Editorial
PhotoShelter has just released the results of a new survey designed to determine “What Buyers Want From Photographers.” The 48 page report is available for
Free here.
Art Directors and Graphic Designers lament the
decline in creativity. They say this results from a lack of Time and a lack of Funding which leads to a lack of Inspiration. 75% say they have too many competing priorities to leave time for reflection.
According to the New York Post Avril Nolan, 25, has sued Getty Images for $450,000 after discovering her unreleased picture splashed across a quarter-page color ad in the free newspaper am New York on April 3, 2012. Next to her face were the words "I am positive (+)" and "I have rights." Nolan is perfectly healthy, never had HIV and never signed a model release to allow her image to be used in any kind of advertising.
We are moving rapidly toward a time when a large portion of the news photographs we see will be crowd sourced. There may be no way to slow this trend, but it raises some serious questions for those trying to earn a living as news photographers, or those who hope to take up this career in the future.
Backed by Yuri Arcurs,
Scoopshot is launching a new service for crowdsourcing photography on-demand in minutes after the customer makes a request. Scoopshot gives photo buyers the ability to instantaneously place assignments in front of the company’s global network of 280,000+ mobile photographers.
In another example of how the news photography business is changing, the Chicago Sun-Times has eliminated all of its 28 staff photography positions. The paper intends to get images in the future from freelance photographers and reporters taking pictures with their smart phones.
In its annual study of the State of News Media the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism found that employment at U.S. newspapers in 2012 was down 30% from its peak in 2000 and below 40,000 full-time professional employees for the first time since 1978.
In the digital age there is declining interest among consumers and advertisers in print publications. Investors have little confidence that there will ever be a recovery or revival of print. They want the companies they invest in to shed marginally profitable assets and focus on the much more profitable businesses of film and television. Publishers like Time Warner are looking for ways to reduce their print publication exposure and concentrate their investments on assets that offer better growth potential.
Eric Charbonneau, a renowned entertainment photographer with over 25 years of experience, today signed with
Invision, the multimedia entertainment agency jointly owned by
The Associated Press and some of the world's leading entertainment photographers.
Editorial Photographers has announced its 2013 EP Edu Student Photography Grants program that will provide $1,000 cash grants and another $1,000 worth of gear and business tools to six deserving photography students. Entries must be submitted before March 17, 2013. Entrants must be enrolled full-time during 2012-13 in an accredited college in the U.S. or Canada. Full details are here:
http://www.epedu.org.
The ever increasing demand for instant and breaking news images and the huge improvement in the quality of phone and compact camera photographs has prompted
Alamy to begin accepting photographs for its Live News service from mobile (cell) phone cameras and compact cameras.
In observance of its 5-year anniversary of Reportage by Getty Images the company has put together a collection of some of the most compelling photojournalism shot by Getty photographers. See this anniversary gallery
(http://www.reportagebygettyimages.com/news/).
Scoopshot has launched Scoopshot PRO that makes commissioning a photographer easier than ever. The service gives the media, ad agencies and other companies access to a global pool of professional and accredited amateur photographers, and the ability to set, manage and pay for assignments.
After Hurricane Sandy many news organizations will be thinking hard about covering breaking news events with iPhone’s and delivering the images via Instagram. Kira Pollack, Director of Photography for Time Magazine, hired five professional photographers to cover the event with their iPhones rather than their digital SLRs. By delivering the images via Instagram Time was able to show customers a more comprehensive report faster that would have been possible with a traditional approach to the assignment.
This article provides trend information on the global and U.S. revenue generated through advertising by newspapers, magazines and online delivery services. Advertising revenue has always been key in supporting the creation and distribution of information content. Historically U.S. publishers have relied on 85 percent of their revenue coming from advertising.
Novus Select announced today the formation of
Tectonic Media Group (TMG), a New York-based talent management and media consulting firm. TMG represents the top talent in action and adventure sports photography and filmmaking. The firm will look after each artist in all aspects of their career, from print advertising and editorial work, to directing commercials, branded content, and feature length documentaries, as well as content licensing, book publishing, speaking engagements, and brand endorsements.
American Photographic Artists (
APA) has announced that Editorial Photographers (
EP), a highly regarded association aimed at improving profitability of editorial photography, has agreed to a merger that will benefit professional photographers around the world. The merger is scheduled to be completed by the end of the year. This merger will increase the size of APA to approximately 3,200 members.
The Berlin based news agency group DAPD filed for insolvency on October 2, 2012. However, this action only affects six companies within the dapd media holding group AG including two photo services – dfd Foto Service GmbH and dapd video GmbH.
Last month we wrote about
Scoopshot a site where any photographer can submit cell phone pictures for editorial use. The company has been in business for about 18 months and has over 130,000 contributors from 165 different countries. Now Scoopshot has added an option that allows editors to identify and give assignments to a select group of photographers that produce professional quality work.
Alan Capel, Head of Content at
Alamy explains that the price for printing 3 million copies of a textbook was much higher than we
reported earlier this week.
In the future, will it be possible for more photographers to earn a
better living than they are currently earning producing stock images? More and
more photographers are jumping into the stock photo business every day
and many hope to make it a career. Here’s
a dozen reasons why future
revenue growth for this industry seems unlikely. I’ve discussed all
these issues before, but it seems useful to briefly itemize them all in
one place.
In March it was reported by Moody’s and Standard & Poors that the
gross revenue for Getty Images in calendar 2011 was $945 million. This
figure, and how the various lines of business break out, provide some interesting insights into the state of the stock
photography business.
What's the most that has been paid for a single photo for editorial, product or other type of commercial use? Learn about some top sellers and tell us of other examples.
The Associated Press and Fotolia have announced a collaboration giving customers access to millions of royalty-free images. AP Images customers will be able to buy editorial, rights-managed and royalty-free images, including millions from Fotolia, on
APImages.com.
Publishers are asking for free pictures more frequently. Usually they
argue that the recognition a photographer receives from having his or
her pictures appear in their publication is all the compensation the
photographer should expect. Often they don’t even publish a byline.Thus
readers have no way of knowing who took the picture.