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RANDOM THOUGHTS 2
January 19, 1999
Scuba Magazines
Chris Crumley of Earth Water stock agency reports that
The Peterson Company acquired Scuba Times and DeepTech magazines on
December 24, according to Bob Garth, STM Publisher in Nashville, TN.
Answering concerns about previous scuba magazine sales resulting in unpaid invoices
from contributors, Bob Garth said "agreed-upon payments to contributors will be
made in early to mid-January." He added, "perhaps we can do it differently; go out
leaving a good taste in contributors' mouths."
Bob Garth verified that his brother, Fred Garth, will become be editor or publisher
of Peterson's Southern Scuba and that the rest of the STM and DeepTech staff will
go their separate ways as the business is wound down. Fred will remain in the STM
offices with the same telephone, fax and e-mail for some time into the future. Fred
Garth and this writer were unable to reach each other prior to this report being
published.
Bob Garth said the magazines were sold to Peterson following inquires from
Peterson. He described the diving industry as "contracting, rather than growing,
with too many magazines." They were being "slaughtered on the newsstand" by
Peterson and Rodales and were planning to leave the newsstand in 1999 and
concentrate on being first rate subscriber journals. Peterson purchased the
magazines, not just the subscriber lists.
The Jan/Feb 1999 issue of Scuba Times will be the last issue and has already been
distributed. The 1st Quarter 1999 DeepTech issue is at the printer and will be
available at DEMA.
Peterson is a publicly-traded company (Symbol: PTN); news of the
transaction will be available from numerous financial sources. In news earlier in
December, Peterson is being acquired by EMAP, plc, one of the largest consumer
publshing companies in Europe for US$1.2 billion in cash. The transaction has been
approved by the boards of both companies. The U.S. operating division, to be known
as EMAP Peterson, will be led by James D. Dunning, Jr., current Chairman, President
and CEO of The Peterson Company. EMAP plc, which is led by Kevin Hand, with the
addition of Petersen, will be one of the world's leading international magazine
publishers with over 600 magazine titles and multimedia products including
television, radio, trade shows, consumer events and custom publishing, more than
6,000 employees worldwide and combined revenues exceeding US$1.5 billion.
Production Disincentives
Some stock agencies require that 100% of the first dollars earned from any pictures
in their catalog go to pay off the catalog fee owed the agency. It is easy to see
why an agency would do this because they have fronted the money to produce the
catalog and they need to keep their money working.
On the other hand this can be a real disincentive to the photographer they are
trying to encourage to produce more images for the next catalog, and particularly
so if the photograher is just starting with the agency and doesn't have many images
in the catalog.
The photographer has paid all the costs to produce the pictures, usually waits
about a year before the catalog is released, and then it is not uncommon for the
photographer to wait another year for the image to earn enough money to pay off the
catalog fee. By this time the photographer is beginning to wonder if this is a
good way to invest his capital.
Tony Stone Images, as one example, pays to the photographer half of the
photographer's normal share until the catalog fee is paid off. This way the
photographer starts seeing some money much earlier. Stone has to wait twice as
long to recover their investment in catalog production, but the photographer has a
much greater incentive to re-invest the dollars received in new production.
New Creative Director For Tony Stone Images
Tony Stone Images has appointed Lewis Blackwell as its new Creative Director to
replace Stephen Mayes who left the company in the spring of 1998. Lewis will join
the company in early March and will be responsible to drive and develop Tony Stone
Images' creative outlook.
"The real draw for me has been the company's amazing vision," Lewis said. "It's at
the cutting edge of the communications revolution. Its recognition of the power of
the image in what is an increasingly visual culture is highly sophisticated - as is
its embrace of new media, particularly the Internet. This is a fantastic
opportunity for me to join a very exciting ideas-led company - definitely the one
to watch."
American photographers who may not have heard of Blackwell can get an idea of his
thinking by going to www.whereishere.com which he collaborated n with P. Scott
Makela and Laurie Haycock Makela. Blackwell also collaborated with David Carson on
the design bestseller "The End of Print", and with Neville Brody on "G1; Subj,
Contemp, Design, Graphic."
Because the stock photography industry is traditionally design and advertising-led,
TSI attemped to find an astute observer of creative trends who would help drive the
company's creative vision, and could also demonstrate a formidable understanding of
multiple creative disciplines in addition to photography. Blackwell proved to be
the ideal candidate.
Getting Images Seen
Some TSI photographers are finding that after images have been are selected for the
master dupe collection it takes over a year to get the images duped and distributed
to the various offices. The explanation is that they are putting out so many new
catalogs that their first priority is to dupe images that go with the catalogs.
Nevertheless, such delays discourage future production.
Finding Getty Images
The URL for the Getty Images web site is www.Getty-Images.com. However, the most
common way to address web sites of most companies with compound word names is
running the two words together like www.washingtonpost.com. Many companies have
registered several versions of their name, including common misspellings, so online
users will always be directed to the right site, and not some competiting site.
Getty doesn't seem to have taken that precaution.
The URL address www.gettyimages.com was registered to a Mr. Willy Thompson at 3555
Cremazie E in Montreal, Quebec, Canada on January 5, 1999. So far there is no
active site at that address. It will be interesting to see where users are
directed when this URL finally goes active.
Follow Up On Aiuppy Story
After reading the Aiuppy story 186,
there is another thing that Jonathan Klein overlooked when he compared photographers
percentages of gross sales to those of movie actors. Actors almost never
work entirely on speculation. They get significant up front payments - plus, in
some cases, royalties.
Oudated Images
Who says every subject has to be constantly updated and that you must purge the
files of outdated images. I just received tear sheets for five uses from my German
agent. Cotton farming in Turkey, changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace in
London, U.S. Capital Dome, soybean harvesting and computer storage devices. All
the images were taken fifteen or more years ago -- and they are still generating
income.