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.
Appropriation artist Richard Prince has responded to a suit filed by French photographer Patrick Cariou with, unsurprisingly, a fair-use defense.
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.
Over three quarters (77%) of consumers agree that they can make a positive difference by purchasing from socially or environmentally responsible companies, says the new BBMG Conscious Consumer Report: Redefining Value in a New Economy. However, 23% of consumers they have "no way of knowing" if a product is actually green or does what it claims.
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.