Corbis has realigned its top leadership by dissolving the co-president structure and naming Steve Davis CEO and Tony Rojas Chief Operating Officer. Leslie Hughes will be leaving the company as of June 30th.
The CEPIC annual Congress has clearly become the premier place for stock agents from around the world to meet and do business. This year 446 delegates from 33 countries met in Budapest from May 24th through 26th. This report deals with some of the high points of the Congress.
Stock Connection and Pictor have agreed to terms that would transfer the image files currently under control of Pictor INC., a wholly owned subsidiary of Pictor Ltd., to Stock Connection for future management and marketing in North America. As Pictor is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the U.S. the deal must still be approved by the court.
Sheldon Marshall reports that his position at ImageState has changed to that of Deputy Chairman of ImageState Plc. He never had ''day-to-day operational responsibility'' as my report on May 4th indicated. (See Story 477.)
This issue has stories on Anton Dentler Assuming Representation of Mon-Tresor Catalogs, Corbis Iron Mountain Storage Facility Opens, Workbookstock.com Releases Print Catalog and Burak Joins TimePix.
Sources indicate that Sheldon Marshall has been removed from day-to-day operational responsibility at ImageState and has been given the title of Vice Chairman. For the immediate future Chris Adamson, ImageState's Chief Financial Officer, will take over responsibilities as President of the company while they search for a new Chief Executive.
This issue contains articles on Textbook Revenue, Royalty Payment Issues, ImageState Restructuring, Getty Sales Up, SuperStock Acquires Powerstock,The Exclusive Dilemma, E-Data Moves to acquire royalties from JPEG users, Zefa Belgium Bankruptcy, Ward vs National Geographic and more.
Getty has reported 1st quarter revenue of $113.9 million, up 11.8 percent from the previous quarter. They have also supplied new information about the percent of revenue of various segments of their business, the gross margin of each segment, average price per usage, average revenue per sales employee and a geographic breakdown of sales that should be very useful to others in the industry.
The saga of the National Geographic CD-ROM's continues. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Geographic made infringing use of images in 1997, but still no settlement for damages. Fred Ward had 850 images and texts for 12 articles used over three decades. Now he has filed a Request for Summary Judgement. His case, as outlined in court documents, reveals many interesting details about Geographic.
This article contains information on the Settlement of the Zefa Belgium Bankruptcy, BBC Natural History Library Name Change, Art Resources Representing Museum of Modern Art Images, Japan agency AFLO enters U.S. Market, and ImageState's New RF Collection.
ImageState has gone through a major restructuring of its business. Sheldon Marshall says they had ''geared up the business anticipating a much bigger business than it is (and found) it necessary to downsize to meet the level of existing business that we have.''
Agents, do you need to expand your supply of images? Don't drive photographers away with terms they can't afford to accept. Read this story and consider how important ''exclusive rights'' really are and whether you need to have exclusive rights to all the images you represent.
Getty Images has announced significantly higher than expected 1st Quarter revenues of $113.5 million. This was up from $102 million for the 4th Quarter and exceeded Getty's 1st Quarter estimate of between $103 and $106 million.
Photographers are increasingly concerned that they are not receiving all the monies they are entitled to from their agents. Read about some of the things that are causing these concerns and things both photographers and agents need to think about.
This issue contains stories on E-Data Corporations' attempt to get a share of fees from all digital sales, Higher fees from some book publishers, Getty Press Division Sales, ImageState Completes Move to New York, Defining ''Crappy'' Photography, and Alaska Stock's Website Upgrade.
Sygma Staff is back to work in Paris, Coalition of Visual Artists Flounders, Corbis Stock Market moves office, Harper Collins Publishers Sued For Unfair Dealing With Authors, SuperStock Acquires PowerStock, New Artists Relations Positions Announced at Getty and more.
Pricing textbook uses is getting more and more complex as publisher seek broader rights for the images they purchase. Sellers are often giving away huge additional rights for only a small additional fee over what they would charge for much less use. Check out our analysis of the numbers.
This issue of Selling Stock contains stories on: Work Stoppage At Sygma, Tony Stone's comments on the industry, and Jim Pickerell's analysis of those comments, Pictor Ltd. Insolvent, SuperStock Creates X-File and Closes Production, Getty Images 2001 Results, Ad Sales Down, Acquisitions by ImageState, GlobalPhoto, Corbis and SuperStock, Creative Eye's Search For Money and more.
Peter Dean has developed a very effective way for someone with a small file of images in a specialized subject area to make those images available for searching online. His experience is worth considering for those with lots of images and limited resources for marketing.
This story contains short items on SolusImages' new international network, Workbookstock's Ad Campaign, Appeals Court Decision on Web Crawling For Images, Retrofile.com, news from Corbis, Zefa and Image State, Cautions on tracking your images once they are online and anticipating stock agency bankruptcys; and more.
Pictor International Limited in the UK is insolvent and asking their creditors to agree to a payment plan that would pay them, over a three year period, a total of approximately 4 percent of the $2,229,000 they are owed. Creditors owed another $14 million will probably receive nothing.
Getty Images, Inc. has reported better than expected fourth quarter 2001 revenue of $101.8 million. This compared to $129.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2000. Total revenue for 2001 was $451 million, down 7% from $484.8 million in 2000. E-commerce revenues were $62 million representing 61% of sales.
While some companies are moving out of New York, ImageState is consolidating their far flung operations in the heart of Manhattan. Their production operation currently located in Seattle will be moved to NY, and many of the European operations will also move there.
The French news staff of the Corbis brands Sygma, Kipa and Tempsport instituted a work stoppage on January 28th. Additional stories in this Random Thoughts include: Corbis Acquires Sekani, Ad Sales Down in 2001 and Expectations for 2002, Zefa Opens London Office, National Geographic CD-ROM's Missing Some Pictures, Hemera Technologies and TimePix Changes Directions.
Getty Images has announced that they will close the Seattle design studio that produces catalogs and advertising material and move the operation to London. A main emphasis of the Seattle studio had been the design of marketing products for PhotoDisc.