News Analysis
A new feature of Selling Stock contains a number of short items of interest to stock photo producers and sellers.
In the last few years as more and more of the marketing of stock photos has been taken over by conglomerates, bringing drastic changes to the industry. Often, what benefits these companies does not benefit the individual photographer. This article examines certain issues important to photographers, and suggests photographer strategies for the future.
Sheldon Marshall, CEO of Visual Communications Group outlines future plans for Royalty Free marketing and discusses several other issues of recent concern to FPG and Telegraph Colour Library photographers.
The Bridgeman Art Library has produced a complete visual catalog of their entire collection on a single CD-ROM disc. The disc showcases over 100,000 pictures and operates on either MAC or PC. This is not a DVD, but a CD!!
Carl Purcell settles with AOL. Galen Rowell, Carr Clifton, Jeff Gnass and Tom Till settle with Price Costco. Several lessons were learned.
This story pulls together statistics on Internet use from a variety of sources including: Andrew Kantor's seminar at Internet World, Barbara Brundage's presentation at Photo East, a PACA seminar, and a recent TrendWatch report.
With this file you can print out the entire November 1998 issue of SELLING STOCK which includes stories on the new TSI and FPG web sites and a long analysis of why photographers will continue to need both domestic and foreign stock agency representation, even when we go to full digital marketing.
This story looks at the services domestic and foreign stock agencies provide and explains why most photographers will still need stock agency representation even when it is possible to market images directly online.
FPG has launched a web site, but searches pull up surprisingly few images. See chart comparing FPG, TSI, TSM and PhotoDisc on various keyword searches.
The long awaited Tony Stone images web site is now on-line at www.tonystone.com. Many photographers are still negotiating with TSI on the new contract and their images are not included on the site.
In a preliminary action AOL was fined $20,050 for failing to provide legitimate information and thwarting the discovery process. The $5 million copyright infringement suit is set to go to trial November 16th.
TrendWatch survey reports on creative activies on the Internet - 98% of graphic designers are involved in web design, only 33% of commercial photographers say business conditions are excellent and 23% say they are poor or much worse than the last six months, etc.
The Stock Market (TSM), announced that it has installed a Live Picture Image Server, Enterprise Edition for securely distributing and viewing high resolution images across the internet.
This strory reports a number of announcements from various stock agencies, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Have you started thinking about Y2K. Rohn Engh of PhotoSource International explains how it may impact photographers and stock agencies, even if they aren't heavily computized.
PNI has launched a new site at www.picturequest.com, and images from FPG and TIB can now be found there as well as all the Publishers Depot images. Photographers for FPG and TIB take note. The percentages you receive for sales made by PNI in the U.S. may be different from other U.S. sales made by your agency.
This issues contains: New TSI Photographer Contract, Similars, The Classroom in 2005, Graphic Design:USA Survey, Stock Agency News, and Myths About An Electronic Future.
This interview with Jonathan Klein deals with many of the issues that have been raised by photographers in connection with the new Tony Stone Images contract. This contract is likely to set precedents for many stock agencies as they move toward on-line marketing.
At their site www.stockmarketphoto.com, The Stock Market has a weekly survey question that gives some interesting insights into on-line users.
Definitive Stock is launching a new agency in September that will supply both Rights Protected and RF images to the stock photo market. Ellen Boughn joins the team as VP/Managing Director.
In their annual survey 20% of graphic designers prefer to find their images on CD-ROM or on-line. Another 40% prefer to use a combination of print and electronic means to locate stock images.
The question of ''What is a Similar?'' is becomming a serious issue for photographers as stock agencies define it in broader terms. Many photographers are finding it difficult to earn enough from the images they are allowed to license to offset their costs of production.
Tony Stone Images has revised their agreement with photographers. It gives the photographers 40% of on-line sales rather than the traditional 50%. Other restrictions in the new agreement are causing concern among some photographers.
DreamWorks wants to stop stock agencies from acquiring and reselling publicity materials after an unauthorized frame from ''Private Ryan'' appeared on a Newsweek cover.
At National Geographic there are several new developments relative to their CD-ROM production and payment for lost transparencies.