The World Association of Newspapers and Newspaper Publisher has released its annual
World Press Trends report covering 223 countries.
Traditionally, the primary uses of still pictures were in printed
products such as magazines, newspapers, books, brochures, direct mail
promotions, catalogs and—to a much smaller degree—posters and product
packages. An estimated two thirds to three quarters of all revenue
generated from stock pictures (in the range $1 billion worldwide) comes
from print image uses, but this demand has steadily declined for a number of years.
A large percentage of the still-photo segment of the stock photography
business is related to advertising—either licensing images for use in
print ads, or licensing them for use in editorial products that are
supported to a great extent by ads. The health of the stock photography
business is directly related to the health of the print business. To
understand what is likely to happen in the still photography business,
it is important to have some understanding of advertising trends.
Twenty questions to test your knowledge of the photo licensing industry and its future potential.
The opportunity to interact with editors from publishing companies, picture researchers, stock agents and photographers at the American Society of Picture Professionals' Reinvention Weekend in Boston provided a clearer picture of where the business of producing images for publication is headed.
Can the reader trust the reporting not to be biased when photojournalism projects are funded by non-profit and non-governmental organizations?
With all the free information available on the Internet why would or should anyone want to pay for information?
Many consumers believe that writers should give away their work in
order to build a following of customers who will then pay them for some
other product or service they provide. Most would acknowledge that some
effort and expense is required on the part of the creator to produce
good, useful information, but often that is not deemed to be of any
economic value. Photographers tend to supply information on their blogs
as a way of getting customers to hire them for assignment work, for
paid speaking engagements or as a way of selling a book. The other way
to earn revenue is to generate enough traffic to your site that
advertisers will pay to surround your information with ads in hopes
that some or your popularity will rub off on them. Is giving away information the only way?
According to BIA/Kelsey, local advertising spend continues to shift to digital and to decline overall in gross revenue generated.
Dirck Halstead's perceptive two-part analysis of the photojournalism business is a must-read for photojournalists or anyone considering this career. It should also be a wake up call for stock and advertising photographers hoping to sell their images for use in print publications.
If you are among those who think newspapers and magazines will always be with us because customers want them, consider that this year's newsprint consumption in the U.S. is down to a third of what it was in 1990.
"We have reset and won't rebound and re-grow," said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer on the continued decline of print as an advertising medium during the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival.
Traditional stock-photo sellers wonder why there does not seem to be any growth in demand for their product. The 2006 U.S. Census Bureau statistics of U.S. businesses could provide some clues.
If you want to continue to take pictures for a living, it's time to start learning to shoot video. Why? because newspapers and magazines are beginning to move away from print and toward online. Once online offerings have been established, video and sound become more appealing and a better way to communicate editorial information and advertising messages than using stills.