iStockphoto: A Buyer for Every Image

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 259 Words | Posted 7/20/2007 | Comments
The Calgary-based microstock pioneer iStockphoto says its community has surpassed 2 million members. Of this number, 38,000 people are contributors - and many microstock photographers moonlight as art directors and graphic designers who also buy images.

Science Faction Appoints Radcliffe as CTO

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 68 Words | Posted 7/20/2007 | Comments

BigStockPhoto Launches New Search Engine

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 67 Words | Posted 7/19/2007 | Comments

a21 Hires iProspect To Drive Web Biz

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 49 Words | Posted 7/19/2007 | Comments

Jupitermedia Buys Mediabistro, Retains Touby

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 232 Words | Posted 7/19/2007 | Comments
Jupitermedia acquired Mediabistro for $20 million in cash and a two-year earn-out that may result in an additional $3 million. Lauren Touby, the founder of the New York-based online community Mediabistro.com, who will stay with the company, referred to the $23 million deal as "a marriage of minds and media resources."

ALAMY Q2 2007 FIGURES

By Jim Pickerell | 1434 Words | Posted 7/18/2007 | Comments
Alamy has released their second quarter 2007 figures on contributors, percentage revenue and average pricing which shows no major change from the previous quarter. In the quarter they added 897,277 images to their collection, slightly fewer than in the previous quarter. They now have over 9.15 million images on their site.

ProStockMaster Celebrates First Birthday

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 314 Words | Posted 7/18/2007 | Comments
This July marks the first year for ProStockMaster, a shareware software package that allows microstock contributors to simultaneously upload images to eight leading Web sites. ProStockMaster also features additional capabilities designed to streamline a photographer's workflow.

Understanding RPI

By Jim Pickerell | 1777 Words | Posted 7/18/2007 | Comments
Recently, I've been made aware that some photographers don't understand the difference between Return-Per-Image (RPI) and Return-Per-Image-Licensed (RPIL) and they are drawing some incorrect conclusions, particularly when Alamy reports its quarterly numbers.

Brainpix Announces Mexico City Expansion

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 49 Words | Posted 7/18/2007 | Comments

Blend Signs New Distributors

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 47 Words | Posted 7/17/2007 | Comments

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.