Last week's mergers among German-speaking image agencies mirror a wave of similar U.S. activity. With increased interest from leading global companies, the third-largest stock-image market may be in for a shakeout.
The Publishers Information Bureau said magazine advertising generated $23.7 billion in 2008, a decline of 7.8% over the previous year. Ad pages were also down by 11.7%.
A consortium that unites Rubberball, Glow Images, Blend Images and some of Blend's partners has become the new owner of the U.S. assets of SuperStock. RGB Ventures intends to continue to operate the company.
Stock-industry suppliers ImageSpan and JaincoTech announced a partnership that expands and cross-promotes the services each offers its clients.
India-based Dinodia Photo Library has met the New Year with a new Web site and a new image collection.
Corbis and Thought Equity Motion have partnered to take advantage of each other's strengths. The two companies will cross-distribute their footage collections, increasing Corbis' content inventory and offering Thought Equity wider international exposure.
Calling 2008 a challenging year would be an understatement.