This issue contains the following stories: Epiphany; Imagestate Looks For Buyers; The Future At Corbis; State of the Industry, State of the Art; Stock Licensing Industry - 2006; Search Results Lottery; 2006 Stock Income Survey Results; Getty Acquires Stockbyte, $135 Million; Getty Q1 Revenue $200.9 Million; Jupitermedia 2005 Results; U.S. Congress May Gut Copyright; Klein Switches Position On Subscription; Copyright Small Claims Court; Alamy Posts 2005 Numbers; James West Talks About Alamy and Searching On Google.
a21, Inc. has reported $2,859,000 in revenues for the fourth quarter of 2005 and is $9,563,000 in total revenue for the entire year. The net loss for 2005, excluding $219,000 for a "deemed dividend", was $4.8 million or $0.10 per share.
A confluence of events and factors have come together over a period of time to create a very dangerous environment for stock photographers. I have briefly outlined factors so photographers might easily consider the relationships and implications.
Getty Images reported record revenue for Q1 2006 of $200.9 million compared to $178.1 million for Q1 2005 and $185.8 million for Q4 2005. But, for the second quarter in a row investors punished the stock for not meeting market expectations. In the first day of trading the stock price dropped 13.75 percent to a closing price of $65.66, down 30 percent from its high last November.
This group includes: iStockphoto Opens Library of 700,000 Images to Hp Customers, NewsCom Offers New Subscription Service, KeenImages Launches New Royalty-free Stock Photography Website, Artzooks Extends Reward Incentive Program, OnRequest Images Introduces New Corporate Identity, JaincoTech Opens in Japan
Alamy has provided extensive data about their operations and reports that they have more then 5 million images from over 300 agencies and over 5,000 individual photographers. They are adding new images at a rate of over 200,000 per month. In 2005 Alamy added 1,555,439 new RM images and 690,295 new RF images to their site. A complete breakdown is provided in this story.
Recently Pat Hunt interviewed James West to learn a little more about the many behind Alamy. West is one of the new breed of young creative CEOs who can spot a great business model and run with it. Since 1999, he and Alamy have been breaking rules in the imaging industry and building momentum fast.
This issue has stories on: ImageState Looking For Buyer: Office of Fair Trading Clears Getty's Acquisition of Digital Vision and Photonica; Workbookstock and Jupiterimages - Will They or Won't They?; Where's Jupiterimages Headed; and Searching on Google.
At the recent PACA annual meeting in Chicago Lewis Blackwell from Getty, Mark Berns from Jupiterimages and Gary Shenk from Corbis took time from their busy schedules to give their take on the "State of the Industry, State of the Art". The full text of their remarks is included in this article.
At the PACA meeting in Chicago, Jeff Burke, outgoing President of PACA, gave a very balanced and thought provoking presentation on "Current Trends in the Photo Industry, Where is the Stock Industry Headed?" and announced his retirement from the industry. This story is the full text of his comments.
Getty Images, Inc. has announced the acquisition of Ireland-based Pixel Images Holdings Limited, the parent company of Stockbyte and Stockdisc for $135 million in cash. Photographers shooting for other Getty brands are concerned.
In testimony at the U.S. House of Representatives, Victor S. Perlman, ASMP General Counsel and Managing Director laid out a plan for a Copyright Small Claims Court that would create an inexpensive legal procedure for collecting small copyright claims involving a few thousand dollars or less.
In the past week I've had two unusual moments of revelation and insight into the stock photo business. One has to do with the cost of producing stock and the other iStockphoto.
This group of releases includes: NewsCom Launches RSS Service; Science Faction Inks Deal With Peter Ginter; UpperCut Images Names Winters Vice President; Ethno Images Partners With Big Cheese Photos; and Clarkson Chooses Digital Railroad to Power NCAA Archives.
According to sources Getty Images is about to launch a 20% off sale during April and May on any RM and RF images on its site. (No this is not an April Fools joke.) The Sale is expected to be announced in emails to customers early next week.
Fifty-five photographers with a gross 2005 income of $8,490,187 responded to our survey. This was up 9.7% from 2004 and 78% of this income was from stock. 30% of the revenue was from Getty and almost 15% from Corbis
While in China I had the opportunity to meet and talk to many photographers and extensive discussion with three - American editorial photographers David Hartung and Fritz Hoffmann living in Shanghai and a Chinese advertising photographer Tang Hui in Beijing. The experiences of these three will give the reader a sense of what it is like for a photographer to live and work in China today.
Rumors have it that any day Stockbyte should announce its sale for a record multiple for a Royalty Free stock photo company. The betting is that the Getty Images will be the buyer and the price will be at least $200 million. Estimates are that Stockbyte's gross annual revenue is in the range of $50 million.
This group of releases includes: Image Source's Founder Interviewed on CNN for International Women's Day; Image Source Joins Quark Alliance Progam; BigStockPhoto.com Grows; Fotolia Teams with Slide Inc.; Neophyte Media Launches Self-Selling Photo Site; Popperfoto Tops 75,000 Images on Alamy; Ellen Boughn Joins Superstock; and Workbook Premieres New Subscription Service.
Corbis has acquired Beateworks, an image licensing company providing high-end interior images and celebrity home stories to magazine and corporate clients. Also included in the deal is the RF brand InsideOutPix.
Corbis has reported gross revenue of $228 million for 2005 and provided more detail about its business and the numbers than ever before. This information allows us to make a much more granular comparison of Getty and Corbis and to identify some opportunities for Corbis.
Jupitermedia has reported revenues for Q4 2005 of $36.1 million. Operating income for the Q4 2005 was $9.0 million compared to operating income of $4.9 million for the same period last year. Net income for Q4 2005 was $5.4 million, or $0.15 per diluted share.
The higher your image is in the results delivered after a customer has completed a search the better the chance it has of being seen and selected for use. This story examines what's happening on the Getty site with regard to search results and offers some suggestions as to how to maximize your position in the search returns.
Most photographers and artists organizations are very concerned about the proposed "Orphan Works" remedy to the Copyright law that is working its way through Congress. They are calling their members to urgent action. The following are some of the press releases from these organizations explaining the issue.
A bill is being "fast tracked" through the U.S. Congress that would remove much of the protection for unauthorized use of images and potentially convert the majority of published images to "Orphan Works" status. All trade organizations are encouraging their members to express their feelings on this issue to their representatives.