AOL has launched a new version of Truveo.com, an online video search engine for professional-caliber and user-generated video. According to AOL, users prefer them to user-generated content.
Hollywood is going green - on screen. "The 11th Hour," a feature-length documentary that premieres in Los Angeles and New York on August 17, explores industrial civilization's impact on our ecosystems. To reduce the carbon footprint of its production, the film used 300 stock-footage clips. Using stock was among a number of environmentally friendly measures.
There are many reasons why we are likely to see a further decline in overall industry revenue." Overall industry revenue will go down; however, given the $70 million to $100 million that micropayment is adding to total industry revenue by bringing new buyers into the market, there hasn't been much falloff in dollars yet. It's not because customers are spending significantly less money. The pie is just being divided among a lot more suppliers.
Getty CEO Jonathan Klein received a salary increase of $50,000 last week, bringing his base compensation to $1 million. Klein's revised compensation package also includes restricted stock unit grants, valued at approximately $3.5 million, and payment of relocation expenses. Klein did not a bonus last year, since Getty Images failed to meet its 2006 revenue projections.
Traditional stock photographers argue that it's impossible to make money selling at microstock prices. But microstock photographer Erik Reis has found it a viable business option.
Corbis CEO Gary Shenk has pledged to make the company profitable by focusing on stock and rights services. Which is why Corbis is positioning itself as a partner that can take the logistics-related pressure off advertising creatives who use rare or celebrity footage.
Florida-based Art Life Images is taking a streamlined approach to building its sales force. While a number of stock-licensing agencies employ telecommuters as photo editors, off-site employment remains relatively rare in the industry - particularly when it comes to sales executives.
Veoh Networks, a California-based provider of broadcast-quality video over the Internet, has filed a Federal lawsuit against Universal Music Group. In response to "unreasonable threats" by Universal, the lawsuit seeks a preemptive injunction that would prevent Universal from filing a copyright infringement suit of its own.
Some in the investment community see a dramatic slowdown in the growth of the imaging market. I disagree. Overall, I think industry revenue is flat. Microstock is growing rapidly, but the revenue generated from these sales is being offset by a loss in traditional revenue.
a21, Inc. has reported $5,696,000 in revenues for 2Q, down 7% from the previous quarter.
The SuperStock revenues were down $130,000, or 4% for the stock image division.
About half of design (53%) and advertising professionals (46%) see Web site and email campaign design as a sales opportunity. That's according to The Multichannel Mix - Creatives, a 147-page study that provides an overview of the current media landscape as it applies to creatives, including ad agencies, graphic designers and commercial photographers.
Four years from now, more money will be spent in the U.S. on online ads than newspapers ads. This is bad news for image producers because the average price paid for a picture used in an online ad is much lower than the price for print use. It also seems likely that many micropayment photos will be satisfactory for Internet and mobile use, further depressing prices.
Jupitermedia's 2Q revenues of $34.7 million fell short of the company's projections of $36 million to $37 million. While total revenues were slightly below first-quarter earnings, revenues from images have risen from last year.