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PR DIRECT ACQUIRES GLOBAL PHOTO
January 14, 2002
The French Royalty Free agency, PR Direct has taken over control of the bankrupt
editorial agency GlobalPhoto.
Emmanuel Prat, President of PR Direct, says they have taken over control of the
GlobalPhoto web site, but they still do not have physical control of the physical image
files of GlobalPhoto. Images can be found by going to www.prdirect.com and searching in
either French or English.
GlobalPhoto will be operated as an editorial division of PR Direct. Emmanuel Razavi will
remain chief editor of the newly formed division and will be joined by three other
members of the GlobalPhoto staff. It is still uncertain whether Floris de Boneville,
former CEO of GlobalPhoto will have a position with PR Direct. That continues to be
under discussion according to Prat.
Selling Stock asked Prat if they expect to negotiate sales for commercial and
advertising uses of GlobalPhoto images since PR Direct's strategy to that market segment
has been all Royalty Free pricing up to this time. He said, "The GlobalPhoto photographs
are mainly intended for the editorial market. If we have the opportunity to sell a
GlobalPhoto images to a commercial customer, and the right to do it, we will make the
deal! But we do not expect to develop negotiated sales on this side of the market, where
we believe our RF offer is sufficient and consistent. On the other side, we believe that
there is a great potential for RF images on the editorial market, and that the combined
offer of RP and RF images will appeal to photo editors on the press market."
According to French law PR Direct has no liability to pay photographers any royalties
for sales made prior to the filing of the bankruptcy. However Prat says that they
understand that trust is important in this business, and they want to restore it. "We
will make sure photographers who continue to work with GlobalPhoto/PR Direct are not
affected by the bankruptcy, and will make special arrangements with them," he explained.
Photographers need to recognize that all of their royalty share of sales made prior to
the bankruptcy was spent by GlobalPhoto to cover operating costs prior to the filing of
the bankruptcy. Thus, any payments that PR Direct will make must come out of their share
of future sales.
What this probably means is that there will be individual negotiations. Some
photographers will be paid some of the royalties they are owed depending on how
important Prat feels the future production of these photographers will be to his
business.
Going forward all photographers should expect to receive full royalty payments for any
sales made after PR Direct takes over the operations.
The images of photographers who do not wish to be represented by PR Direct will be
returned by PR Direct (when they get physical control of the files), or by the "Public
Officer" in charge of the bankruptcy. It is expected that process will be completed in a
relatively short period of time, once the photographer indicates his or her intent.
Razavi says of the PR Direct deal, "This alliance will allow us to pursue our mission of
representing independent photographers and defending their rights. We have been very
impressed by the support we got from the photographer's community to make this deal."