Beyond a higher level of personal involvement with Getty Images, iStockphoto chief operating officer Kelly Thompson does not think much will change at the Getty-owned microstock business after last week’s resignation of its founder Bruce Livingstone. The newest member of the Getty Images executive committee shares the background of this decision and the company’s plans for the near future.
Since Livingstone’s announcement, the opportunity to vilify the industry’s two favorite targets—the big bad monopoly and the man whose once-insignificant image-sharing Web site has turned the industry on its head—has proven irresistible for many commentators. Livingstone could not possibly have resigned of his own volition, one story goes; he must have been forced out and is only covering with trite protestations of wanting to spend time with his family. Another crowd favorite is that the reason why he “hung on” for so long has to do with a rather large financial incentive he is receiving as a reward. In the meantime, warns another pundit, Thompson’s position as Livingstone’s successor was nowhere near certain, reportedly according to some “very inside” iStock insiders.
Such speculation notwithstanding, Thomspons says: “There is really no dirt. Bruce was just ready. He never worked for a big company before, but he worked really hard at Getty, and it was an awesome experience for him. People are desperate to find something, but Bruce and Jonathan [Klein] are like best buddies.”
Thompson confirms Livingstone’s assertion that most aspects of his departure had been planned for a long time. iStock insiders and close observers, Thompson says, may have been shocked, but they were not surprised.
“A couple of years ago, we worked out a plan of future leadership and marketing. We have remained on that track,” he elaborates. Because of this, there are no management or other changes planned for the immediate future. When Thompson stepped up to the role of COO last summer, iStock hired a senior director of marketing, Nicole Desrosiers, who had assumed his former responsibilities. Short of a legal counsel, a position that has been advertised for some time, no senior executives will be joining iStock in the near future.
iStock remains focused on its business, which keeps breaking financial records. In December, iStockphoto was closing in on $1.1 million in weekly contributor commission payouts; Thompson said that now, the company averages $1.2 million per week, and last week’s payout was $1.3 million.
Many individual contributors are seeing record-breaking numbers, and a surge in early-2009 microstock revenues has been confirmed by multiple shooters on several online forums and blogs. Thompson also said contributors are seeing higher returns per image. “The often-cited $6 to $7 per image is a low-end statistic. People with large portfolios may only be averaging $20 per image; however, there is a number of sharper-focused shooters who submit small numbers of images and earn as much as $591 per image per year—and these are not necessarily our $300,000 to $400,000 earners.”
Traditional photographers are not alone in thinking that microstock agencies have room to raise prices. According to Thompson, iStock is under constant pressure to charge more: “We are pressured by contributors to increase prices, but then there are volume customers who are really, really scared of even marginal price changes,” he explains.
Still, the company believes that the market has room for imagery priced higher than microstock—both at iStock and in the broader stock industry. The company has been actively collecting images for its upcoming premium collection of exclusive content, priced between 30 and 60 site credits for print-resolution images. Thompson also said that iStock has been successful in upselling its parent’s traditional offering with the “try this search at Getty Images” feature on iStock search-result pages: “We send hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of clickthroughs to gettyimages.com, and many end up buying very expensive images.”
To Thompson, this confirms his believe that if the image is right, price does not matter— “within reason, of course. Many of our customers will never pay more than $10 for any image. But there are many who will.”
iStock is also continuing to develop Dexter, its desktop app for volume clients. The recently launched audio and subscription products are doing well, said Thompson, particularly the recently added PumpAudio content. In addition to the premium image collection, a new search algorithm is coming in the near future. Thompson thinks it will be significant, as it will add features such as the ability to deliver more relevant search results based on each user’s language and other data, such as geographic location. “In Germany and in Mexico, ‘beer’ means two very different images,” he explains.
Thompson declined to comment on Getty’s plans for Stockxpert, which it recently acquired as part of Jupiterimages. It seems that the industry will just have to wait to see how Getty handles former Jupiterimages brands.