With this story Selling Stock is launching a new occasional series of articles offering photographers and stock agents the opportunity to speak out on important industry issues. The aim is to provide a forum for diverse points of view. The first article is by photographer Wayne Eastep.
Corbis has been advised by counsel not to answer questions posed by Jim Pickerell, editor of Selling Stock, because Pickerell is scheduled to testify as an industry expert in a case where Michael Grecco is suing Corbis Sygma for lost transparencies. This story explains the situation and the questions Pickerell would like to see answered.
This story looks at all aspects of Creative Eye, the new version of the online site started by ASMP and known as MIRA. We are pessimistic about Creative Eye's long term chances to accomplish all their goals, and we believe they are engaged on too many fronts. But we recommend that stock photographers give it serious consideration as one of the marketing options for their work. It should NOT be the sole option.
This includes short items on: Industry changes for editorial and travel photograhers, Good News on Ad Revenues, Final Getty Contract Deadline, $11,000 RF Sale, Changes at Index Stock, PhotoPlus Still On, Customers Want Smaller Print Catalogs According To Corbis and NY Times Blacklist.
Photographer Tom Grill who co-founded Comstock in 1976 and was their chief photographer and creative director for over two decades has left Comstock and created a new production company under the name TomGrill.com.
This includes short items on: $135,000 Sale, Corbis Digital Stock Layoffs, $17,000 RF Sale, Getty Scanning Update, Getty's German Disaster, Buyers In The World, Online Usage In The U.S., New position for Stephen Mayes and statistics on use of Video Clips.
On August 31st, Seth Resnick, Michael Grecco, and Paula Lerner filed a Class Action Complaint in Federal Court against the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) for its action's, since its inception in 1978, of licensing photocopy rights to thousands of users without properly compensating the creators for these rights.
This issue includes stories on: alamy.com, Advertising Spending Down, Getty Sales Down, Getty Closes Scanning, Creatas Buys PictureQuest, Speedpix, Argus Portal, Pictor Bankruptcy Update, Reuters and Sipa, Zefa Sales Growth, Sensitive Issues, Corbis Sales, Editorial Photographers Recession and more.
alamy.com is beginning to look like the leading portal option for photographers. They plan to launch a major promotional campaign this fall to image buyers and have developed systems to include agencies and provide custom edits of their site.
This story includes information on Corbis sales to Bill Gates, Corbis Incentive Plan, Getty Offer to Buy Reuters, Photog. Cost of Doing Business, Zefa Sales Growth, Editorial Photographer Recession, and more.
Getty has substantially closed down all of its U.S. scanning operations which were located in Seattle. It is expected that London will staff up to handle some of the workload, but the number of images scanned annually is likely to decrease.
eMotion, Inc., has announced the sale of its PictureQuest content business to Creatas a vertically integrated, media/marketing business selling products and services to the creative community. Creatas first appeared in the stock photo environment in December 2000 when it purchased Dynamic Graphics.
This article contains an update on the Pictor bankruptcy, proposed sale of Sipa to Reuters, Getty's closing of Colorific, a new agency called Raw Talent, and Corbis selling images to mobile phone users in Japan.
Getty's 2nd quarter sales were $115.9 million. They expect sales to continue to fall off for the rest of the year and estimate 3rd and 4th quarter sales at between $100 and $110 million each quarter making the gross for 2001 around $449 million. This would be a drop of 7% from 2000.
This contains short items on Sensitive Issues, New Argus portal, Decision Time for SAA Photographers, Photo 20-20 Joins Lonely Planet and Blackwell Named Senior VP at Getty Images.
Speedpix has run out of money and will cease to deal directly with clients at the end of July 2001. In future photographers will handle sales directly and will be responsible for all scanning and keywording of new images. Speedpix has hopes of raising funding for promotion somethime in the future.
Getty Images, Inc. announced today that their sales for the quarter ending June 30, 2001 are expected to be about $115 million down from the $124 million in Q1. They had announced on April 25th that they expected sales for Q2 to be between $120 million and $130 million.
This issue has stories on Ad Sales Down, Tasini Wins, NY Times Rights Grab, Pictor Inc. Bankrupt, Index Get More Capital and Reduces Photographer Percentage, Sub-Agent Shake Up, CEPIC Congress, and Stock Industry Statistics.
In a 7-2 decision the Supreme Court has ruled in favor of Jonathan Tasini in his case against The New York Times. Electronic databases are not revisions of print uses according to the Court. While this is good news, damages have not been assessed and there are still hurdles ahead.
Pictor International Inc.'s bankruptcy creditors meeting held on June 21st provides rare insights into the operation of the agency as well as information about the plight of their photographers.
This story includes information about a new Getty catalog strategy, New York Times misuse of images, Klein's income for 2000, Down Advertising Sales and the inadequacy of bankruptcy clauses in most photographer contracts.
Sub-agents that represent major brands are facing difficult decisions and potential loss of the right to represent certain catalogs. This could mean falling revenue for some sub-agents. Primary supplying agents may find it difficult to get their catalogs into the international market.
This story provides analysis of the recent PACA and CEPIC surveys of Stock Agencies in the U.S and Europe. I have focused my analysis on market size, and the percentage of sales that are Editorial compared with Commercial. The data provide some surprises.
Index Stock Imagery has sent a letter to their photographers asking them to accept a reduced percentage of sales from 50% to 40% of net revenues collected on Rights Protected sales. The article outlines several factors related to this decision. I think most photographers will find it beneficial to sign this agreement and continue their representation by Index.
This story contains short items on: The end of Getty's Art.com, GlobalPhoto and StockMedia alliance, Royalty Free Growth and RF in Europe, new online sports agency, Eyewire moves to Seattle, U.S. Photographers Joining PACA, and more.