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Articles from July 2007
Frost & Sullivan, a corporate growth consultancy, announced that the 2007 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Market Leadership goes to Getty Images. Presented every year, the award recognizes Getty's digital asset management services, including Media Manager and Image.net.
The production of short-form videos is likely to be the next growth business opportunity. There are millions of videos online, but only a small portion offer helpful insights on how to develop a business producing them. Here is a sampling of useful sites.
The news, business and legal information provider LexisNexis has added images represented by Newscom and World Picture Network to its research offering. The two image collections combined provide LexisNexis customers with access to rights-managed and royalty-free imagery spanning current and historical news, sports, people, health, science, lifestyles and events.
We are on the cusp of explosive demand for short-form videos designed for the net. Are you a still shooter experiencing declining RPI? Do you have to work twice as hard and produce double the quantity of images just to stay even now? If so, video production may offer an opportunity to stay in the business of photography.
Nielsen Net/Ratings, a global leader in Internet media and market research, has recently announced a new system for ranking online sites called "Total Minutes." This move could open tremendous opportunities for short-form videos.
There is no good way to estimate how many RF or RM sales are being lost because the customers are buying microstock instead. There are indications that Getty's RF sales in 2006 were declining about 10,000 units a quarter or 40,000 for the year. However, this is hard to confirm because Getty acquired Stockbyte last year and that acquisition should have boosted the total number of RF units sold. If 40,000 units were lost at an average price of $250, that would be $10 million.
Corbis and Condé Nast have reached an agreement to license fashion and celebrity imagery originally published by Women's Wear Daily. The arrangement expands Corbis's editorial offerings, while providing Condé Nast with a secondary revenue stream.
Getty Images has launched a new footage Web site, which features improved search capabilities and instant broadcast-quality downloads. In addition, the company announced the replacement of rights-managed footage licensing with the rights-ready model.
PA Photos, the picture agency of the U.K.'s national Press Association, announced a new release of its real-time image delivery service and a new medical representation agreement.
A number of PhotoDisc photographers have become increasingly upset at the non-payment of royalties for almost two years - and Getty is in a legal situation where they can't do much about it.
Kelly Thompson, senior vice president of iStockphoto, found a novel way to thank the company's photographers. On Aug. 19, the day Louis Daguerre's discovery was released to the world in 1839, iStock will introduce the photographic community to a new holiday: Punctum Day's. The first Punctum Day will be commemorated by the launch of several "thank you" programs for iStock contributors. These will include eight contests with more than $40,000 in prizes.
The Calgary-based microstock pioneer iStockphoto says its community has surpassed 2 million members. Of this number, 38,000 people are contributors - and many microstock photographers moonlight as art directors and graphic designers who also buy images.
Jupitermedia acquired Mediabistro for $20 million in cash and a two-year earn-out that may result in an additional $3 million. Lauren Touby, the founder of the New York-based online community Mediabistro.com, who will stay with the company, referred to the $23 million deal as "a marriage of minds and media resources."
Alamy has released their second quarter 2007 figures on contributors, percentage revenue and average pricing which shows no major change from the previous quarter. In the quarter they added 897,277 images to their collection, slightly fewer than in the previous quarter. They now have over 9.15 million images on their site.
This July marks the first year for ProStockMaster, a shareware software package that allows microstock contributors to simultaneously upload images to eight leading Web sites. ProStockMaster also features additional capabilities designed to streamline a photographer's workflow.
Recently, I've been made aware that some photographers don't understand the difference between Return-Per-Image (RPI) and Return-Per-Image-Licensed (RPIL) and they are drawing some incorrect conclusions, particularly when Alamy reports its quarterly numbers.
Virgin Mobile, a UK mobile phone company with global reach, is using amateur photos in a major advertising campaign promoting its services in Australia. All photos were obtained from Flickr, where these were posted by users under a Creative Commons license.
This edition includes stories on: Morris to Run Jupitermedia Online Biz; Xcavator.net Adds iStockphoto Images; Thought Equity to Distribute NBC News Footage; age fotostock Expands in Sweden; and Corbis Awards Miami Ad School Student.
Wellcome Trust, a U.K.-based charity that spends £500 million per year to fund biomedical research, has launched Wellcome Images. The online library offers access to an unprecedented number of medical images, manuscripts and illustrations exploring the past and present of the art and science of medicine.
There are traditionalist out there who are very upset that microstock exists and wish it would go away. It won't. It's here to stay and one way or another traditionalists need to find a way to live with it. This article tries to take a balanced look at microstock and how it will affect everyone's future.
Two weeks after the much-publicized launch of the Corbis microstock offering, opinions vary. Some think SnapVillage is a bad deal for photographers and that the existence of micropayment brands will end up restricting photographer access to the premium stock-image market.
This edition includes stories on: Apple Sued Over Image Use and Masterfile Continues Design-Based Strategy, Wins More Awards.
This edition includes stories on: Micro Segment Grows at Macro Pace and Fotolia Announces First API Partnership.
This edition includes stories on: FeaturePics Surpasses 300,000 Images and AP Adds Medical, African-American Imagery.
This edition has stories on: Sierra Stock Offers Photographers 70% Commissions and Fotegrafik, a Singapore based agency is expected to launch by the end of the year with a focus on Asian content.
This edition includes stories on: Corbis Restructures to Focus on Stock and Rights Services; International Fight League to Sell Photos by Getty and Mainstream Data Acquires Newscom.
Serban Enache, CEO of Dreamstime, asked two questions. "Aren't the costs lower now for a traditional photographer, just as they are for a micropayment photographer? Why does an image of a corn field need to cost several hundred $$$ when it costs $10 to produce?" This article is my response to those questions.
This edition has the following stories: PPSOP Launches Stock Submission Service; Google Experiments With Photo-led News; Masterfile Enhances Search With User Stats and Yahoo! Image Search Integrates Flickr Photos.