125
SURVEY
March 6, 1998
One of the surprising results from the January Stock Survey is the number of
photographers earning a good income from stock. Thirty-five percent of
the 206 respondents earned over $70,000 in 1997 from the stock side of their business.
About 5,000 surveys were mailed.
The following are the number of responses and the percentage of the total at each level
of income.
"5">
over $400,000
|
6
|
3%
|
$250,000 to $400,000
|
13
|
6.5%
|
$150,000 to $250,000
|
14
|
7%
|
$100,000 to $150,000
|
24
|
12%
|
$70,000 to $100,000
|
13
|
6.5%
|
$40,000 to $70,000
|
35
|
17%
|
$20,000 to $40,000
|
26
|
13%
|
$10,000 to $20,000
|
29
|
14%
|
less than $10,000
|
43
|
21%
|
Fourteen percent of the photographers were not represented by a stock agency, 27% had a
single agency and 59% are represented by more than one agency. The good news for stock
agencies is that photographers earn much more when they are represented by an agency.
Of those not represented, about 17% earned over $40,000, but none earned over $70,000
and 50% earned less than $10,000.
Interestingly, at the higher earning levels those represented by several stock agencies
tended to earn more than those who were exclusive with a single agency. This was
surprising considering that the major agencies require exclusive contracts.
"10">
| Respondents | Exclusive | Several Agencies |
over $400,000
|
6
|
2
|
4
|
$250,000 to $400,000
|
13
|
5
|
8
|
$150,000 to $250,000
|
14
|
2
|
12
|
$100,000 to $150,000
|
24
|
6
|
18
|
Eighty-five percent of those responding have images in a print or digital catalog.
Having images in a catalog was a very important predictor of income. Of the 30 with
no images in catalogs one earned over $150,000, but had several agencies handling his
work. After this aberration, 10% of those without catalog images earned between
$40,000 and $70,000 and 80% earned less than $20,000 in 1997.
A major photographer complaint has been that they are not getting as many images in
recent catalogs as they did in the past. We asked, "Did you get as many images in
catalogs in 1997 as you did in 1996, or in previous years?" The response to this
question split about equally with 61 saying more, 58 saying less and 56 about the
same (31 didn't answer).
However, when it comes to production of new images 50 said they produced more in 1997
than in previous years, 63 said less and 87 said about the same.
When asked about their gross earnings from stock 97 said they earned more in 1997, 39
earned less and 67 said about the same.
Royalty Free Discs
Only 9 had actually allowed their images to be used on Royalty Free discs while 195 said
they had not and two were unsure. However, 41 said that given the opportunity they
would be willing to put images on RF discs and 32 more said they might, but were unsure.
That's over 35% of the respondents who are prepared to consider participating in the
royalty free environment. This would indicate that RF producers will have little
trouble getting as much high quality content as they can absorb.
The other 65% said they would not participate and some gave strong opinions as to why
they would
not participate. Keep in
mind, also, that at the PACA
seminar last November, thirteen of the stock agencies attending said, "their company was
likely to market some form
of Royalty Free product in
the next three years" and 35 said maybe. That's 24% of the 195 agencies attending.
We asked photographers if they wanted their stock agency to produce, or market some type
of RF or
Low Royalty product.
Thirty-one said yes, 138 said
no and 24 were unsure.
A word of caution for stock agencies. We asked if photographers were satisfied with
their current
agency relationship and
103 said Yes, but 50 said No
and 24 were either not sure, or in cases where they were with more than one agency said
it depended
on the agency. That
means that 74 or about 40% are
not satisfied with some of their agency relationships.
Surprisingly, those earning more than $100,000 in 1997 were even more dissatisfied than
those at
the lower levels. Thirty
said they were satisfied
with their agency, but 15 said they were not and 12 said they were happy with some of the
agencies
they deal with, but not
all of them. Thus, 47% of
high earners are somewhat dissatisfied.
©1998 SELLING STOCK
The above copyrighted article(s) are for the sole use of Selling Stock subscribers and may
not be copied, reproduced, excerpted or distributed in any manner to non-subscribers without
the written permission of Jim Pickerell, the editor. For subscription information contact:
Selling Stock 10319 Westlake Drive, Suite 162, Bethesda, MD 20817, phone 301-251-0720,
fax 301-309-0941, e-mail: jim@chd.com.