Digital Railroad Insider Sheds Light on What Went Wrong

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 1404 Words | Posted 10/31/2008 | Comments (1)
An insider from the now-defunct Digital Railroad contacted Selling Stock to say that a number of media outlets have misreported what has transpired at the company and to offer a different viewpoint.

Image Companies Struggle to Integrate Sound

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 666 Words | Posted 10/30/2008 | Comments
A number of stock companies are betting that the rising popularity of multimedia content will spur the growth of stock music and sound licensing. Though there has been some activity in this area, integrating audio into the broader stock business is proving to be a challenge.

PACA Plans Multi-Agency Search Engine

By Jim Pickerell | 515 Words | Posted 10/30/2008 | Comments (2)
The Picture Archive Council of America aims to become the Google of commercial stock imagery. PACA plans to launch a stock-image search engine with a simple interface that will enable customers to quickly identify collections with images that relate to any of more than 120,000 of the most used search terms.

Publicis Sees Digital Media as Stable and Growing

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 307 Words | Posted 10/29/2008 | Comments
Not all forecasts are dark: Publicis, one of the world's largest advertising and media services organizations, reported relatively strong third-quarter results, driven by digital media.

Digital Railroad Shuts Down---Can PhotoShelter Step Up?

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 525 Words | Posted 10/29/2008 | Comments (2)
As Digital Railroad hurriedly shuts down, PhotoShelter is offering discounts and technical assistance with archive migration.

Alamy Appoints New Board Member

By Jim Pickerell | 75 Words | Posted 10/29/2008 | Comments

BREAKING: Digital Railroad Shuts Down

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 188 Words | Posted 10/28/2008 | Comments (5)
Digital Railroad has given a 24-hour shutdown notice. Photographers using the company's online archiving service are advised to backup needed information immediately.

Photographers Sue Getty Images Over Premium Access

By Jim Pickerell | 446 Words | Posted 10/28/2008 | Comments (2)
Photographers Roger Ressmeyer, Richard Minden and 82 other named complainants have filed a copyright infringement suit against Getty Images in the Eastern District of New York. The plaintiffs allege that licensing their rights-managed images as part of Getty's Premium Access subscription product is a violation of existing contractual agreements.

Corbis Predicts Slight Industry Decline by 2012

By Jim Pickerell | 390 Words | Posted 10/28/2008 | Comments
Corbis predicts still-image sales will decline only slightly by 2012. However, this is no reason to be sanguine, as the same total will be divided differently among various industry segments. In addition, this analysis was completed during the summer, prior to the more recent economic disruption.

Corbis To Reduce Rights-Managed Royalties, Sustain Q3 Profitability

By Jim Pickerell | 354 Words | Posted 10/28/2008 | Comments
During a weekend seminar at PhotoPlus Expo in New York, Corbis has announced that it will adjust rights-managed photographers' royalty rates downward "to harmonize its royalties with industry norms." Company CEO Gary Shenk also told Selling Stock that Corbis recorded a profit during the last quarter.

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.