Jack Hollingsworth, one of the most prolific stock shooters of the last couple decades, has announced a three-day educational program called Photographer Makeover. The first of probably many seminars begins on June 1 in Austin, Texas.
How does the total 2008 editorial revenue of $700 million break down among breaking news, editorial features and books? And what portion of this revenue goes to large editorial suppliers operating outside the stock industry?
Commercial stock accounts for 56% of total revenues generated by licensing still images. Editorial, specifically celebrity imagery, is the one traditional growth segment, while the sales of microstock and subscription products now nearly equal revenues generated by traditional royalty-free images.
Selling Stock has updated its estimates of the gross revenue generated worldwide by the stock photo industry in 2008. We have also estimated the number of images licensed under rights-managed, royalty-free and microstock models and segmented global sales by geographic region.
I believe that worldwide customers pay a combined total of about $1.8 billion for still stock images and illustration annually. There has been virtually no growth in this market in the last few of years. In the fall of 2008 Corbis CEO Gary Shenk estimated that total 2007 revenue for the industry was $2.3 billion and predicted that it will decline to $2.2 billion by 2012.
Getty Images has notified its suppliers that it will discontinue offering rights-managed content on the Jupiterimages website as of August 1. Images will be pulled down from www.jupiterimages.com, www.jupiterimages.ca, www.jupiterimages.co.uk, www.jupiterimages.com.au, www.jupiterimages.de, www.jupiterimages.fr and www.jupiterimages.es.
Getty Images has revised, simplified and made its model and property releases more visually appealing with larger text. These releases are available in twelve languages and anyone can use them, regardless of whether or not they license images through Getty Images.
The most commonly heard complaint from traditional photographers about microstock is that it is impossible to make money selling pictures for a few dollars. Yet the expected 2009 earnings of some 150 iStockphoto contributors suggest that these shooters make a very respectable living, even by U.S. full-time traditional shooter standards.
WebMediaBrands-reported fourth-quarter figures for Jupiterimages show an 11.6% revenue decline from total 2007 revenues and a 23.1% decline from last year's final quarter.