News Analysis
If you have any questions about why photographers don't trust Stock Agencies, and believe they can do a better job of licensing their work directly read the following from Seth Resnick, President of the Editorial Photographers group (EP).
Newsweek has recently lowered their day rate and some of the industry's leading photographers are saying enough is enough. Burke Uzzle and David Burnett have turned down work and written strong letters to Sarah Harbutt, Director of Photography at Newsweek. Their letters are printed here.
This series of short items includes: Tony Stone (the man) is returning to the industry, Advertising spending down, ASMP endorses StockArtistsAlliance, Rightspring doesn't get financing, and more.
Getty Images, Inc. announced today that they expect revenue for the first quarter ended March 31, 2001, to be approximately $124 million, which is about five percent below the $130 to $133 million guidance to investors provided by the company on February 8th.
The new Getty Images photographer contract has arrived and it seems that Getty and their photographers are operating at cross purposes. This story is my analysis of the current situation.
Many U.S. photographers dissatisfied with their current representation are taking a hard look at what Masterfile has to offer. The company had sales of $16 million in 2000, 55% of which were in the U.S. 20% of the photographers they represent earn roylaties of over $100,000 per year. This story provides an indepth analysis of their operation.
visual media international (vmi), which includes the picture agency Zefa Visual Media has acquired the Benelux Group situated in the Netherlands and Belgium. The company has over 200,000 images available online and will be establishing offices in the U.S. in 2002.
The 11th District Court of Appeals reversed a lower court decision and found that National Geographic had infringed Jerry Greenbergs copyright when they produced the ''108 Years of National Geographic on CD-ROM.'' The lower court is ordered to provide injunctive relief for Greenberg. Greenberg's attorney, Norman Davis, said, The appellate ruling ''establishes brand new law that had not existed before. It'll apply to any author who owns the copyright in his work.''
Two new actions have raised photographer hopes for a favorable Supreme Court opinion on Tasini vs. The New York Times Company. Register of Copyrights, Marybeth Peters has gone on record with a compelling document supporting authors. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in Greenberg vs. National Geographic also provides support for the authors position.
A new type of sub-agent providing technology services is moving to take a share of the gross fee in the internet environment. This fee, that is often hidden, will further reduce the photographer's percentage. Photographers need to push for full disclosure.
This story has information on French court decision on lost transparencies of Gamma photographer, RF use trends, Laision returning all analog images, ASPP Seminar to identify solutions for finding editorial images, Solus Images and more.
Corbis will introduce subscription pricing for their entire 30,000 image royalty free library. WAM!NET will access to corporations, publishers, advertising agencies and other creative professionals. Customers will pay monthly fee. Annual fee similar to price of a disc. There are no plans to use this type of pricing for RP images in the collection.
This issue has stories on Convergence acquisitions, Moffly Forms Creatas, Getty's Year 2000 Results, Getty's upcoming contract battle with photographers, Random Eye's new cross brand searching, Staff reductions at Corbis, an analysis of the 50/50 split and its place in today's market, and more.
Commentary by Allen Russell, Dir. of Photography at Index Stock and past president of PACA on the state of the stock industry from the photographer's perspective.
Is there a logical reason for dividing revenues 50/50 in 2001, given the changes in the industry? Is this percentage fair?'' This story looks at the history and draws some conclusions.
This story included short items on Randomeye, Allsport Copying Empics Web Site, new pricing for web & power point user at Getty & Corbis, Sygma images going into database, Promotions and Resignations at Corbis and Elsner back to consulting.
Getty reported 4th Quarter 2000 revenue of $129.4 million, up less than 2% from $127 million in the 3rd Quarter and below analysts's estimates. E-commerce sales represented almost $49.3 million of 4th Quarter revenue and $165 million for the year. Under 25% of gross revenue was paid to image creators in 2000.
The Photographer Income and Expense Survey for 2000 is available online for photographers to fill out. Any stock photographer, subscriber or not, may reply to this survey by going to http://www.pickphoto.com/sso/survey2001.htm Results will be published at the end of April.
ASMP has filed a complaint with the SEC against Getty Images for failure to report to the SEC Penny Gentieu's suit involving copyright infringement, false designation of origin, breach of fiduciary duties and breach of contract. ASMP alleges this could result in an award in excess of $2 million plus attorney fees and costs, and thus is significant information for Getty investors.
Photographers contracted to Stone, The Image Bank, FPG and other VCG brands have formed a new group called StockArtistsAlliance (SAA) to jointly retain counsel to negotiate the new Getty contnract. This story included a letter outlining issues not dealt with in the contract outline supplied by Getty (Story 373).
On the surface Getty's new contract outline is an improvement over existing contracts, but there are still a number of issues that should be examined closely when the contract is finally released. This story outlines some of those issues.
Getty has provided their photographers with an outline of features for a new streamlined cross brand contract. Details of the features are listed in this story. Getty expects to release the entire contract sometime in the next two months.
Several companies offer software that will simultaneously search many agency web sites. In this story we focus primarily on Random Eye's Image Grabber and compare it with 1StopStock. Such systems will aid in increasing traffic.
Corbis has layed off approximately 80 of its 1,300 employees in the marketing, technology, and analog operations in New York, Bellevue, Los Angeles and London. They have restructured their business in three separate market groups -- Creative Professionals, Business Communicators and Consumers -- in an effort to improve productivity.
There are widespread expectations that Getty will offer a new contract to TIB photographers early in 2001. This story looks at the some of the difficulties Getty will have in producing a contract that would work across all brands.