Getty has announced to its RF image image suppliers that in April it will be consolidating its 12 RF collections into 5 in an effort to improve the customer's experience. This story points out things to look for as a result of the change.
The Irish Image Collection, founded by George Munday, has been acquired in an asset purchase by a group of Canadian investors known as Stock Image Collectors Inc. This group acquired all rights to 20,000 RM images belonging to over 100 photographers. The group also owns a controlling interest in Design Pics Inc., an RF company based in Edmonton, Canada.
Getty Images, Inc. gathered leaders from top U.S. Hispanic advertising agencies and publications for the inaugural meeting of Creativisimo!, a series of industry discussion groups convened to gauge the future imagery needs of visual communicators.
This edition of Random Thoughts has stories on: Will Flickr Enter Stock Photo Market?; User Generated Content; YouTube To Share Revenue; Digital Railroad Receives Additional Funding; Midwestock Closes Doors; Getty Offers Creative Research To All Image Producers and Boughn Joins Dreamstime.
PACA recently released the results of a survey of its U.S. based member companies that shows significant revenue growth for stock agencies between 1H2005 and 1H2006. 28% of the respondents had revenue growth between 10% and 20% during the period and 30% had growth greater than 20%. Respondents also expected an average 13% increase for the second half of 2006, but there are good reasons to believe it didn't turn out that positive.
If you're interested in continuing to work as a photographer five to ten years down the road take a look at Current TV which takes crowdsourcing to a new level. For those trying to make a living producing still illustrations, beware!
This group of releases includes: Adobe Debuts Photoshop Lightroom 1.0; Corbis/Smithsonian Offers Celebrated Images of American Culture; Newscom Hires Director of Sales and Launches New Brand Image; and Michael Masterson Joins Janou Pakter, Inc. As Company Launches Photography Division and West Coast Office.
This group of releases includes: Huntstock Launches Royalty Free Image Collection; Pozo Digital Emerges As Authentic Source For Hispanic Images; StockFood Opens UK Office; plainpicture Launches In The UK and VIEW Announces Photographer's Open Day.
The stories in this issue include: Apologies To Getty Images; Cranking Up New Business Models; Citigroup Surveying Photographers; Swedish News Agency Buys Scanpix; Online Growth For 2007; Jupiter Offers HD Stock Footage and TV Ads by Amateurs.
Getty Images reported revenue for Q4 2006 of $203.5 million up 9.5 percent from
$185.8 million in Q4 2005 and up from $198.1 million in Q3 2006. However, profit declined as a result of restructuring and other costs. The company earned $30.3 million, or $.50 per share, down from $42.5 million, or $.64 per share, during the same period in 2005.
Until recently it has been difficult to calculate appropriate prices for the myriad ways images are currently being used on the web. Getty Images has instituted an elaborate pricing structure that is an excellent solution to much of this problem, and should result in higher revenues for web use of RM images. This story examines Getty's strategy in details and provides a template that others can use in pricing web uses of their images.
Alamy's fourth quarter 2006 figures on contributors, percentage revenue and average pricing show no major trend change from the previous quarter or for the year. Alamy almost doubled its collection in 2006 adding 3,432,808 images to the about 4.2 million it had at the beginning of the year.
This story contains releases on: Shutterstock Offers Largest Microstock Collection; Zurich-Based Agency Announces Launch Of Sodapix.com; and Corbis Names Sales Director For Australia
The article contains short items on: Analysis Of World Market For Stock Photos; Getty Stock Downgraded; iStockphoto Sees Great Demand For Video; Acquisitions Update; Digital Refocusing; and Photos.com Emphasizes Community.
More and more companies have been asking for signed model releases for every image submitted and photographers need to consider, and confirm what will be done with those releases once delivered. There has been a lot of discussion in the industry about making model releases available for customer review online. This could be a very bad idea, particularly with relation to model releases of minors.
Piper Jaffray, a leading, international middle-market investment bank and institutional securities firm recently surveyed 158 U.S. image buyers including 4 ad agencies, 36 magazine publishers, 26 in-house marketing operations, 48 graphic design agencies and 19 other types of image buyers to determine their views of current stock photo offerings. This story summarizes some of their findings.
We're hearing more and more comments from photographers happy with the recent acquisition of Index Stock by Photolibrary of Australia. The photographers are getting regular payments in amounts more than they had expected.
As I've watched the astronomical growth in the use of micro-payment images I'm confused as to why JupiterImages has not moved more aggressively into this segment of the market. I put this question to Alan Meckler and he gave me some answers.
This issue contains stories on: Blend Appoints Robert Hanson Director of Channel Relations and Sales; PLUS Coalition Releases Global Image Licensing Standards; and Photononstop On Getty.
The micro-payment site Dreamstime.com has announced that as of February 15, 2007 designers will be able to download high resolution royalty free (RF-LL) images at no cost, compliments of Dreamstime.com and its community of contributors. This FREE section of the site is designed to attract bargain hunters and is expected to ensure the company's continued growth and improve its imagery.
This edition contains stories on: Where Is Getty Headed in 2007?; Lackluster Stockphoto Results At a21; Getty Opens Door To Photographers; Photodisc For iStockphoto Photographers; Driving Image Partners Out Of Business; Calculating The Odds; Search Return Order; Return Per Image; Photolibrary Acquires Index Stock; Index Photographers To Be Paid; Crowdsourcing Creative Content; ImageState Update; and Jupitermedia Has Disappointing Q3 2006.
This edition contains stories on: Hachette Fillipacchi Backs Out Of Stock Photography; ViewImages.com; Leading Stock Photo Sellers; iStockphoto Contributors And Getty; More Crowdsourcing TV Ads; Discounts Are In; Marketing Model Shifts; and Offshoring Text Editing To India and its relation to still photography.
On December 13, 2006, the British Journal of Photography published an opinion piece by Lewis Blackwell, Getty Images group creative director, under the title "Change Must Come." The following is reprinted with permission of the BJP and Getty Images.
This article includes short items on: Photodisc Option For Istock Photographers; Boughn Leaves Superstock; Update On ImageState; Standard & Poors Downgrades Getty; Internet Ad Spending; and Declining Print Use.
Featured in this article: Action Images To Be Primary Provider for WTA Tour; Tim Lund Joins Masterfile to Direct Global Image Production; Dreamstime.com Provide Keywording Help; Online Photoshop CS2 Course; The Creative Group Provides Hiring Insights to iStockphoto Members.