Agency professionals, service providers, photographers and those
interested in stock licensing are invited to the ASMP Meetup between
5:00pm and 6:30pm in the Javits Center Cafeteria on Friday, October 29.
Everyone interested in stock photography is invited; ASMP membership is
not required.
Alamy is seeking an industry heavyweight to develop a worldwide news division.
“Our contention is that the iPad version of a magazine is part of the
rate base of that magazine,” said Condé Nast vice president of editorial
operations Richard Levine at the recent conference of the Picture
Archive Council of America. “A new strategy for acquiring content is
needed because it will be impossible to anticipate how imagery initially
acquired primarily for print use might be repurposed,” he continued.
This is not unique to Condé Nast issue, but rather a position other
publishers have already taken or will need to take in the near future.
Richard Levine’s keynote address at the PACA International Conference,
“The Impact of the iPad and the Future Use of Content,” raised a number
of critical issues for the stock photo industry.
A new piece of legislation, “Combating Online Infringement
and Counterfeits Act,” is now working its way through U.S. Senate
hearings. Now is the time for anyone interested in copyright protection
to contact their senators and congress men or women.
Advertising growth is continuing to surprise analysts. ZenithOptimedia
has upgraded its forecast for global ad growth in 2010 from 3.5% to
4.8%. The forecast for 2011 is a continued growth of 4.6%. However, this
positive news comes somewhat qualified.
PicScout’s Image Tracker software has helped Glen Carner’s Hawaiian Art
Network dramatically grow revenue in less than a year by locating
infringements and assisting in the collection of appropriate fees for
unauthorized uses. Currently, revenue recovered from infringements
accounts for about 50% of Hawaiian Art Network’s income.
Unemployment in the United States may be affecting freelance
photographers in some not so obvious ways. While many photographers and
designers have either lost their jobs or are under employed what we
often forget is that those who still have viable businesses may now be
competing with the unemployed as they produce new images as a way or
earning a little extra cash.
Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney III recently sent his
staff a memo that said: “We’re no longer a newspaper company. We’re a
news media company. The newspaper is just one way we package and
distribute the content we publish.”
Photographers whose business it is to produce stock images that are
designed for use in textbooks should IMMEDIATELY look for another line
of work. For years the major textbook publisher -- not fly by night
organizations -- have been paying fees based on minimal press runs.
Then, with no regard whatsoever for the written contracts they executed
with the sellers, they have made extensive additional uses of the images
without making any attempt to compensate the image creators in any way
for the use that exceeded the original license agreement. These
additional uses have resulted in millions of dollars of extra revenue
for the publishers. Such actions were not occasional oversights, but
policy.