On May 23, 2011 in an open letter to contributors Andy Saunders, Vice President of Creative Imagery for Getty Images, outlined what Getty sees as the future of creative co ntent. His analysis will be of interest to everyone engaged in the stock photo business and can be found at
http://www.gettyimages.com/contributors, in the bottom right corner of the contributor log-in page. No password is necessary to view this link.
Getty’s “core principle” has always been to serve customer’s evolving needs and the company feels “that being responsive to customer needs is ultimately what will drive a successful business for contributors and for the company.”
Part of Getty’s goal with the new contributor contract is to reduce the “overall number of RM images” and provide search results that are “filled with popular, viable and truly valuable images.” Saunders also commented that “Certain images that were obviously RM in the past are not anymore, sometimes only by virtue of the wide availability of reasonably similar images in the lower price models.”