In 2008, Alamy paid its contributors $20.8 million of $31.5 million in gross sales. The company has also disclosed summary sales and return-per-image information for the top 100 sellers in the photographer and agency categories, demonstrating that there is no right answer to the age-old question of loose versus tight editing.
Citizen journalism Web site Scoopt will not make it to its fourth birthday. Established by Scottish duo Kyle and Jill MacRae in July 2005, Scoopt became Getty Images' property in March 2007 and will cease to exist March 2009.
The National Archives of Scotland, in partnership with The National Library of Scotland, National Museums Scotland, The National Trust for Scotland and The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, has developed Scotland's Images.
If the iStockphoto's growth rate were to remain flat for the rest of 2009, it would license rights to over 25,690,000 images for the year.
The work of CandidatePhotos co-founder Chris Fitzgerald is now available via The Image Works. Covering 20 presidential candidates and 30 states, the collection depicts the two-year period preceding the recent U.S. election.
The industry needs a new pricing model. The models we have include rights-managed, royalty-free, subscription, microstock and rights-ready, which is about to become extinct. What is needed is use-based pricing, or UBP.
Around 30 people will be departing Corbis over the next two months. Cognizant of the global economic crisis, the Bill Gates-owned company is taking a fiscally conservative approach to 2009.
Time Warner's America Online division is cutting 10% of its workforce. Though such news is not unique, AOL's reasoning gives new cause for concern.
Many photographers found the language of the new 15-page iStockphoto Exclusive Artist's Supply Agreement difficult to comprehend. A big part of the confusion lies in the fact that an exclusive arrangement with iStock is
photographer-exclusive for royalty-free content, unlike nearly all other exclusive arrangements in the industry, which are
image-exclusive.
The New York-based Everett Collection is in hot water for attempting to license celebrity and entertainment images without their owners' permission. According to
Photo Business News, in the first development of Michael Grecco v. Everett Collection, filed in September 2007, the court sided with the photographer.
Munich-based StockFood, which also has offices in the U.K. and Maine, U.S., is once again sponsoring the FAB Futures Award for designers under 30.
Stock photography producers and sellers have lost sight of how to value their images. It is time for all sellers to reevaluate their pricing strategies.
Some believe that microstock has resulted in a contraction of total stock-image revenues, but this is not beyond dispute. Though microstock is showing signs of slowing growth, 2009 may still see an overall revenue reduction, as recession pushes buyers to lower-priced images.
After
Selling Stock published a story on the Compassionate Eye Foundation, which recently raised $250,000 for charity through its partnership with Getty Images, subscriber feedback revealed some confusion about the nature of the relationship between the two partners. Peggy Willett, Getty Images' director of community and industry relations, offers details on the Seattle agency's contribution to the non-profit.
Fotolia has put out a call for video submissions. The company said the move is a response to overwhelming demand.
Some sellers and customers argue that photos of a single subject on a white background should be less expensive than more complex shots that require models, props and additional time to produce. One of the driving forces behind the development of microstock was the buyer desire to have access to such shots for prices that are lower than traditional. Isolated subjects have since become the domain of microstock agencies.
Citizen-photojournalism Web site Demotix hopes that the pull of the
Financial Times will make its new contest a success. The two British companies have partnered in a contest that invites users to capture "the real story of the credit crunch."
Denver-based Thought Equity Motion has launched the Research Store, which the company says is the largest online library of long-form footage available for licensing. The company has also updated its search technology, integrating user ability to search video content by spoken word.