Pickerell, Jim

Articles by Jim Pickerell

Images For Students: UIG and EB Do 10-Year Exclusive Deal

By Jim Pickerell | 1151 Words | Posted 4/26/2011 | Comments

Universal Images Group (UIG), and Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) have entered into a 10-year License Agreement that makes UIG the exclusive provider of still pictures, video and footage for EB’s online educational image service, Image Quest. UIG, the distribution business of the Virtual Picture Desk (VPD), has provided 2 million educational still images for Britannica Image Quest and will subsequently provide motion content including video and footage clips. The Image Quest online subscription service went live in September 2010 with content from more than 50 world-class image providers.

iStockphoto Listens To Videographers

By Jim Pickerell | 397 Words | Posted 4/21/2011 | Comments

In early March Selling-Stock reported that many of iStockphoto’s most experienced videographers were very upset with the proposed royalty share for iStock new Vetta collection. At least 25 of the most productive contributors with a combined total of about 45,000 clips decided not to participate in Vetta. Most concluded they were likely to earn more if their clips were licensed at the lower Exclusive prices because they would continue to receive a higher royalty rate. It is also expected that clips available at the lower Exclusive prices will sell more frequently than those at the higher Vetta prices. Illustrators who produce Vector art were faced with the same problem.

Buyers To Meet Distributors at fotofringe London

By Jim Pickerell | 425 Words | Posted 4/21/2011 | Comments

On Wednesday, 11 May 55 major and specialist picture libraries will be exhibiting at fotofringe London. The event is designed to connect photo suppliers with their customers and will be held at Kings Place, London’s new music and arts cultural center.

Pricing Electronic Uses

By Jim Pickerell | 1918 Words | Posted 4/20/2011 | Comments

When customers first requested rights to use images in both print and online it seemed reasonable to charge a supplemental fee for the online use that was much less than the print price. Today, electronic use is at least equal to print and tomorrow it will be the predominate use of all imagery. If we continue to price electronic as a lesser usage we will be offering a huge discount on the price for the majority of our future licenses. Therefore we must come up with an entirely new strategy for licensing electronic uses.

What Buyers Want From Photographers

By Jim Pickerell | 494 Words | Posted 4/20/2011 | Comments (1)

PhotoShelter and Agency Access have just released a free ebook entitled “What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The information resulted from a 35 question survey sent to Agency Access’ global database of 55,000 photography buyers. 500 responded to the survey.

It’s All In A Caption: Finding The Right Image

By Jim Pickerell | 258 Words | Posted 4/19/2011 | Comments (1)

In December the United States Postal Service released 3 billion copies of a first-class postage stamp that showed a low angle close up of the head and crown of the Statue of Liberty, symbol of American freedom. About a month ago the service was shocked to discover that the image supplied by Getty Images was not of the 305 foot tall statue designed by sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and located on Liberty Island off the tip of Manhattan, but of a half-sized replica outside the New York-New York Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas.

Extended Licenses for Web Use

By Jim Pickerell | 798 Words | Posted 4/18/2011 | Comments (2)

In the microstock world, when establishing prices for online image use distributors should consider developing ways to distinguish between personal or social media uses and those for commercial purposes. Customers who use images for commercial purposes, and earn revenue as a result, should be charged more than those whose image use is for personal, non-revenue generating purposes. On the print side of the business microstock sellers have already solved this problem to a degree. They charge more for larger file sizes that are commonly needed for print uses, and even more when print uses are expected to exceed 500,000 copies.

Educational Publishing Trends

By Jim Pickerell | 331 Words | Posted 4/18/2011 | Comments

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) has reported that e-Book sales in February 2011 were $90.3 million, up 202.3% compared to February 2010. Higher Education sales for January and February 2011 were $406.9 million, down by 5.6% vs the same period in 2010. K-12 sales for the same two-month period were $173 million, a decline of 8.9% compared to 2010.

Customer Discounts and Percentage Share

By Jim Pickerell | 488 Words | Posted 4/14/2011 | Comments (1)

One way to satisfy customer demands for lower prices without reducing overall operating costs is to cut the amount paid for the product you’re selling. Over the past decade some stock photo distributors have used this strategy very effectively. This article examines the effect that discount prices are having on the ability of stock photographers to earn a living.

Death of Educational Market for Images

By Jim Pickerell | 3277 Words | Posted 4/13/2011 | Comments

Anyone who earns significant revenue from producing or licensing stock images for educational purposes should be looking, as soon as possible, for another line of business. Why? It is rapidly becoming impossible to earn enough from licensing images for educational use to cover the costs of producing them. For decades photographers have been willing to license rights for limited usage of their images with the understanding that if a greater use is made the photographer will receive additional compensation. This system was originally developed to help publishers limit their risk in the event that some of the book they produced did not sell well or generate as much revenue as hoped.

About Jim Pickerell

Jim began his career in 1963 as a freelance photojournalist in the Far East. His first major sale, a Life Magazine cover, was a stock photo of the overthrow of the Ngo Dinh Diem government in Saigon, Vietnam.

He spent the next ten to fifteen years focusing on assignment work, first as an editorial photographer, and later in the corporate area. He regularly filed his outtakes with several stock agencies around the world.

As the stock side of his income grew, Jim studied the needs of the stock photo market, and began to devote more of his shooting time producing stock images. At about this time the 1976 change in the copyright law went into effect, and the industry began to see rapidly growing demand by commercial and advertising users for stock images.

In the early 80's he helped establish the Mid-Atlantic chapter of American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) and served as Vice President, President and Program Chairman over a period of six years. He served on the national board of ASMP for two years, was on the committee that produced the ASMP Stock Handbook in 1983, and was active in the fight to reverse the IRS rules that required capitalization of all expenses of stock photo production.

In 1989 he published the first edition of Negotiating Stock Photo Prices, a guide to pricing hundreds of stock photo uses. The fifth edition was published in 2001. In 1990, he began publishing Selling-Stock, a bi-monthly newsletter dealing with issues of interest to stock photographers and stock photo sellers, with particular focus on issues related to marketing stock images. Selling-Stock is recognized worldwide as the leading source of in-depth analysis of the stock photo industry. As a result of his many years in the industry and his work with Selling-Stock, Jim has an expert understanding of the stock photo industry, its standard practices and developing trends. He frequently provides consulting services on stock industry issues to photographers, stock agents and individuals in the investment community.

In 1993, his daughter, Cheryl, joined him in the business. Together they established Stock Connection, an agency designed to provide photographers with greater control over the promotion and marketing of their work than most other stock agencies were offering. The company currently represents selected images from more than 400 photographers.

At age 76, Jim continues to follow stock photo industry developments on a day to day basis and expects to continue to do so far into the future.