Big Marketers Choose Email Over Facebook, MySpace

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 554 Words | Posted 12/2/2008 | Comments
Online image uses appear to be following the pattern established in traditional media. A recent Epsilon survey demonstrates that clients responsible for the highest traditional revenues---big corporations with million- and billion-dollar marketing budgets---prefer more proven, though often more costly social-media tools, such as email.

What To Shoot: Learning From Microstock

By Jim Pickerell | 623 Words | Posted 12/1/2008 | Comments (3)
Stock photographers are constantly concerned with what to shoot. Everyone knows that people pictures tend to sell in greater volume than non-people pictures, but people doing what? Which concepts are in greatest demand? Information most helpful to answering such questions comes from microstock sites and is freely available to everyone.

Creative Trend: Banks Up Direct Mail, Focus on Savings and Customer Retention

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 260 Words | Posted 12/1/2008 | Comments
U.S. banks sent almost twice as much direct mail in the third quarter of 2008 than during the second quarter. These 53 million direct-mail offers were also nearly twice the number sent last year--despite the critical state of financial markets.

Reflex Distributes The Irish Image

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 47 Words | Posted 12/1/2008 | Comments
Rights-managed collection of iconic imagery focuses on the Irish people.

Alamy Updates Contributor Contract

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 72 Words | Posted 11/28/2008 | Comments
The latest version of the Alamy contributor contract was published on Nov. 26 and reflects the recent change in the agency's commission structure.

Stock Houses Accused of Heavy-Handed Collections Tactics

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 75 Words | Posted 11/28/2008 | Comments (1)
The Guardian's Wendy Grossman takes a look at the tactics used by large stock agencies, such as Getty Images and Corbis, to pursue payment for unauthorized image uses.

Agodia Images Launches with "One Price" Strategy

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 219 Words | Posted 11/28/2008 | Comments
Coventry, U.K.-based royalty-free library Agodia Images says its strategy is to keep pricing as simple as possible. To do this, each image is licensed at a single price point, regardless of file size or usage-specific criteria.

Crowdsourcing Affects Graphic Designers

By Jim Pickerell | 609 Words | Posted 11/26/2008 | Comments (2)
The microstock business was originally created by graphic designers, who thought photography was too expensive. Now, the same type of crowdsourcing that has hurt photographers is hurting professional designers.

Digital Railroad: SocialDocumentary.net Founder Raises Cultural Heritage Concerns

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 452 Words | Posted 11/26/2008 | Comments
Glenn Ruga, founder and publisher of photo-exhibit Web site SocialDocumentary.net, likened the destruction of images stored on Digital Railroad's servers to the demolition of the original Penn Station building in New York. But was anything actually destroyed?

PICTA Returns to Hamburg in 2009

By Jim Pickerell | 145 Words | Posted 11/26/2008 | Comments
Organized by the German Association of Press and Picture Agencies and Archives, the PICTA 2009 Picture Agency Fair will again be held in Hamburg, from Mar. 26 to 28.

Photo Concepts

By Jim Pickerell | 443 Words | Posted 11/26/2008 | Comments
The following are concept words that customers often use to find images. When keywording an image add as many concepts as are appropriate to the keyword list. If after searching the concept list you cannot find any words that that fit your image there is a good chance your images will not be a frequent seller. When planning shoots try to take pictures that will illustrate some of these concepts.

Stock Photos In Demand

By Jim Pickerell | 570 Words | Posted 11/26/2008 | Comments
Some photo subjects are in high demand, others aren't. But, shooting just the concepts that are in hightest demand may be a losing proposition because everyone else is shooting the same thing. This chart list some keywords or tags that are frequently requested. The chart was generated by searching iStockphoto for certain words. It shows the total number of downloads of the best selling image in each category as of the above date. It also lists the total images in the collection with the particular keyword or tag. The list is in ascending order by download.

Walsh-Newton Joins Spring Workshop Cruise

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 97 Words | Posted 11/25/2008 | Comments
The author of over 30 Blurb photo books joins the teaching panel of the ninth DSLR Photography Workshop Cruise.

Hemis Reps Alaska Stock

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 28 Words | Posted 11/25/2008 | Comments

Sports Agency Action Plus Up for Sale

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 85 Words | Posted 11/25/2008 | Comments
Estate seeks to sell library or entire business.

Moodboard Launches Blog

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 88 Words | Posted 11/25/2008 | Comments
In addition to Moodboard-specific content, the blog will also offer tips to help new photographers entering the stock business.

Europeana Hiccups at Launch

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 81 Words | Posted 11/25/2008 | Comments
EU project fails to prepare for visitor onslaught.

Distributors Fear Getty Consolidation After Jupiter Deal

By Jim Pickerell | 455 Words | Posted 11/24/2008 | Comments
With the Getty Images' acquisition of Jupiterimages on the horizon, many international distributors working with both companies are feeling very vulnerable. Some believe that after the deal goes through, Getty Images will consolidate sales of all its brands with a single company for a given territory and withdraw the images from other local distributors.

Image Producers Expand Beyond Traditional Royalty Free Model

By Jim Pickerell | 625 Words | Posted 11/24/2008 | Comments (1)
Several traditional royalty-free production companies--including Image Source, Moodboard, Blend and Cultura--have begun to explore microstock to determine if it offers a growth opportunity in a difficult market. Each has a slightly different strategy.

NordicPhotos Revamps Web Site, Expands Services

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 186 Words | Posted 11/21/2008 | Comments
Stockholm's NordicPhotos has redesigned its Web site, updating both its look and technology. The company has also introduced new services and advertising campaign.

Diablo Management Updates Digital Railroad Info Page

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 35 Words | Posted 11/21/2008 | Comments
Diablo Management will pursue outstanding buyer payments for less than a month.

ASMP Issues Grants to PLUS Coalition, ASMP Foundation

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 225 Words | Posted 11/21/2008 | Comments
The American Society of Media Photographers began distributing its record-making $1.3 million foreign-royalties windfall, with the first grants going to the Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition and the ASMP Foundation.

CCC Launches Ozmo Licensing Platform

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 438 Words | Posted 11/20/2008 | Comments (1)
The Danvers, Mass.-based Copyright Clearance Center, an online service that aims to help content creators license their work, while offering publishers a way of tapping into user-generated content. Ozmo has been endorsed by the American Society of Media Photographers and is marketed as a tool for photographers, bloggers and other artists.

Thought Equity Motion Nabs Smithsonian Channel

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 122 Words | Posted 11/20/2008 | Comments
Thought Equity Motion has been named the exclusive licensing agent for Smithsonian Channel's high-definition collection, which offers buyers access to video clips from the channel's original programs and series.

PicApp Available Through Glam Apps

By Julia Dudnik Stern | 170 Words | Posted 11/19/2008 | Comments
Glam Media Network, which unites the industry-leading Glam.com with over 700 women-centric Internet properties, has launched Glam Apps Platform. The service connects network Glam network publishers with online application developers--including PicApp, the image-licensing spin-off of Israeli monitoring company PicScout.