Change View Options:
Articles from February 2008
The EC sees policy reform as necessary to promote a single-market music, film and games industry. While image licensing is not specifically referenced, the issues raised and reforms proposed have direct relevance to the well-being of stock producers and retailers.
Two of the five annual Getty Images' coveted $20,000 editorial grants have been awarded to Ian Martin and Lorena Ros.
Previously open only to members of the British Association of Picture Libraries and Agencies, the Picture Buyers' Fair is welcoming all image suppliers as exhibitors. The seventh annual PBF is scheduled for May 7 and 8.
The Kelsey Group has reported in its "Outlook for Directional and Interactive Advertising" that global advertising spend was just over $600 billion in 2007. It predicts that number will hit $707 billion by 2012.
Stockxpert, Jupitermedia's microstock brand, has expanded its product offering to include royalty free footage.
Referring to the Apple-championed move away from digital rights-management technologies, image-licensing startup GumGum says it wants to be the iTunes of content, making the licensing process so easy it eliminates the need for content piracy.
While there is still a large gap between traditional royalty-free and microstock, image pricing and contributor commissions are rising at leading microstock Web sites. Even with recessionary woes, there are no signs of a slowdown in the micro segment.
Image-monitoring company PicScout estimates that 90% of stock images are published without appropriate licensing or payment to their owners. Despite the proliferation of laws that criminalize image piracy, it remains a global problem.
Reed Elsevier, the world's largest publisher with over $9 billion in annual revenue is in the process of cutting its exposure to the print and advertising segments of the market and intends to concentrate on higher growth online and subscription activities.
In the very near future, RM photographers and traditional RF photographers will need to take a hard look at the whole issue of volume relative to price.
Getty Images Inc. has entered into a definitive merger agreement to be acquired by affiliates of the private-equity firm Hellman & Friedman LLC in a transaction valued at approximately $2.4 billion, including the assumption of existing debt.
As Jonathan Klein promised when Getty Images acquired Pump Audio, the company's music collection is expanding beyond the independent artists that were the sole focus of Hudson Valley's alternative-music business. In a first major representation agreement, Getty has partnered with top indie film studio Lionsgate.
Photographers considering other sites need to determine how they will compare with iStock. In an attempt to learn more about comparative sales, I decided to use the same keywords to search several sites, order the images by number of downloads and count the total number of downloads for the 100 most downloaded images.
New York-based digital art site Zymmetrical has added a new search option. It allows users to find images with a designated area of blank or clutter-free space for adding text, logos and other layout elements. Founder and CEO Keith Tuomi said tthis Freerange feature, in combination with tools like Zymmetrical's color picker, helps buyers who know what they want find it faster.
Those who feel microstock businesses are ruining the industry are sure to be outraged by a new, potentially even lower-priced image offering from British newcomer moodboard. The London-based company, owned by Mike Watson of Digital Vision fame, launched moodboard unlimited, a Web site that allows customers to set their own prices for royalty-free images.
Moodboard has just launched moodboard unlimited, which allows customers to set the price they will pay for an image. Any amount, no matter how low, will get them a 300 dpi file suitable for printing 8.5 inches x 11 inches.
The Picture Licensing Universal System Coalition, an industry-neutral nonprofit that aims to simplify and facilitate image-rights management, has elected five new directors to its board. They represent their industries' trade and nonprofit associations. The PLUS board unites all industries involved in image creation, distribution, use and preservation.
Previously a division of downunder celebrity-photo agency More Images, Keedup Ltd. is now a separate business entity. In addition to expanding its keywording operation, Keedup plans to introduce a range of new services targeted at stock-licensing companies.
Prediction: more revenue will be generated by the licensing of microstock than through the licensing of traditional single image RF (TRF) before the end of 2010.
a21, the owner of the ArtSelect, SuperStock and MediaMagnet brands, is deferring quarterly cash interest payments on $15.5 million Secured Convertible Term Notes. The cash will be used for short-term operational enhancements and strategic initiatives.
Photographers and stock agencies are polarized between those who favor traditional marketing methods and those who favor microstock. Each side can learn from the other.
Many of the worlds most experienced and successful stock photographers - ones with high six-figure annual revenues are considering putting some of their best quality images on microstock sites as a test. But they often find it difficult to get the microstock companies to accept them.
In late 2007, Getty Images-owned iStockphoto launched a corporate accounts program, offering additional evidence of microstock penetrating the professional image-buyer market.
New York-based PhotoShelter appointed Andrew Fingerman as vice president of marketing. Former Getty Images executive Genevieve Harley also joins the company as director of sales.
After the mid-January news of massive layoffs at Digital Railroad, observers speculated that the company was in trouble. This week, the newly appointed CEO Charles Mauzy issued a statement that tries to alleviate these concerns.
According to Corbis vice president Adam Brotman, SnapVillage "is playing out better than expected." To capitalize on this momentum, Corbis is rolling out a sales and marketing campaign to drive buyers to the Web site.
Political, women's community and celebrity coverage Web sites experienced the highest increases in the number of unique visitors last year.
Photographers should always do everything possible to create images of highest quality. But just because they've worked hard to produce a stock image, used high-priced talent and expensive sets, doesn't mean they can charge more.
Icon Sports Media has launched a new Web site, which offers a searchable database of 1 million images depicting over 100 sports types.
Getty Images dominated the 51st annual World Press Photo Contest. Five of 59 total prizes, including three first prizes, went to Getty photographers, more than any other agency.
Reuters has reported that when Getty Images' deadline for bids closed on Feb. 4, there was at least one takeover offer. It was unclear how firm the offer (or offers) were and whether they were for all or parts of the company.
The Cologne, Germany-based medicapicture has launched Educational Pictures, a subscription product that targets students, teachers and institutions in medicine and related fields.
Index Stock contributors have been telling Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) they are now receiving royalty payments that exactly match the statements they received from former comptroller Carlos Santos in November.
In the quarterly conference call to investors Getty Images CEO Jonathan Klein provided three reasons for why average prices were down about 10% for Q4 and the full year.
In his recent year-end conference call to investors, Getty Images CEO, Jonathan Klein said, "I can categorically state that the success of [the $49 web use product] has exceeded our expectations. We are finding thousands of new customers for Getty Images."
In his year-end conference call to investors, Getty Images CEO, Jonathan Klein said, "We are licensing fewer images for print advertising, brochures, junk mail and print collateral." This is very significant because these uses have always been the bread and butter of stock photography.
"Green" has become a ubiquitous sales tool, according to Denise Waggoner, vice president of creative research at Getty Images. This exploitation of the global environmental conscience is the theme of the second edition of Getty's "What Makes A Picture" Report.
According to the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) Photolibrary has begun moving to contact, and pay contributors the outstanding debts the company assumed when it purchased Index Stock in October 2006.
As of April 1, Adobe is discontinuing operations of its 3-year-old stock-photo service. Though Adobe Stock Photos was supposed to make designers' lives easier, it did not.
Visual content-monitoring company PicScout will demonstrate PicApp, an ad-supported image-licensing platform, during this week's Israel Web Tour 2008 Showcase. Creative and editorial imagery from Getty Images will be highlighted.
Earlier this month, the Library of Congress launched a pilot project to improve access to some 14 million prints, photographs and other visual materials in its collection. The LoC has partnered with Flickr, tapping into its vast user community to crowd-source image keywording.
In Q4 2007, Getty Images reversed the trend of the first three quarters and showed revenue increases in every category of its business.
Getty Images reported revenue of $218.1 million for Q4 2007, up from $208.9 in Q3 and a 7% increase from $203.5 in Q4 2006. All lines of business were up for the quarter. Particularly notable was the improvement in RM and RF sales. However, Net profit for Q4 fell to $28.5 million.