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PRESS RELEASES 15
March 18, 2006
Christina Vaughan Interviewed On CNN
Christina Vaughan, founder and CEO of Image Source (www.imagesource.com), was interviewed live on CNN on Wednesday 8th March to discuss women entrepreneurs for International Women's Day. The program, "CNN Today", was hosted by Max Foster and Andrea Sanke and is broadcast around the world.
Christina set up Image Source in 1999 with one employee and has grown the company to more than 60 employees based in three offices in London, Cologne and New York. The company has also established an international distribution network in partnership with over 250 image distributors around the world. It is this network and strong overseas sales that won Image Source the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade Category in 2005. Due to impressive and fast growth, the company will soon be moving into larger offices, having out-grown its current space in only two years.
The interview was conducted by Andrea Sanke and covered subjects such as the specific challenges that women face rising to CEO level, changes to be made to level the playing field between men and women and the possible need for legal structures to remove the 15 percent pay discrepancy between men and women.
"It's a great honor to be asked to be asked to contribute to a global TV program such as CNN Today," comments Christina. "Image Source has come a long way since I started it and I'm delighted to be able to use the company as an example to other women entrepreneurs of what can be achieved in business, regardless of sex, race or any other factor. In my work in the stock photography industry I have come across many women leaders, in creative and business roles, and I'm heartened to see so many successful ones. I hope that other industries, such as corporate and finance, will acknowledge the enormous and successful contribution women can make to businesses, and appoint many more women to senior positions."
Image Source Joins Quark Alliance Program
Image Source has joined Denver, Colorado-based Quark's alliance program, as the two firms said they entered into a new strategic relationship. Image Source will offer its photography to members of Quark's alliance program through its web site. Quark's QuarkAlliance program is a partner program for its customers, providing discounts to its members. Quark is a provider of the leading desktop publishing product QuarkXPress.
BigStockPhoto.com Grows
BigStockPhoto.com (www.BigStockPhoto.com) has proven itself to be a noteworthy force within the royalty-free stock photography industry. Since launching in fall of 2004, BigStockPhoto.com now has over 270,000 images in its collection, with 10,000 new photos added weekly and 40,000 users. New features are added frequently, including this month's download shopping cart, streamlined special licensing agreements, and premium co-branded affiliate sites.
"Besides the major growth and feature improvements that have made BigStockPhoto a recognized player in the industry, sales revenues have improved near 10 percent per week many times lately," said BigStockPhoto co-founder and CEO, Tim Donahue. He attributes the success to digital camera improvements, photographer's willingness to explore new markets, the sophistication of the BigStockPhoto search engine, and a user-friendly interface and environment. "We are getting overwhelming positive feedback from our photo buyers and the design community. They are pleased with our easy to use site and our friendly staff. Buyers are thrilled beyond belief at our ability to supply these incredible stock images at a mere fraction of the $40-$50 prices they are used to paying at other sites. With our images priced at just $1-$2 each, we're changing the way these designers and photo buyers work."
The expansive BigStockPhoto image collection covers all subject matters such as: business, people, medical, food, sports, architecture, conceptual, nature, fashion, abstract, technology, and seasonal themes. The photos are used by designers, marketers, editors, publishers, educators or anyone needing stock photos for their website, advertisements, brochures, newsletters, direct mail, office posters or any other use.
Fotolia And Slide Inc. Partner
Fotolia is teaming up with Slide Inc., making the search for the perfect image or inspiration easier than ever before. Through this agreement, Fotolia (www.fotolia.com), the global online social marketplace for stock images, is making their entire collection of images viewable on Slide. In turn, Slide (www.slide.com), a free downloadable desktop program, will allow viewers to watch scrolling slide shows of Fotolia images on their screens. When a desired image passes, a user can click on it to go directly to the Fotolia website and purchase the image for as low as $1.
As the first stock image company to partner with Slide, Fotolia is now giving designers and buyers the opportunity to immediately see and review the latest stock images for sale that match specific tags or topics. Designers and buyers can also use Slide to stay current on new photos that have been uploaded by individual Fotolia photographers whose work they find particularly interesting. Fotolia buyers can use Slide to quickly scan and find pictures that pertain to current projects. Photo sellers benefit as well with the ability to display their images in Slide show form on their own professional or personal websites. Clicking on any Slide show will link to Fotolia and give the viewer options for purchasing the desired picture, increasing sales.
Slide is able to offer this unique stock image search option by utilizing the Fotolia API to plug into Fotolia's photo database, index requested photos, group them into intuitive channels, and play them back via a unique always-on ticker interface. In this way, Slide is expanding the Fotolia community by creating an open invitation that is housed on a user's personal desktop or webpage. This allows Slide users to easily view and purchase the images that are offered in the Fotolia image library.
"Our partnership with Slide gives designers and buyers another tool to facilitate their search for stock photography. By including Fotolia as part of a personalized "slide", it allows people to look out for the images they need without taking hours out of their day to search," commented Oleg Tscheltzoff, Co-Founder and President of Fotolia.
Max Levchin, Founder and CEO of Slide said, "Slide is very happy to give Fotolia's photo buyers the ability to constantly stay updated on the very latest stock photographs that match their creative interests. We're also thrilled that Fotolia selected Slide to syndicate photo content for their user community and we believe that Fotolia's photographers will be delighted with how Slide brings their photo feeds to life."
Launched in early November 2005, Fotolia's digital image marketplace has acquired over 450,000 images in its database and more than 49,000 international members.
Neophyte Media Launches Self-Selling Photo Site
Buy Digital Images (www.buydigitalimages.com) is one of the most user-friendly sites inviting artists, professional and amateur photographers to bring their valuable work to the eyes of the world. Relying on an ever-increasing database of thousands of photos, the site offers a wide range of choices from categories such as Business, 3D-Art and Technology to Sports and Nature. Average color or black & white photos can be purchased and downloaded in seconds under state-of-the-art secured operations. Currently with hundreds of subscribers, the site addresses both advertising companies interested in value for money as well as photo hobbyists.
"We wanted to build on the American dream of getting the best products and services at most affordable prices so that everybody wins. It's a customer's site, mainly: people sign up to become members and then upload photos on the web. We run a selection and put up for sale the best photos, for a retainer's fee. Suppliers cash-in pending on the demand and sales of their great photos," Manager of Neophyte Media Tony Maties told press.
The Chicago based company offers web design and web consulting, search engine optimization and software development services. The team at Neophyte Media combines over 6 years of experience in web design, software development and consulting services, with young talents, hard working and commitment.
Neophyte Media is a proud winner of The Golden Web Awards three years in a row. For more details please visit www.neophytemedia.com.
Popperfoto.com Tops 75,000 Images on Alamy
Popperfoto was one of the first commercial photo libraries to become a contributor to Alamy.com (www.alamy.com) and now has more than 75,000 images on the site.
To mark this milestone Alan Capel, Alamy's Head of Content and Gary Shaeffer, Popperfoto.com's Marketing Director, issued a joint statement: "We are mutually proud of our long and close relationship which has rewarded both our brands. A search for Popperfoto images on the Alamy site will introduce clients to all that Alamy has to offer-over four million photographs on every conceivable subject from contributing photographers and agencies from around the world-whilst a visit to the Alamy website is enhanced by the primarily historical and sporting photographs for which popperfoto.com is universally known. Long may our relationship continue to thrive."
Popperfoto.com continues to submit images to Alamy on a weekly basis. New to the site are recently discovered historical World Cup photographs and topographical images from around the world dating from the 1880s, edited especially for Alamy clients, along with material as diverse as '60s personalities and WWI flying aces.
Boughn Joins Superstock
SuperStock, Inc. has announced the appointment of industry veteran Ellen Boughn to the newly created position of Vice President, Content Strategy and Product Manager, Rights-Managed content.
"Ellen is a respected industry veteran with substantial experience in helping companies turn product and content into revenue generating assets," noted Thomas V. Butta, CEO of SuperStock and Vice-Chairman and President of a21. "The teaming of Ellen with Haim Ariav, Chief Creative Officer of a21 and SuperStock, is an asset to our company and a benefit to our customers," commented Butta.
Ms. Boughn, who most recently served as Vice President at UpperCut Images, will be responsible for driving overall content strategy and influencing the procurement and production of exclusive content, focusing on Rights-Managed images. Her experience includes work at some of the Industry's most influential stock photography agencies including Corbis and Stone, now a part of Getty Images.
Ms. Boughn added: "With the acquisition of Ingram Publishing and the opening of the Company';s new offices in New York City and London, I look forward to working closely with Tom, Haim, and the rest of the team to contribute to SuperStock's success." Ms. Boughn's appointment follows the recent additions of Tom Costanza as Vice President, CFO of a21 and Candice Crough as Vice President, Sales of SuperStock.
Workbook Premieres New Subscription Service
Workbook the provider of premier graphic arts resources to the advertising, design and communications industries, is now offering a new subscription service to its Phonebook database of up-to-date listings of qualified art buying creatives. Subscribers will have unprecedented access to corporate listings never available before.
Beginning in April, users will have the option of three levels of access with newly expanded categories and added benefits for Standard and Premium subscribers. For $50 a year, Standard subscribers will get all general contact info as well as contact names for those who hire at advertising agencies, design firms, publishers, etc. And, for the first time ever, online access to editorial and corporate in-house listings.
Premium subscribers have all of the Standard subscription features plus unlimited downloads of mailing labels or spreadsheets from the Workbook Mailing List tool or their own personally selected Phonebook contact lists.
Subscribers at this level also get titles for all creative contacts, e-mail addresses when available, hiring habits for creatives, billings for advertising agencies and additional info for corporate art departments. Premium subscription annual fees vary by the type and size of business with installment plans available.
"Our stringently verified Phonebook database is the best anywhere," says Susan Haller, managing editor. "This is the same database that we use to distribute Workbook products. With return rates well below 1 percent, this is the information everyone wants."
All users will still have free access to listings for talent and artists such as photographers and illustrators plus all of the industry support services and general contact info for advertising agencies and design studios. Workbook advertisers will receive free Standard subscriptions and discounts on a Premium level subscription. For more information about the new phone book go to www.workbook.com.