The Industry Measure, formerly known as TrendWatch, shuttered on March 31. The research company's reports on the printing, creative, publishing, Internet and stock photography industries will still be for sale on its Web site.
U.K. government continues collecting and examining evidence from organizations and individuals that would be affected by the forthcoming changes to copyright law, as proposed by the Gowers Review. The London-based Association of Photographers, a 40-year-old membership body that represents pro shooters working in various fields, submitted its response on Wednesday.
Several photo brands are rumored to be quietly offering their collections to selected buyers, but so far there seems to be very little interest from the buyer side.
Houston-based Inmagine Corp. has launched IRIS, which stands for Inmagine RM & RF Image Submission. Borrowing from the community-based business models of micro-payment agencies, IRIS is an online submission interface in which Inmagine editors consider uploaded images. The resulting IRIS collection will be marketed to image buyers starting this quarter.
Getty photographers won in many key categories for the 2008 Best of Photojournalism contest held by the National Press Photographers Association.
In the last few years, the stock photo industry has experienced significant consolidation. The chart below lists 34 existing companies that have acquired a total of 197 agencies. In general, fewer large companies are controlling the industry as middle-sized and small companies disappear.
When people think about stock images, the first buyer market that comes to mind is typically not commercial print. However, perhaps it should be-depending on the category of images purchased.
Cutcaster, a community-based online content marketplace launched last week in New York, promises a new way to buy and sell stock images and video.
Big money is being spent for pictures of celebrities, but how much is going to the image creators?
Microstock cannibalization of traditional RF is occurring at a faster pace than I predicted in an earlier article "Royalty Free Trends At Getty." Getty has confirmed that iStockphoto earned $22 million in 2006 and $72 million in 2007.
iStockphoto, which is the third-largest generator of stock-image revenues in the world, has announced plans for a subscription offering. iStock says it is diversifying in response to customer demand.
Since the beginning of 2008, U.K. royalty-free producer Image Source has been phasing in a new pricing structure, along with several other changes in how it markets stock. According to company co-CEO Duncan Grossart, these changes support Image Source's core goal of remaining at the highest end of the stock-image market.
Dreamstime has entered into an exclusive partnership with the Korean agency ImageClick to make professional-quality images available to the Korean market at microstock prices. ImageClick will launch its exclusive brand (www.i22.com) that will make it possible for Korean visitors to search the content in their native language.
A new orphan works bill, which covers images without photo credits, is being drafted for consideration in the 2008 U.S. legislative session. Representatives of ASMP, digital content-monitoring company PicScout and others who stand to be affected by the new legislation testified at the first orphan-works hearing held by the House Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property in March.
CEPIC [Coordination of European Picture Agencies (Press, Stock, Heritage)] has launched its first comprehensive survey of the stock photo industry since 2000. Alan Smith, CEPIC president, says it, "will help picture businesses to know their market environment more profoundly and to learn how to respond to the current challenges."
Total U.S. newspaper revenue in 2007 was down $3.9 billion compared to 2006, the second-worst drop since the industry started tracking overall revenue in 1950.
When Barnardo's, an Essex children's charity established in 1867, decided to digitize its historical image archive, it turned to Kent-based editorial image distributor TopFoto. Every child that entered the charity was photographed, and Barnardo's archive now consists of some 500,000 images.
On the last day of Q1 2008, a21, Inc. reported its 2007 results of $23,306,000 up from $19,633,000 in 2006. However, this growth is somewhat misleading as about 50% of the company's business comes from Art Select, which provides wall art for homes and businesses. The Art Select division was acquired in the middle of Q2 2006. Thus, a full year's sales are not reflected in a21's 2006 revenue.