Alamy sales for the third quarter of 2009 were flat compared to the second quarter, but were down 30% compared with the third quarter of 2008. U.S. Dollar and Euro sales were up slightly compared to last quarter 2009, but U.K. sales were down about 5%. Sales for the first three quarters of 2009 were down 30% compared to the same period in 2008.
The Swedish Picture Suppliers Association (BLF) says the first Scandinavian trade fair for picture buyers, Image for Sale, was a success. Attendee responses to a follow-up questionnaire were positive, with both visitors and exhibitors requesting a larger-scope event for next year.
Getty Images has secured exclusive agency rights to market Bloomberg Photos.
In less than 30 days, the Picture Archive Council of America will launch the beta version of pacaSearch, a new search engine expected to enable stock agencies -- particularly the smaller specialists -- to more effectively compete in today's very crowded market. The service will be free to PACA members.
PicScout has been named among the top 10 fastest growing technology companies in the 2009 Deloitte Israel Technology Fast 50. Deloitte director Tal Chen said the company placed PicScout fourth on the list after it determined that the technology company had a growth rate of 3,277% over the past five years.
Traditional photographers contemplating trying microstock may benefit from a new tool: a free online income calculator released by German stock photographer Robert Kneschke. Available via Kneschke's blog, the title of which translates as "Daily Life of a Picture Producer," the calculator projects future income based on user-submitted information.
The British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies has issued a formal response to what it calls "potentially destructive and libelous accusations" by member company fotoLibra. According to a statement posted on the BAPLA Web site, fotoLibra is completely wrong in its perception of BAPLA's future plans.
At this week's annual meeting, the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies elected several new members to its board. It also announced a new business endeavor, which is not meeting with the approval of at least one BAPLA member company: Wales paid-membership stock Web site fotoLibra says the forthcoming BAPLA Academy is a rip-off of the fotoLibra business model and will be its direct competitor. BAPLA executive director denies the charge.
One of the things that is a mystery to most photographers, microstock and traditional, is the inspecting (or editing) process. Every microstock agency has slightly different standards that it rigidly enforces. Microstocksolutions founder and managing director Mark Milstein shares the workings of his micro-inspection company, which operates in central and southeastern Europe and services a growing number of microstock agencies.
Fotolia has created an add-in ribbon for market-leading word processing and presentation applications Microsoft Word and PowerPoint 2007. The ribbon (Microstoft's new term for what used to be called a toolbar) allows customers to log in, search and purchase images at fotolia.com.
U.K.'s Axiom Photographic Agency has announced an exclusive image partnership with British publisher Rough Guides, which has been publishing travel and reference books for over 25 years.
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Klein Interviewed By Timesonline.co.uk" incorrectly stated that Hellman & Friedman is ready to sell Getty Images. Hellman & Friedman will own Getty Images for longer than the investment company's typical period of three-and-a-half years.
At the time we shut down the PhotoShelter Collection (and probably still), many photographers felt duped, and hurt that we did not give it more time to mature. But now that we are many months away from that traumatic event, I can restate the following: Stock photography sucks. I am not talking about the people who shoot it. I am talking about the state of the industry.
Fotolia has launched Operation Level Ground, a program designed to attract seasoned microstock contributors to the New York-based Web site by allowing them to keep hard-earned download rankings and the search-return placement these drive.
In a letter signed by Jonathan Klein, iStockphoto's exclusive contributors have been invited to contribute to Getty Images' rights-managed collections Stone and The Image Bank. Klein said, "We've been dreaming about this one for years and today we are proud to call it a reality."
Circle Stock Images is a new Web-based collaboration that unites individual contributor archives into a searchable image collection.
U.K.-based Capture Ltd. has released version 2.1 of its flagship photo-library management software by the same name. This month, the company demonstrated Capture at U.S. events including the Miami conference of the Picture Archive Council of America and pictureHouse New York.
U.S. Senators Al Franken, Sherrod Brown and Sheldon Whithouse have introduced legislation to disallow the federal tax deduction for all advertising and marketing expenses for prescription drugs. If enacted, this bill will hasten the final demise of independent assignment photographers, illustrators and those whose livelihoods are directly dependent on such creatives.
During this week's PhotoPlus Expo, Sausalito-based ImageSpan announced that its flagship product LicenseStream is now available in a business edition. This allows content owners to license and track their content through branded online stores.
As attendees were gathering in Miami for last week's conference of the Picture Archive Council of America, representatives of six trade organizations that unite more than 50,000 photographers and 800 American and European agencies met to discuss common goals.