Articles by Jim Pickerell

What's Getty's Industry Share With PhotoLibrary Acquisition?

By Jim Pickerell | 535 Words | Posted 5/10/2011 | Comments (1)
Photographers are trying to assess how much the acquisition of PhotoLibrary will add to Getty’s gross revenue and what impact it might have on Getty’s overall control of the stock photo market. I estimate that gross 2010 revenue for still photo licensing worldwide was about $1.45 billion. Over the years I have defined the “stock photo market” as including the licensing of still photos and illustrations, but not footage or any of the auxiliary activities that Getty, Corbis and some other companies are involved in. I also include in my gross figure revenue generated by the picture divisions of AP, Reuters, AFP, etc. and of course the editorial division of Getty Images.

APA Finds Getty Images Proposed Contract Changes Unacceptable

By Jim Pickerell | 423 Words | Posted 5/9/2011 | Comments
APA (American Photographic Artists) members have “uniformly agreed that Getty Images’ proposed changes are unacceptable.” Through its counsel, Nelson & McCulloch LLP, APA contacted Getty Images prior to the April 30th deadline and made clear its position on the new contract. The organization requested, “that Getty Images stay or extend its self-imposed deadline for forcing contributors to sign (its) agreements.” Getty Images refused to respond to APA’S inquiry.

Tourist Icons

By Jim Pickerell | 827 Words | Posted 5/9/2011 | Comments
Alamy has searched through its collection of over 23 million images to determine the top ten buildings around the world that are the most photographed. As we enter the tourist season this information is worth considering. These locations are icons that represent a city, region or country. They are must-see locations for any tourist visiting these areas and are likely to appear in every travel, airline and hotel promotion for the general location of these buildings. You’ll also find them on calendars and postcards. There is great demand for these subjects.

Decline In Average Licensing Fees

By Jim Pickerell | 1647 Words | Posted 5/5/2011 | Comments
It’s no surprise to anyone in the stock photo business that average fees for image use are declining. The questions are how much, what’s causing the decline, can we make it up in volume and how can we turn it around?

UIG To Represent The British Library Content For Online Education Market

By Jim Pickerell | 374 Words | Posted 5/4/2011 | Comments
Universal Images Group Limited (UIG), the distribution business unit of the Virtual Picture Desk (VPD), has entered into a long term agreement with The British Library Board to represent their picture library content for the online education market on a global and worldwide basis.

Stipple Launches Revenue Sharing System For Photo Agencies

By Jim Pickerell | 1418 Words | Posted 5/3/2011 | Comments
Stipple, a San Francisco-based technology company, has released a suite of products that will turn editorial images into e-commerce storefronts for consumers. The principle behind this new development is that consumers often want to purchase something that is pictured in an editorial image. It might be a T-shirt, a dress or the jeans a celebrity is wearing; or a purse; or shoes; an electronic gadget; or golf clubs – you get the idea. How does the consumer find the brand name of product pictured and where to buy it

Getty Images Acquires Photolibrary

By Jim Pickerell | 262 Words | Posted 5/3/2011 | Comments
According to Tech Crunch Getty Images has acquired competitor The Photolibrary Group. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed and as of this writing no additional information is available on the Getty web site.

Getty Images Acquires PicScout

By Jim Pickerell | 423 Words | Posted 4/28/2011 | Comments
Getty Images has announced that it has acquired PicScout, a leader in identifying image use, metadata and licensing information on the web. Founded in 2002 by Offir Gutelzon and Eyal Gura the company is based in Herzliya, Israel and has 60 employees. The PicScout brand will remain, and the R&D team is expected to remain in Israel.

Negotiating "Life of Edition" Rights

By Jim Pickerell | 793 Words | Posted 4/27/2011 | Comments (1)
Some textbook publishers have begun to ask photographers to invoice them for the right to use images for the “life of the edition” of a book. The following is the language from one such request. "Please bill us for publication rights for the life of the edition. … we would like by this permission request to sell additional units through the life of the edition...."

Science Photo Library Turns 30 and Launches 30:30

By Jim Pickerell | 279 Words | Posted 4/27/2011 | Comments
The world’s leading specialist image and footage agency, Science Photo Library, has been in the business of providing world-class imagery for the last 30 years. To celebrate, they have launched “30:30” which means clients will receive a series of special anniversary offers throughout the rest of 2011.