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NEW PNI INTERNET SITE
September 1, 1998
PNI has launched a new internet site at www.picturequest.com. Users will
find four distinct collections:
- Publishers Depot - This is a new access to PNI's flagship service which
has over 350,000 images from almost 40 stock agencies
- Branded Stores - In this section you can look at the work of a single
agency. (You can also do that at Publishers Depot by entering the agency
name as a search parameter.) So far there are two agencies in this section
- FPG with about 1500 images and TIB with almost 9,000 images.
- Signature Collections - At the moment there are four agencies in this
section - Aurora, Check Six, nonstock and Outside Images. This niche
enables focused image buyers to look a collections that specialize in
certain specific stock categories.
- Royalty Free Options - Users can license single images or purchase
entire collections on CD-ROM through this site.
Users must register to get access to all but a small "guest area."
Currently PNI have over 40,000 registered users. After registering users
have immediate access to all images and can create lightboxes, price items,
download comps and access all tools and resources at no cost.
In all cases there are price schedules for certain uses. Each agency has
some flexibility in determining the type of uses that can be priced by a
schedule and the uses where some negotiation must take place. PNI handles
all negotiation with some input from the agency. PNI handles all billing
and collection.
It is our understanding that in the case of FPG, PNI takes 25% off the top.
FPG splits the remaining 75% with the photographer giving the photographer
37.5% of the gross sale price.
We suspect that PNI takes the same percentage from TIB sales, but that has
not been confirmed. An interesting problems arises with TIB's franchise
offices, like Chicago, and it is not clear how they intend to deal with it.
If a sale is made by PNI to a client in the Chicago area, does the Chicago
office of TIB get a piece of it? If so, how much? If not, why not?
Now would be a good time for photographers from FPG and TIB to check with
their agency and determine what percentage of the gross sale they will be
receiving for sales made through PNI.