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