One of the most useful seminars at
PhotoPlus Expo this year was the “Your Roadmap To Success” presentation by Judy Hermann. Judy is a past president of the
American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), served as an Olympus Visionary for 10 years and was awarded the United Nations International Photographic Council’s Leadership Award for her work as an educator and industry advocate.
Photographers with a goal of maximizing earnings from the images they produce, and who continue to insist that in order to realize that goal their work must be licensed as Rights Managed (RM), may need to consider the new realities of the stock photo business.
Envato, an Australian company that has provided resources and educational services to the graphic design community since 2006, has announced that it will expand its operations to the United States in 2016.
According to
Bloomberg, Getty Images has found a way to raise a net $90 Million in an effort to revive its “Midstock” business.
Photography has become much more of a means of self-expression than a business. That’s not necessarily a bad thing unless you are trying to earn your living from the images you produce.
Recently, a European asked me how the editorial market for photography has changed in the U.S. the last 10 years. First, gross revenue for U.S. newspapers has declined about 60% from $49.3 billion in 2006 to $19.9 billion in 2014. As revenue has declined the space for editorial content, including pictures, has declined.
Since 2013 the House Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress has been engaged in a comprehensive review of the current Copyright Act. It has held 20 hearings and heard from 100 witnesses.
For decades Masterfile has been a leading provider of stock imagery to advertising, design and corporate communications. The company represents the work of many of the worlds leading image producers. Its collection is well edited and its website offers very efficient search. Currently, more than 70% of the company’s revenue comes from sales in North America and more than 80% comes from the advertising, design and corporate communications segments of the market that presumably need the highest quality work and have the budgets to pay for it.
Bloomberg
has reported that Corbis will be cutting about 15% of its staff. The information came from an internal memo sent to employees by CEO Gary Shenk, and obtained by Bloomberg.
Today,
Shutterstock reported $107.3 million in revenue for Q3 2015, a 28% increase over Q3 2014 and up nearly $3 million from the previous quarter. The increase was primarily due to a 22% increase in the number of paid downloads compared to a year earlier.