This address was given by Roger Ressmeyer, PACA President at the 2006 PACA International Conference in Key West, Florida. Ressmeyer outlines his view of the state of the stock photo industry and some of the challenges ahead. Ressmeyer is also CEO of Science Faction Images
In July I published a letter from Pino Granata that asked the question "Is There A Future For Stock Agents". I also outlined my thoughts and comments from a number of readers. I recently learned that Chris Ferrone, Editor of abouttheimage.com, wrote an editorial on the subject in January 2006 and with his permission I have re-printed it here.
This edition contains items on: Corbis Expanding RF Collection; Image Source Pulling Out Of Corbis; iStockPhoto Statistics; PunchStock Adds RM Images; GDUSA Comments; Jupiter Acquires Cover Images In Spain; Jupiter CFO Chris Baudouin To Leave; The Future Of Video?; Stephen Hearn Leaving Jupiter and Newspaper Advertising Revenue.
Alamy added almost a million new images to its collection in Q3 2006, two-thirds of them Rights Managed. Photographers uploaded slightly fewer RF than in the previous quarter, but significantly more RM with the total images uploaded by photographers at 466,750. There is no indication as to how this relates to revenue growth.
After a bad year relative to expectations Jonathan Klein has outlined some radical changes in strategy for the company. It is recommended that readers review Story 885 in order to fully understand the implications of this one.
Getty Images reported Q3 2006 revenue of $198.1 down from $204.8 million for Q2 2006. Share price falls an additional 4% and Klein announced major strategy changes.
RF stock production companies have become concerned with the accounting practices of an increasing number of distributors not meeting their contract obligations in terms of reporting and paying commissions and have formed the International Stock Producers Alliance in an effort to deal with the issues.
Getty Images has announced a reorganization plan which includes cuts in staff including the entire New York sales staff and a shuffling of responsibilities for senior people.
Sunday River Ski Resort in Bethel, Maine has developed a novel way to promote their business for free. They invite customers to post on their site videos of themselves or other skiers and snowboarders, taken at Sunday River.
a21, Inc. has appointed John Z. Ferguson Chief Executive Officer and he joins the Company's Board of Directors. Mr. Ferguson previously held senior management positions at Getty Images.