Agencies/Distributors
On a company basis, the best year-to-year percentage of growth overall came from Alamy with 18%, even though Getty Images had a respectable 10% growth overall on a much higher gross revenue. And, of course, one division of Getty, iStockphoto, had an amazing 124% growth. But we need to look closer at the actual numbers.
RM and traditional RF photographers complain about declining incomes and the difficulty in getting information from the companies that represent their work. Traditional distributors might do well to adopt a number of ideas popularized by microstock, to improve relationships between photographers and distributors.
In the last few years, the stock photo industry has experienced significant consolidation. The chart below lists 34 existing companies that have acquired a total of 197 agencies. In general, fewer large companies are controlling the industry as middle-sized and small companies disappear.
The Getty Images Q3 2007 numbers show a downward tend in both RM and RF revenue.
Total RM revenue for the quarter was $71.86 million, down almost 10% from $79.79 million in Q2 -- and the lowest quarterly sales since Q3 2004. RM revenue for Q1 2007 was $81.64 million. The highwater mark for RM revenue was $86.18 million in Q1 2006. Thus for almost two years the company has seen a steady and increasingly rapid decline in RM revenue.
Getty Images reported revenue for Q2 2007 of $218 million, up from $204.8 million in Q2 2006 and $212.6 million in Q1 2007. Net income for the quarter was $33.7 million, with earnings per diluted share of $0.56. This compared to $23.2 million or $0.37 per share in the second quarter of 2006, but was down from $38 million or $0.63 per share in Q1 2007.
On a recent trip to China I interviewed a number of photographers and stock agents. This story provides a perspective on where the stock photo industry in China is today and offers some predictions for the future.
Jupiterimages has acquired all the shares of Workbook Inc. from Alexis Scott giving it control of workbookstock.com. Simultaneously, Alexis Scott purchased back from Jupiterimages the print directories, Workbook.com and all the other products that help generate assignments for photographers and illustrators.
Getty Images, Inc. has announced that it will acquire Photonica West from the Tokyo-based Amana Group for $51 million in cash. Photonica produces and distributes two of the world's leading collections of cutting edge, high-end rights-managed imagery.
Corbis has announced that they have acquired Zefa Visual Media Group and that the combined revenues of the two companies is in excess of $200 million. That should break down to around $43 million for Zefa and $160 million for Corbis in 2004.
Corbis is probably doing more than any other stock photo seller to track infringements, and collect from those who infringe. Dave Green, Corbis Senior Corporate Counsel, explains how they do it and the benefits, not only in additional revenue, but in educating customers.
Jonathan Klein, CEO of Getty Images gives the Keynote speech at Photo Expo in New York. The agencies Getty represents are expected to have gross sales of approximately $185 million in 1998. Included is the full text of his speech plus response to questions.
By
| 202 Words | Posted 1/1/1995 |
Comments announces that CEO, Victoria Bridgeman after twenty years with Bridgeman Images and the last eight as CEO has decided to step down at the end of the year and move on to new challenges. Dirk Hendrickx, currently Global Head of Sales and Marketing, has been appointed to succeed her at the start of 2020.