Stephen Walker recently read a report about
Shutterstock’s IPO plans on APhotoEditor. He then posted the on following conclusions on the ASMPstock group on yahoo. "Traditional RM, RF are growing at a pretty good clip? Micro more so!" He also said, "I see these numbers as a strong indicator of growth and positive for stock shooters." I think he is entirely wrong. Read why.
Searching for a buyer for Getty Images or deciding whether to launch an
IPO may be the least of CEO Jonathan Klein’s worries these days. He’s
got to be looking at Shutterstock and Fotolia and anticipating that they
will use a good part of their new found wealth to build their premium
collections. When that happens, will these brands cut further into the
Getty Images franchise?
U.S. Judge Denny Chin has issued an opinion denying Google's motion to
dismiss lawsuits by the American Society of Media Photographers and the
Authors Guild. The motion to dismiss had been based primarily on
Google's assertion that trade associations did not have
standing to bring a copyright infringement suit on behalf of members. In
his ruling, the Judge asserted that "given the sweeping and
undiscriminating nature of Google's unauthorized copying, it would be
unjust to require that each affected association member litigate his
claim individually."
Most online databases of stock photos contain hundreds of thousands of
images that are never seen by potential buyers. This can be attributed
to the fact that the sole way of finding images is through the use of
keywords. Learn more about how Visual Search could go a long way to solving this problem and the specific strategy used by
Pixolution.
Late last week
Shutterstock sent out a press release introducing – a little pre-maturely it turns out – a new image discovery tool called “Shutterstock Instant.” In fact, if you go to the Shutterstock site there is no evidence that this feature exists. It turns out it is still a prototype. As with all prototypes when it is finally released to the public it may be quite a bit different than it is today.
It no longer makes sense to keep microstock and traditional stock separate. It’s time to look at integration. Read this article to understand why and what the industry needs to do to go about accomplishing such an integration.
According to Kantar Media $144 billion was spent on advertising in the U.S. in 2011. Television received the largest portion of this (47%) divided between Broadcast ($38.5 billion) and local and national Cable TV at $30 billion. Digital advertising is growing at a rapid pace. Newspaper and Magazine revenues are declining.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) filed a voluntary petition for
reorganization under Chapter 11 in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the
Southern District of New York. The “pre-packaged” comprehensive
financial restructuring plan will eliminate $3.1 billion of the
company’s debt through a debt to equity transaction with its bank and
bond holders.
20/20 Software recently announced the release of Image ExpertTM. The
20/20 Software Image Expert is an advanced workflow and image processing
application. It provides image analysis using a set of rules provided
by the library; image conversion, image resizing, renaming, and metadata
import/export.
123RF has launched 123RF Stock Footage. Clients can choose from over 75,000 high definition video clips at
www.123rf.com/stock-footage/ in addition to Royalty-Free Stock Photo and Illustrations.
Fotolia just received $150 million growth investment and
Shutterstock will have over $100 million from an IPO soon. What will they do with the money? Check out this story to see what we were able to glean from Shutterstock's S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and from other industry sources.
Hellman & Friedman, the owners of Getty Images Inc, have retained Goldman Sachs Group Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co to examine a possible sale or public offering of the business. According to press reports a sale or IPO could value Getty Images at $4 billion. This move follows announcements last week by
Shutterstock and
Fotolia. Shutterstock hopes to raise $115 million in its IPO and Fotolia received a $150 million growth investment from Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. for a 50% stake in the company
Will the stock photo market generate $5 billion annually in revenue by the end of 2012?
Don't You Believe It.In its recent S-1 filing Shutterstock quoted BBC Research as saying the "market for pre-shot commercial digital imagery is expected to exceed $5 billion in 2013." I think the market for stock still photos, illustration and footage will generate no more than $2 billion by the end of 2012.
PhotoShelter has released the results of its 2012 survey of “
What Buyers Want From Photographers.” ( ) This guide, compiled in conjunction with AgencyAccess, will be useful to photographers seeking assignments as well as those marketing stock. The survey was sent to 90,000 buyers of photography and more than 1,000 responded.
StockFood, the leading food media agency, is adding a new product to its extensive visual collection: instructional Recipe Videos, offered with a package of additional complementary information services. The Recipe Video collection is targeted at the food, retail and hospitality industries, as well as a broad user group of online media.
123RF has announced a partnership agreement with Zcool, mainland China's
renowned creative designer platform for graphic designers. Designers
show their work on Zcool and there is a degree of sharing of the work.
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), along with the
Professional Photographers of America (PPA), has submitted comments to
the U.S. Copyright Office in response to proposed new registration fees. In formulating the Copyright Office comments, ASMP surveyed its members
about copyright registration and received nearly 900 responses.
A three-judge panel of the Washington State Court of Appeal has substantially
affirmed a trial court judgment against Corbis Corporation for Fraud,
Breach of Contract, Breach of the Duty of Good Faith and Fair Dealing,
Misappropriation of Trade Secrets and Unjust Enrichment over the ownership of Infoflows' Fedmark technology. The original jury awarded $36 million in damages. Following trial the judge reduced the damages to $12.74 million.
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P. (together with its affiliates,
"KKR"), today announced a $150 million growth equity investment in
Fotolia. In addition, KKR, TA Associates and Management worked with KKR
Capital Markets and a number of relationship banks to put in place a
$150 million senior financing for the Company.
Shutterstock has filed plans with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an initial public offering (IPO). The company intends to list its stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “SSTK” and hopes to raise around $115 million through this IPO. The number of shares to be offered and the price range for the offering have yet to be decided.
In web advertising what produces the best results still photos or videos? You may be surprised. This story outlines some of the things that are happening that will change the way customers choose their images and some of the things you can do to increase sales.
In March it was reported by Moody’s and Standard & Poors that the
gross revenue for Getty Images in calendar 2011 was $945 million. This
figure, and how the various lines of business break out, provide some interesting insights into the state of the stock
photography business.
The stock photography industry has to face the challenge of becoming relevant in an economy that has no patience for inadequate business models. Today the vast majority of photographs are used without any contact with the traditional photo industry, which has completely lost control of production and distribution. But the industry continues stubbornly to apply old rules to this new landscape. It does not see, or purposely wants to ignore, that their model does not fit current needs and thus is chasing customers away.
Evolveimages.com has introduced a new simplified licensing model for Rights Managed (RM) Images that they call EvoRights. EvoRights focuses on four primary price drivers: use type (commercial or editorial), intended media (print, digital or both), duration and geographic distribution and allows customers to determine the usage fee in as little as three clicks.
An Australian company called
ImageBrief, has developed a way for buyers to submit briefs directly to photographers for the images they need. This cuts out the stock agency middle men, and eliminates the need for buyers to wade through massive online databases of images.