According to Technorati's State of the Blogosphere 2008 report, lines between blogs and mainstream media Web sites are becoming less and less clear. As the Blogosphere grows in size and influence, larger blogs increasingly take on traditional-media attributes, while mainsteam sites incorporate blog styles and formats. Professional and user-generated media types are also merging in more literal ways: practically all (95%) of the top U.S. newspapers have reporter blogs.
According to Corbis' December Creative IQ Trends report, singlehood is rising in prevalence worldwide. The trend is resulting in an increase of imagery depicting singles, dating and same-gender groups.
Many view iStockphoto as the microstock industry leader. However, online forum threads about the company's November sales and the future for non-exclusive microstockers offer a very different perspective. It appears that, in its pursuit of exclusive contributors, iStock is becoming a less important income source for many microstock shooters—not only those just starting out, but also those earning a living from microstock.
Adobe announced that it is cutting 600 full-time jobs as a result of weaker-than-expected sales of Creative Suite 4. The company also reported preliminary fourth-quarter revenues, which did not meet expectations.
The Virtual Picture Desk, founded in 2000 by former Getty Images vice president and Corbis director George Sinclair, has expanded its roster of clients with several exclusive agreements.
The first thing a photographer must consider when pondering microstock exclusivity is why any distributor needs exclusive representation of a royalty-free image—which, but its very nature, is a non-exclusive product.