Europe, North America Hardest Hit by 2009 Ad-Spend Decline

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 517 Words | Posted 4/24/2009 | Comments
According to the latest figures ZenithOptimedia, global ad spending will decline by 6.9% in 2009 compared to last year. The largest losses will be in emerging Central and Eastern European markets, which will drop by 13.9%. North America is projected to decline by 8.3%, with the United States losing 8.7%, more than both regional and global averages. Western Europe's projected ad-spend decline is 6.7%.

What Google's Similar-Image Search Means to Traditional Stock Industry

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 797 Words | Posted 4/23/2009 | Comments (4)
The search leader continued expanding its image-related offerings with Similar Images, an experimental search feature from Google Labs. While Google did not pioneer the underlying image-recognition technology or image-to-image searches, the company’s increasing attention to all things visual offers insight into online image-consumption trends. For stock producers and marketers, this foreshadows both opportunities and challenges.

Aperture Foundation Downsizes

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 53 Words | Posted 4/22/2009 | Comments

TopFoto To Give Away Ale at PBF

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 111 Words | Posted 4/22/2009 | Comments
Injecting a little fun into the upcoming annual BAPLA Picture Buyers' Fair in London, TopFoto has designed its PBF stand to look like a bar. The company will also giving away bottles of William Wilberforce Freedom Ale.

Credits-Per-Day Subscription Distinguishes Between Print and Web Uses

By Jim Pickerell | 609 Words | Posted 4/22/2009 | Comments
PantherMedia's proposed credits-per-day subscription plan is structured so customers who need larger files for print uses pay more reasonable prices for their images than is the case with existing subscription and microstock plans.

Micro Contract Terms More Favorable than Traditional

By Jim Pickerell | 593 Words | Posted 4/21/2009 | Comments (1)
Given the rapidly changing trends in the stock photo industry, photographers need to pay close attention to the duration of new contracts they are being asked to sign.

The Image Works Expands Early Color Archive

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 66 Words | Posted 4/21/2009 | Comments

Imense Launches Web-based Kyewording Application

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 183 Words | Posted 4/21/2009 | Comments
Cambridge, U.K.-based technology company Imense has launched Annotator, which it says is the first semi-automatic tool that can reduce keywording time by a factor of 4, while providing more commercially relevant keywords.

Levine Joins Reflex Stock

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 40 Words | Posted 4/20/2009 | Comments

2008 Market Size: Transaction Volume

By Jim Pickerell | 229 Words | Posted 4/20/2009 | Comments
The number of traditionally priced transactions is declining, as is the average price per image.

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.