Articles by Jim Pickerell

Getty Pays Melania Trump Royalties

By Jim Pickerell | 647 Words | Posted 7/6/2018 | Comments
NBC News has reported that “News media paid Melania Trump thousands for use of photos in ‘positive stories only.’” President Donald Trump’s most recent financial disclosures revel that the first lady earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in photo royalties in 2017 from Getty Images. (Federal officials are only required to give an income range in their filings.

Globe Photos Resurrected As Fine Art Offering

By Jim Pickerell | 475 Words | Posted 7/5/2018 | Comments
From the 1940s through the 80s and 90s Globe Photos, Inc. was widely regarded by newspapers and magazines as a leading source for celebrity images. As other competitors entered the market Globe’s popularity faded, but they still have photographers covering red carpet events on a daily basis in Hollywood and New York. In recent years Globe Photos was one of 12 archives acquired by Capital Art, Inc., the world’s largest pop culture and image licensing company with more than 15 million images of every movie and entertainment celebrity of the 20th century.

VCG Closes 500px Marketplace: Abandons Creative Commons

By Jim Pickerell | 448 Words | Posted 7/2/2018 | Comments
On Saturday Visual China Group (VCG) shut down 500px Marketplace and replaced it with a distribution partnership arrangement. China users will be able to license the images through VCG who acquired 500px earlier this year. Getty Images will handle all licensing in the rest of the world.

The MEGA Agency Launches “The Mega Cloud”: Actively Seeking Contributor Archives

By Jim Pickerell | 767 Words | Posted 7/2/2018 | Comments
The Mega Agency, a leading provider of news, sport and entertainment content, is now giving photographers a quick, easy and efficient way to upload their digital archives. The initiative has been launched to add rich editorial content to Mega’s existing archive of more than 30million images and daily production of 10,000 images.? 

Microstock Agency Sizes

By Jim Pickerell | 1067 Words | Posted 6/29/2018 | Comments
Other than Shutterstock’s quarterly reports and occasional bits of information from Getty concerning iStock there is virtually no solid information available regarding the annual gross revenue generated by the microstock companies. I decided to take a look at the Poll information that can be found on Microstockgroup.com of 10 of the leading microstock agencies to see if I could draw any reasonable conclusions about the annual revenue of these companies.

The Mega Agency Becomes Premium Content Partner For AMI

By Jim Pickerell | 391 Words | Posted 6/27/2018 | Comments
The Mega Agency has signed a deal with American Media, Inc. (AMI), the leading publisher of celebrity journalism and health and fitness magazines in the United States, that makes it AMI’s premium content partner. Mega already globally syndicates exclusive content for AMI, which owns and operates the leading print and digital celebrity and active lifestyle media brands in the United States.

Photononstop Not Paying For Keywording

By Jim Pickerell | 217 Words | Posted 6/26/2018 | Comments (2)
Lohian Networks a keywording agency in India reports that Paris based Photononstop has not been paying its bills and may be in financial difficulty. Rashi Jain, Project Coordinator for Lohian Networks reports that in 2016 his company keyworded 3788 images for Photononstop at a rate of $1.25 per image for a total cost of $4,735.00. Invoices were sent in June and July 2016 via Photosindia in the U.S. Almost two years later these invoices have not been paid after repeated followup requests.

Olycom Files Bankruptcy: Acquired By LaPresse

By Jim Pickerell | 228 Words | Posted 6/26/2018 | Comments
Olycom, a major Italian photographic agency headquartered in Milan and founded in 1958 by Walfrido Chiarini as Olimpia Fotocronache has filed for bankruptcy. Everything regarding debts is in the hands of a judge. LaPresse, the Italian multimedia news agency led by Marco Durante, has acquired the analog and digital libraries of Olycom including the Publifoto brand, the historical archives Olimpia and Olycom and related brands covering the whole of the twentieth century, with a collection of over 15 million images.

Will EU’s Article 13 Help Photographers?

By Jim Pickerell | 855 Words | Posted 6/25/2018 | Comments (2)
Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Legal Affairs approved amendments to the EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. EU’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. Among the amendments approved was Article 13.

Scope Feature Folds In UK

By Jim Pickerell | 185 Words | Posted 6/21/2018 | Comments
Scope Features in the UK has gone into voluntary liquidation with nearly £400,000 in unpaid debts and nearly £13,000 in royalties still owed photographers. According to its statement of affairs filed at Companies House on 17 May, individual photographers are owed sums ranging from £30 to more than £2,000.