Masterfile has announced that it restructured its marketing operations and established a department for product development and innovation. Picture-agency president Steve Pigeon tells Selling Stock that this reorganization will make operations more efficient, as well as allow key executives to focus on “some very cool product development initiatives.â€
In an effort to move beyond the often-repeated cliché of photographers not being good businesspeople, this article series will endeavor to highlight business decisions that are often made by stock shooters and agencies to their detriment.High on this list is the over-reliance on the opinions of others when deciding on the next stock shoot or the future direction of an entire image collection.
The potentially cannibalizing effect of microstock on traditional licensing is an issue that comes up often, and the panel discussions at last month's PhotoPlus Expo and the annual conference of the Picture Archive Council of America were no exception.
Our recent coverage of Veer was unexpectedly timely, given today's announcement of Corbis acquiring the Canada-based stock-image retailer and type foundry for an undisclosed sum. Though this purchase is unlikely to be in the vicinity of the failed Getty/Jupitermedia deal valued at about $350 million, the alliance of Veer and Corbis may still have a rather significant effect on the industry.
"Due to client needs, increased stock photography resources, and improved quality of those resources, our stock photography purchases have increased over the last few years," says Richard Davia, the principal of brand experience at Continuum....
While stock-industry insiders and analysts tend to focus most of their attention on the Big Three, it is noteworthy that buyers often look to a less publicized, smaller company: the Alberta, Canada-based Veer. In a recent survey of stock-photo buyers conducted by the Piper Jaffray investment bank, Veer outranked Getty Images, Jupiterimages, Corbis, Punchstock, Mastefile and Fotosearch, emerging as today’s preferred royalty-free brand among high-end image buyers.
In addition to entirely unauthorized image use, reuse of images beyond the scope of the original licensing agreement is a prominent issue in the business of stock licensing.
Despite the generally disappointing figures released by the industry leader last week, Getty Images' stock was trading above its 13-day moving average last Friday. Figures from Yahoo Finance showed GYI trading in the range of $28.68 to $31.47. The stock was approximately 7% up from the previous day’s closing figures.