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RANDOM THOUGHTS 96
January 31, 2005
Is Maximizing Return Per Image Primary Goal?
Some photographers argue that once Getty has placed an image on its site it should be in Getty's best interest to maximize sales of that image. If that were the case then it follows that Getty should do its best to make sure that no other image that might be a replacement for the first image appear on the site.
I disagree. I believe Getty's first goal is to maximize profits, and to do that it does not necessarily follow that they must maximize the sales of each individual image on the site.
When Getty had significant costs in adding each new image to the site it might have followed that they needed to maximize sales of existing images before adding new ones. But with the addition of Image Partners Getty has eliminated most of the costs of adding a significant portion of new images to the site. And with these Image Partner images it gets to keep as much, if not more, of the fee collected from any sale.
Getty also hears from some customers that they see the same images over and over again and don't see enough new choices. This gives Getty an incentive to add new variations even if that ends up reducing the sales of some older images.
The important point for Getty is not how much they can earn from any given image, but the gross revenue. They may be able to increase their revenue by giving customers more choices, and on a per-image basis that is likely to mean that the average revenue pre-image is likely to decline. By getting more and more images from Image Partners they have greatly reduced their costs of updating images already in the file because they no longer have any scanning or keywording costs and much less administrative costs when they take in new images. Also, in some cases they get to keep more of the sale if they sell an Image Partner image than if they were to sell one that one of their photographers had produced in the past. Thus, there is very little reason to want to maximize sales of older images.
Asia Works Changes Name
AsiaWorks Photography has changed its name and is now OnAsia Images (www.onasia.com). Co-Director, Peter Charlesworth explained that, "The name is shorter and easier to credit. Apart from the name and a new logo, nothing else has changed it is still the same agency, under the same ownership and management team."
They now have over 70,000 Asian images online all available for Instant Download in high resolution format. "OnAsia Images remains the leading online resource for Asian editorial imagery with over 70 of the regions' top photographers available for assignment," added Co-director Yvan Cohen. The agency has recently begun offering image management services including scanning and image retouching.
Art4Love And PictureArts Provide Décor Imagery To Corporate Clientele
Art4Love Inc. (ALVI.PK) has announced an agreement with PictureArts Corp. to make fine art prints of its outstanding images available to corporate clients. Through this revenue sharing agreement, Art4Love Inc. now is able to offer its clients a wide range of PictureArts' unique, rights-managed photographic images for their corporate walls. The
PictureArts agreement will provide Art4Love and its affiliate partners access to over 80,000 high quality, digitized images from the soon-to-launch picturearts.com website. Art4Love expands its reach by selling PictureArts products into new vertical markets, such as department stores, casinos, hotels and movie theatres for display and decor purposes.
"PictureArts is excited about working with Art4Love Inc. as it ties in with our corporate commitment to work with the best of breed companies," said Jeffrey Burke, President and CEO of PictureArts Corp. "This partnership benefits both our company and our contributing artists by providing additional outlets and revenue for our great collections of specialty images. We look forward to doing business with Art4Love."
"Art4Love sales channels are among the most creative in the business, and we are thrilled to have their caliber of talent representing the PictureArts collections," said Jerry Tavin, PictureArts' Senior Consultant for Artist and International Relations.
"PictureArts believes in the power of photography to tell a story and inspire action," said Chad Love Lieberman, Chief Executive Officer of Art4Love Inc. "This partnership with PictureArts will expand our collection of photographs, creating an infinite amount of choices for our clients. "With this transaction completed, along with our already existing traditional art collection, Art4Love becomes a complete, one-stop organization for the art and photo corporate purchaser. We are now able to fully service our customers' needs."
Changes At Getty Image Partners
Jane Lockwood who has been the principle contact for many of Getty's Image Partners will be leaving Getty Images on February 4th. Going forward the image partner team will be led by Michael Teaster, VP Image Partners and includes: Robert Henson, Director, Image Partner Operations; Karen McLaughlin, Director, Film Image Partners; Jill Wear, Manager, Editorial Image Partners; and Megan Murphy, Image Partner Development Coordinator.
In addition, it has been announced that the company has made some changes in the workflow that will enable material from the partners to get up quicker and in greater quantities.