Libris by PhotoShelter and
Greenfly Inc. have announced a strategic partnership to empower effortless content sharing across social media. This relationship unites Libris’ digital asset management platform for visual storytelling with Greenfly’s new product, Greenfly Connect, which fully automates the last-mile content workflow for social media. With the power of Libris and Greenfly, brands can now tap into the networks of their influencers and exponentially boost their reach across social platforms.
For a long time, I’ve been trying to get some idea of the revenue AdobeStock generates annually. Adobe doesn’t share that information, but I’ve finally arrived at a strategy that may help. I’ve contacted a few of Adobe’s major contributors and asked them what their total royalty earnings were from Adobe in the last year and the total number of images they have in the collection.
Science Photo Library has announced a change in its distribution and future presence in the French market. As of September they launched
sciencephoto.fr to further strengthen their presence.
Effective September 1, 2019, StockFood will become
Image Professionals. The Munich-based media service provider
StockFood GmbH originally focused on food photography, but has continuously expanded its scope of business in recent years and is now emerging with a new company name. Image Professionals will bring together all of the company's specialized agencies and services. However, only the company is being renamed. StockFood, the food photo agency, will remain unaffected.
Many brands are finding that their Internet marketing is not working as well as it did a year or so ago. The brands pay Google, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other web hosting services huge amounts of money to target potential customers with pop-up ads that often don’t seem to generate much in additional sales. Brands like Airbnb, Away, Bumble, Callaway Golf, REI Co-op and Goose Island Beer Co. are developing custom, specialized magazines that focus on what their brand has to offer. If this trend grows it may offer new work for assignment photographers with specialized connections or skills.
It’s bad enough that social media users are grabbing photos they find on the Internet and using them without compensation or credit, but they are also using them in ways that totally mis-represents the story the image creator was trying to tell. Increasingly, not only is it impossible to believe anything you READ on the Internet, you can’t even believe anything you SEE on it either.
An editorial stock agent tells me that he is trying to hold the line, or increase, the prices he charges for images because his providers tell him that their costs are increasing. Meanwhile, a competitor who is offering dramatically lower prices in an attempt to win customers has entered the market. As a result, the agent's providers are seeing poorer sales. He asks for advice as to what he should do? I’ll give some answers, but I also want to invite my readers to chime in with any thoughts they might have, or strategies that have worked for them.
According to Leslie Hughes, Founder & CEO of
iSPY Visuals, Inc.45% of Creative Pros are using FREE (CC0) content. Similar percentages are using microstock. Leslie also operates
Visualsteam where she conducts regular buyer surveys in an effort get a better understanding of the developing and changing needs for photos and illustrations. Check out this link for more information about
Visualsteam’s 6th Annual Survey of Image Buyer.
Many U.S. photographers are hoping the CASE Act, a new law working its way through Congress, will help them protect their copyright and make it easier for them to go after infringers. The law will establish a Copyright Claims Board (CCB), a Small Claims court and eliminate the need to use the expensive Federal Court system to pursue infringers. Photography trade associations – ASMP, PPA, DMLA, NPPA, APA, NANPA – and other members of the
Copyright Alliance have been seeking this change for over a decade.
Storyblocks will be closing the Marketplace segment of its business on September 10th and moving back to a subscription only offering. Contributors who have outstanding payouts will receive those payments sometime after September 10th even if the amount owed has not met the minimum payout requirement.
About Michael Masterson
Michael Masterson has a broad range of experience in marketing, business development, strategic planning, contact negotiations and recruiting in the photography, graphic design and publishing industries. In addition to his long experience at the Workbook and Workbookstock, Masterson owned and was creative director of his own graphic design firm for several years.
Masterson has been a speaker or panelist at industry events such as Seybold, PhotoPlus Expo, Visual Connections and the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) national conference. He is currently the national president of the American Society of Picture Professionals (ASPP). He also serves on the board of the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council in his Los Angeles community. He chaired the marketing committee for the Los Angeles Conservancy, a historic preservation advocacy group, for many years.
He currently heads Masterson Consulting, working on projects ranging from business development for creative companies and sourcing talent for them to promoting and marketing industry events as well as providing resume and professional profile services for job-seekers. He can be reached at zvpunryqznfgrefba@tznvy.pbz.