News Analysis
This story deals with Financial Problems at Gamma and GlobalPhoto in France, Getty Returns 10 Million Images, New Corbis Stock Market Contract, Conditions of Ad Business Compared to 18 Months Ago, New Zefa Catalog, New Digital Newsgroup and more.
If you are having trouble getting your images where they can be seen by customers this article is for you. It explains why it is happening (it has very little to do with the quality of your pictures) and what you need to do to Get Your Images Seen.
What is involved in Effective Keywording? Should you limit the number of words you use, or keyword extensively? How is the best way to get this job done? What is the process? This story answers all these questions and more about keywording.
Corbis has announced its intention to dramatically reposition and reorganize its production and distribution systems at Corbis-Sygma. In Paris 93 out of 191 jobs will be affected. Forty-two French staff photographers are scheduled to lose their positions.
This edition has shot items on the New SAA, Revised Information on Getty's RF Sales, Grecco Settles With Corbis, Opportunities For Photographers Trying To Produce RF Discs, Corbis vs. Webshots and National Geographic's Promotional Agreement With AOL.
Corbis has made dramatic changes in their online search tool that should greatly improve the customer experience and lead to increased sales. The former problems of irrelevant search results and not being able to find contemporary advertising images have now been solved.
RF marketers were very visible at the recent PhotoPlus and PACA International Conference meetings in New York. This story examines where RF is today, some of the issues facing RF suppliers and some of the opportunities that may now be available to Rights Protected image sellers.
This issue includes stories on: Portal or Print?, Getty 3rd Quarter Results and New Online Site, $135,000 Sale, Jerry Greenberg Wins Copyright Suit Against Geographic, Photononstop, Grill Leaves Comstock, Recession, Copyright Infringement at CCC, Creative Eye and more.
The stock photo industry was in recession even before September 11th. Advertising pages in major magazines were off 9.2% in the first nine months of 2001 compared with the same period in 2000. Advertising spending is not expected to improve before the 3rd Quarter of 2002. Stock photo sales are off as much as 20% at some agencies. This story outline some of the ways the industry is likely to change in the next 18 months.
Getty's 3rd quarter 2001 revenue was $107.5 million, down 12.4% from the 3rd quarter of 2000. The company expects revenue of between $95 million and $105 million for the 4th quarter of 2001 making gross sales for the year about $454.1 million. At this level the revenue for the year would be down more than 6%.
One of the big questions for people trying to sell Rights Protected stock in the United States is what is the best way to promote the work -- a portal, or a print catalog. This story explores that question.
Photononstop (formerly Groupe DIAF/SDP), a French company, has partnered with Envision in New York to expand the marketing of their work into North America, and to market worldwide, the work of the photographers represented by Envision. The new American operation will be branded Envision Stock Photography, Inc, and is a Photononstop subsidiary.
Getty Images Inc. has redesigned gettyimages.com, in an effort to increase scalability and efficiency for the company as well as provide significant benefits to online customers worldwide. The company generates nearly half its revenue on the Web, and expects the percentage to increase steadily despite the fact that in recent quarters it has seemed to plateau at just under 50%.
This story includes short items on: Envision Establishes New Catalog Representation Model, Geographic Loses Greenberg Case, Liaison Pushes to Own All Imagery, Editorial Sales of September 11th in France, Andre Lloyd Promoted, Economic Slowdown Hits Design Community and more.
With this story Selling Stock is launching a new occasional series of articles offering photographers and stock agents the opportunity to speak out on important industry issues. The aim is to provide a forum for diverse points of view. The first article is by photographer Wayne Eastep.
Corbis has been advised by counsel not to answer questions posed by Jim Pickerell, editor of Selling Stock, because Pickerell is scheduled to testify as an industry expert in a case where Michael Grecco is suing Corbis Sygma for lost transparencies. This story explains the situation and the questions Pickerell would like to see answered.
This story looks at all aspects of Creative Eye, the new version of the online site started by ASMP and known as MIRA. We are pessimistic about Creative Eye's long term chances to accomplish all their goals, and we believe they are engaged on too many fronts. But we recommend that stock photographers give it serious consideration as one of the marketing options for their work. It should NOT be the sole option.
Photographer Tom Grill who co-founded Comstock in 1976 and was their chief photographer and creative director for over two decades has left Comstock and created a new production company under the name TomGrill.com.
This includes short items on: Industry changes for editorial and travel photograhers, Good News on Ad Revenues, Final Getty Contract Deadline, $11,000 RF Sale, Changes at Index Stock, PhotoPlus Still On, Customers Want Smaller Print Catalogs According To Corbis and NY Times Blacklist.
This includes short items on: $135,000 Sale, Corbis Digital Stock Layoffs, $17,000 RF Sale, Getty Scanning Update, Getty's German Disaster, Buyers In The World, Online Usage In The U.S., New position for Stephen Mayes and statistics on use of Video Clips.
This issue includes stories on: alamy.com, Advertising Spending Down, Getty Sales Down, Getty Closes Scanning, Creatas Buys PictureQuest, Speedpix, Argus Portal, Pictor Bankruptcy Update, Reuters and Sipa, Zefa Sales Growth, Sensitive Issues, Corbis Sales, Editorial Photographers Recession and more.
alamy.com is beginning to look like the leading portal option for photographers. They plan to launch a major promotional campaign this fall to image buyers and have developed systems to include agencies and provide custom edits of their site.
Getty has substantially closed down all of its U.S. scanning operations which were located in Seattle. It is expected that London will staff up to handle some of the workload, but the number of images scanned annually is likely to decrease.
This story includes information on Corbis sales to Bill Gates, Corbis Incentive Plan, Getty Offer to Buy Reuters, Photog. Cost of Doing Business, Zefa Sales Growth, Editorial Photographer Recession, and more.
eMotion, Inc., has announced the sale of its PictureQuest content business to Creatas a vertically integrated, media/marketing business selling products and services to the creative community. Creatas first appeared in the stock photo environment in December 2000 when it purchased Dynamic Graphics.