Agencies/Distributors
The opportunity to interact with editors from publishing companies, picture researchers, stock agents and photographers at the American Society of Picture Professionals' Reinvention Weekend in Boston provided a clearer picture of where the business of producing images for publication is headed.
Can the reader trust the reporting not to be biased when photojournalism projects are funded by non-profit and non-governmental organizations?
There is talk about a crisis in journalism, which generally takes
the form of angst-ridden journalists, editors and news folk in general
asking, “How do we maintain the commercial status quo without which
journalism as we know it will be gone?” The question is sincere and
extends beyond the fear of losing jobs; there is a genuine concern that
the investigative and informative roles of the news media will be lost
with a high cost to the civic health of our society. It’s not about finding new ways to do old things, but time to
radically rethink our business models by redefining out products, our
partners, and our clients. This article is about reinvention and redefining what we do.
As buyer budgetary pressures and competition continue to drive prices downward, production companies and solo practitioners are increasingly looking to maximize their earnings by cutting out the middleman.
Tom discusses his strategies for success in stock photography with advice for both new and established stock photographers. He discusses what to shoot, the importance of RPI, selecting agencies and even what gear he uses.
Anyone who has heard the term microstock has probably heard of Yuri Arcurs. He is recognized as the worlds most successful microstock photographer but is much more than just a photographer: he is a brilliant businessman adept at marketing, self-promotion and managing a large staff.
Photography has a long way to go. Compared to other digitized creative forms, like music, it is light years behind. And, for once, that could be a good thing. Like the youngest brother of a family, it can learned from it’s elders. For once, it has not yet been touch at full impact by the whole free file sharing tsunami that hit music a while back. Certainly the dams are leaking and breaking, but we are no where near what the music industry has experienced.
Alamy salesfor the 2009 were $22,864,000, down 27% from 2008. Fourth quarter sales
were down less than 2% compared to the third quarter of 2009 and were
down 14% compared to the fourth quarter 2008. British pound and Euro
sales were up slightly compared to the third quarter of
2009, but U.S. dollar sales were down 12% compared to Q3 2009 and 22% compared to Q4 2008.
The stock photo industry needs a change in strategy so all images can
be made available for all uses at a reasonable price based on the value
the customer will receive from using the image. We need to get away
from the whole idea of rights-managed and royalty-free and recognize
that, in all cases, the price is based on use. Rights-managed licensing has always been much more about pricing
based on use rather than on managing rights. The vast majority of
rights-managed customers are not concerned with rights control or
exclusivity.
Photographer, Art Director and Editor Sarah Golonka shares with us her knowledge and tips on succeeding in stock photography.
In January2010, pacaSearch will roll out a major marketing campaign
to picture buyers to promote its new pacaSearch software. At a recent demonstration at PictureHouse in New
York, Lee Horton, Multimedia Editor of K12 Inc. said, “Learning about
the functionality and usefulness of [pacaSearch] put a big smile on my
face. As a photo editor and art buyer, I search multiple sites daily.
This tool puts more control in my hands. I can keep the results pages
in tabs with fewer keystrokes, page toggles and site crashes. The
relative percentages, predictive text and term definitions create a
tight, clean search environment. With the launch of pacaSearch, I can
successfully and accurately find imagery in less time, with less
hassle, while having more agency resources at my fingertips. Thank you,
PACA.”
If Google were to get involved in image licensing, it would quickly take commanding control of the stock industry--at very little additional cost to the company. And it would not necessarily be a bad thing for creators.
On Nov. 4, the motion of four creative industry groups and several individuals to join on the creators' side of the Authors Guild et. al. v. Google was once again denied on appeal. Organizations that petitioned the court to intervene in the class action against Google included the American Society of Media Photographers, the Graphic Artists Guild, the Picture Archive Council of America and the North American Nature Photography Association. Chief among U.S. District Judge Denny Chin's grounds for denying their request was its untimely nature.
Alamy sales for the third quarter of 2009 were flat compared to the second quarter, but were down 30% compared with the third quarter of 2008. U.S. Dollar and Euro sales were up slightly compared to last quarter 2009, but U.K. sales were down about 5%. Sales for the first three quarters of 2009 were down 30% compared to the same period in 2008.
This list of the world's major stock agencies is divided into three different groups based on my estimates of the gross revenue generated by each of these companies. Group A lists companies with revenue greater than $20 million Groups B is companies with revenues between $5 and $20 million and Group C has revenues between $1 and $5 million.
It is time to revise previous estimates of industry revenues based on what has happened in the past year. For several years, we have estimated the size of the worldwide market for still images and illustrations at about $1.8 billion.
As the stock industry changes, traditional stock agencies and distributors are losing ground because they have failed to adopt new technological efficiencies. Granted, constantly keeping up with the latest technological changes can be expensive, and most agencies have already invested huge amounts to get where they are today. But, microstock sellers have introduced a number of strategies that traditional agencies and distributors should be considering – if not rushing to adopt.
In 2006 I examined many of the factors that are impacting on stock photo market and leading to price declines. There were also a number of factors leading to declining sales volumes to traditional customers. These include the general demand for printed products, the tendency to use images multiple times but only pay once, trends in book publishing, postage costs, crowdsourcing of images and various types of guerrilla advertising. Since that time the situation has become worse.
Corbis predicts still-image sales will decline only slightly by 2012. However, this is no reason to be sanguine, as the same total will be divided differently among various industry segments. In addition, this analysis was completed during the summer, prior to the more recent economic disruption.
This chart provides a list of the stock agencies Getty has acquired since its founding in 1995.
The following is a breakdown of Getty's Footage sales per quarter from Q4 2002 through Q4 2007. At the end of 2007 Getty stopped providing breakdowns of individual segments of their business.
Below is a list of the Getty Images revenue for the various segments of their business quarter by quarter from Q3 2002 through Q4 2007. At the beginning of 2008 Getty stopped supplying quarterly breakdowns.
RF prices vary widely depending on the brand. The following are some of the prices charged for usage by various brands on Getty's site.
Below is a list of the Getty Images revenue for the various segments of their business quarter by quarter from Q3 2002 through Q4 2007. At the beginning of 2008 Getty stopped supplying quarterly breakdowns.
Alamy has launched a program called Limited Use that makes it possible for those selling images as RM and traditional RF to make the same images available to some customers for nominal fees - without risking loss of revenue at the higher end of the market.