This month has seen a flurry of activity from online content superstore Newscom. The company has brought on several new brands and reorganized its sales and business development operations to "reach new markets and develop relationships with new partners," said managing director Bill Creighton.
Days before the planned Getty merger with private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman, a corporate memo offers the industry leader's perspective of the current competitive landscape. Company management places total visual-content revenues at $7 billion to $8 billion per year, with original commissioned work generating 61%.
Digital Railroad has upgraded the technology of its Marketplace, a sales platform that recently became the focus of the business. Among new features is a rights-managed pricing calculator that integrates the Picture Licensing Universal System international standards.
SnapVillage is officially out of beta. In preparing for the full commercial launch, the Corbis-owned microstock, which now has some 300,000 images available for sale, has upgraded its image-handling and back-end technologies. The company is also running a 25% discount on its subscription service for the month of June.
Alamy has launched a program called Limited Use that makes it possible for those selling images as RM and traditional RF to make the same images available to some customers for nominal fees - without risking loss of revenue at the higher end of the market.