Expect the business of producing and distributing still stock images to go downhill in the rest of 2007 and 2008. Among the issues to watch are: Crowdsourcing, Micropayment, Cannibalization of RF, Oversupply, No Growth in Customers Paying Traditional Prices, and a Decline in Use of Print for Information or Marketing.
This edition has stories on: Freerange Stock To Share Ad Revenues With Photographers; PDN Releases Stock Guide 2007; and New Bill May Pose Problems for Stock Providers.
Getting model releases from subjects in the "Developing World" has always been difficult. There is the need to translate releases into many languages and even when that is done the subjects often have little understanding of how their picture might be used. ANP Photo in The Netherlands has developed a program to make it much easier to obtain released photos of such peoples.
Stories in this edition include: Getty Images Files 2006 10-K; WGPN to Acquire Several Image Banks; Fotolia Says No Price Hike and iStockphoto Expands Search, Formats and Languages.
This edition has stories on: IPTC Releases Photo Metadata White Paper; Corbis Doubles Media Management and Northfoto to Distribute Chinese News Images.
Andreas Trampe, head of the photo department at DER STERN, Germany's leading general interest magazine, gave the keynote address at the "International Photo Metadata Conference of the IPTC" and outlined the current challenges picture editors face in trying to find the right image, on deadline. This is the full text of his presentation.
Once again the CEPIC conference (that's Coordination of European Picture Agencies Press Stock Heritage In Congress) in Florence, Italy from June 6th through 10th was the place for people in the stock photo industry to be. This story details some of things I learned.
This edition has stories on: Photo-Sharing Sites Enter Stock Market; Infoflows To Launch Video Tracking Service and Corbis Sponsors Cannes Lions Ad Festival.
This edition has stories on: Photographer Sees Big Profits With Microstock; Jupitermedia Buys 2 Web Sites; Image Source Hires Creative Exec; Microstock Sites Go Mobile; and Pending Court Case May Set Image Licensing Precedent.
Red carpet and celebrity photography may be about to get much less lucurative. Shutterstock has announced a new program called Shutterstock on the Red Carpet that is designed to help their network of over 60,000 contributing photographers obtain coveted press passes, for film premieres, award shows, concerts, political rallies, etc.
This edition has stories on: Alamy to Change Search Engine; U.S. Copyright Office Invites Beta Testers for Online System and Masterfile Wins 3 European Design Awards.
In April Corbis announced that Gary Shenk, President of Corbis would become the new CEO effective July 1, 2007 (See Story 948) and that all Corbis officers would begin reporting to him as of the date of the April announcement. Read the questions and answers.
This edition has stories on: SAA Calculator Simplifies Rights-Managed Image Licensing; Corbis Expands Media Management to Audio, Video; Capture Updates Web Direct, Releases Keyworder; a21 Board Member Resigns; Microsoft's iView Launches Utility for Corbis Photographers; Fox Buys Photobucket and Flektor; and Google to Acquire Panoramio.
I believe the gross worldwide revenue that is generated from the licensing of stock imagery, both still photos and illustrations, is about $1.8 billion annually. This story explains in detail the process I went through to arrived at that number.
This edition has stories on: Getty Images Provides Footage For Fox Reality Show; Fotolia to Raise Prices with Site Revamp; Getty Images Appoints High-Profile General Counsel; Quark Symposium Offers Stock Agencies Promo Opps and Jupiterimages Appoints New Marketing VP.
This edition of Random Thoughts has two stories. One on New Aggregator Sites that are trying to suppliers additional ways to reach customers, and a second on the CEPIC international conference and trade show that takes place next week where the theme of one of the major seminars will be: Imagery from the Majority World - The Untapped Potential.
He's been called everything from the father of stock photography to the sage and guru of the industry. Now his biggest source of pride is being the father of a top stock shooter. This describes Tom and Jamie Grill, the father/daughter stock producing duo and powerhouse creative team.
The two stories in this edition are by Julia Dudnik Stern who will be working with me in the future to expand the coverage of Selling Stock. The stories are: Publishing Challenge: Popularity of User-Generated Content and Microstock vs. Traditional Imagery: the Case Against One-Stop Shopping.
a21's image licensing revenue for Q1 2007 was up 4.4% compared to the previous quarter and 8% above Q1 2006. Total revenue (48% for Art Select) was $6,124,000 for the quarter down from $6,283,000 in the previous quarter.
The story provides an extensive analysis of the Association of Commercial Stock Image Licensors' study of the worldwide stock footage industry. This association determined that gross revenue of the industry is approximately $282 million but more importantly examined many specific issues related to the industry.
At its annual meeting PACA invited four representatives of the stock photo trade press to discuss current industry trends and share their opinions of what stock photo agents might expect in the near future. The speakers were Daryl Lang of www.pdnonline.com, Chris Ferrone of www.abouttheimage.com, Ron Rovtar of www.stockasylum.com, and Jim Pickerell.
Jupitermedia had $34.8 million in revenues for Q1 2007. All the revenue growth was in the Image Division which had $27.914 million in sales up $1.1 million or 4% compared to Q1 2006.
This story is a detailed examination of the business of one successful Getty Images photographer's as he has tried to grow his stock photo business in the last three years.
This issue has stories on: Corbis To Promote Gary Shenk to CEO; The Future Of Print Publications; Digital Railroad Launches Marketplace; China's Stock Photo Market; Aurora Select Launched; Getty Reports Q1 Results; Micropayment Impact; Trends For Getty Photographers; German Stock Photography Market; A21 Reports 2006 Results; Revenue Up In Q4 At Jupitermedia; Advertising Growth; Images In Getty Collection; Image Bank To Go Rights Ready.
Getty Images reported revenue for Q1 2007 of $212.6 million, up from $200.9 million in Q1 2006 and $203.5 million in Q4 2006. Net income was $38 million or $.63 per share. The company also acquired Punchstock.