Avalon: Consolidation Of Small Agencies

Posted on 4/4/2016 by Jim Pickerell | Printable Version | Comments (1)

Charles Taylor is still trying to put together a company that will consolidate many smaller independent picture agencies into a single publicly traded company that will be traded on the AIM stock exchange in the UK.

Back in 2014 Taylor’s organization was called GDI Media Limited. The new version is called Avalon. More about it can be found here.

Avalon will be “A content licensing company significantly owned by its contributors.” The home page of the site describes it as:


  • Is a new concept - built upon the heritage of quality, independent agencies and individual contributors.
  • Substantially owned by its content creators and suppliers.
  • A company that will be listed on a leading international stock exchange.
  • Share ownership offers the possibility of capital gains in addition to royalties earned on sales.
  • Giving clients breadth and depth of quality content.
  • Offering content on both Editorial and Microstock licensing models.
  • Creating cutting edge technology to provide content suppliers with global reach.
The launch of Avalon offers content creators and independent agency owners the unique possibility to become founding shareholders in a global licensing company that will be listed on AIM from day one.

For more information about the company click on the Blog button on the home page.

The agencies involved so far include: Photoshot Archives, Fotosport, World Illustrations, UPPA, NHPA, Retna, St*rstock, staystill, woodfall wild images, World Pictures, Bruce Coleman Photo Library, Oceans-Image, idols, lfi London Features, The Travel Library, Photos Horticultural, Red Cover and Construction Photography. Combined these brands have 16 million images and 5,500 individual contributors. Most of the brands are owned by Charles Taylor.


Copyright © 2016 Jim Pickerell. The above article may not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner without written permission from the author. All requests should be submitted to Selling Stock at 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-461-7627, e-mail: wvz@fpcubgbf.pbz

Jim Pickerell is founder of www.selling-stock.com, an online newsletter that publishes daily. He is also available for personal telephone consultations on pricing and other matters related to stock photography. He occasionally acts as an expert witness on matters related to stock photography. For his current curriculum vitae go to: http://www.jimpickerell.com/Curriculum-Vitae.aspx.  

Comments

  • Charles Cecil Posted Apr 17, 2016
    Isn't there a conflict of interest here? If the shareholders are also the photographers, the desire to increase shareholder profits will tend to push licensing fees downward, to increase marketing share, thus lowering the return per image to the photographer. Whether the possible capital gains will offset the loss in per-image revenues will be an interesting calculation.

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