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RANDOM THOUGHTS 74
February 24, 2004
Corbis and Reuters Announce Global Alliance
Reuters and Corbis have signed a global partnership agreement in which the two
companies will join forces to develop new content, product lines and services
for clients worldwide. Revenues from the newly created lines of business will be
shared between the two companies.
They will combine forces to create new photography product lines and services
addressing market opportunities in sports, entertainment and business pictures.
Under the deal, Reuters news photography and Corbis' commercial pictures and
rights management services will be combined to create a total solution for
sports federations, sponsors, corporations and event organizers around the
globe. Reuters will also use Corbis custom development technology and digital
asset management services to power its picture archive service, containing over
a million images.
The service will increase the number and range of images available to existing
Reuters and Corbis customers. By combining forces it will open up additional
markets, and offer customers in these a powerful alternative to the existing
players.
"Corbis gives us unparalleled expertise in the area of intellectual property and
rights management, along with the best technology infrastructure," said Monique
Villa, Reuters Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Head of
Pictures. "Combining Reuters world-class pictures with rights management skills
and images from Corbis enhances our offering and provides a powerful alternative
to the existing players in the market, " she added.
"This strategic alliance underscores our commitment to meeting the global needs
of market sectors which are presently being underserved," said Jennifer
Hurshell, Senior Vice President of Content Development and Corporate
Communications at Corbis. "Major enterprise sponsors, sports leagues, and
corporate marketers have struggled to find new channels with which to publicize
their brands with compelling imagery. Together, Reuters and Corbis will enable
clients to more easily access and utilize the broadest, most relevant, and
highest quality image content in the world."
Back Issues Of TIME Go Online
Time Warner is digitizing every issue of Time magazine published from 1923 to
the present (over 4,000 issues) using Hewlett-Packard technology to scan every
page. No photos will be included in with these articles. Searches will be of
text only.
"This to us represents one of the more noteworthy points where people will soon,
I think, understand (that) more and more content that's been hidden in a vault
is now coming available," Gary Elliott, vice president of HP marketing
communications told Reuters.
HP technology is also being used by Getty Images to digitally archive its more
than 70,000 film clips.
Adobe Considering Marketing Digital Images
Adobe Systems Inc. is considering launching a digital imaging version of Apple's
iTunes according to CEO Bruce Chizen in an interview with ComputerWire.
Given the company's dominant position in the graphic design community with its
Photoshop and Illustrator products Chizen believes it has the potential to more
tightly integrate the downloading of content with Adobe's software packages.
Users might not need to leave the confines of their Adobe design environments to
search for and subsequently import digital content.
Of course, for providing this service Adobe expects to get a percentage of image
usage fees. Chizen said discussion on such an idea are still at an early stage.
"We have not decided whether we might offer such a service in partnership with
other providers, like a Corbis, or try and do it ourselves," he said.
Adobe has been attempting to turn itself into more of a platform player for
creative professionals rather than a stand-alone applications vendor according
to ComputerWire. In the fiscal year ending November 28, 2003 Adobe had record
revenue of $1.3 billion, up 11% from the previous year and net income of $266.3
million, up 39%.
Virtual Picture Desk Handles Focus On Sports
The owners of the "Focus On Sports" collection have contracted with Virtual
Picture Desk to manage and/or sell the library. Focus on Sports was established
in 1975 and operated a very successful library for 20 years. However, they did
not invest in technology and the agency manager retired in 1997. While the
collection has remained intact, it has been rather dormant since 1997. VPD is in
the process of editing, digitizing and captioning the library and by March
expects to have 5,000 images (out of a planned 100,000) scanned and retouched.
The complete library consists of over 900,000 sports images covering every major
U.S. sport and sporting event from 1948 through 1997.
Anyone interested in acquiring or licensing the collection should contact George
Sinclair at 917-209-0867 or e-mail gsinclair@vpdcorp.com. Virtual Picture Desk
has relocated its corporate headquarters from New York to Chicago, but will
maintain offices in New York and Los Angeles.