This month has seen a flurry of activity from online content superstore Newscom. The company has brought on several new brands and reorganized its sales and business development operations to "reach new markets and develop relationships with new partners," said managing director Bill Creighton.

Established in 1985, Newscom offers one-stop access to over 20 million photos, graphics, illustrations, videos and stories. It licenses rights-managed and royalty-free content, as well as hosts Web sites for content suppliers and syndicates.

Though the sheer size of its offering could rival the largest stock-only businesses, its image-related revenues and profits are impossible to extrapolate. It is a private company that licenses various types of content under diverse revenue sharing and representation arrangements with over 100 suppliers.

Though not definitive, traffic-monitoring services place Newscom's visitors on par with leading image companies. While outranked by both Getty and Corbis, it attracts as many as Masterfile. In its own niche, Newscom has outpaced the more publicized, younger content-syndication business Mochila, according to Alexa Internet.

The company represents all the important image brands. One of its online channels is called the Getty Images Resource Center, which offers the full Getty range of news, creative and archival imagery. In addition, Newscom just announced the addition of creative content by Corbis, including its royalty-free brand, Image 100, Imageshop, InsideOutPix and zefa.

These join new celebrity and motion offerings. There is new entertainment footage by SIPA Press and documentary video-reportage by Rapport Press. BBC shorts have just became available through Newscom, following a longer-term relationship with the British company. Earlier this year, Reuters also became the first major news agency to offer broadcast-quality breaking-news video online in the U.S., through Newscom.

The company also has plans for marketing this ever-expanding inventory. Tom Bannon, Newscom vice president of sales, has been named vice president of business development. David Young, previously with McGraw Hill's energy-information company Platts, succeeds Bannon as the new top sales executive. Young will develop Newscom's key account strategy and further expand the sales team.

The expansion has already begun. Newcom's two newest senior account executives hail from traditional stills businesses: Christina Popes was formerly with Polaris Images; Laure Lion was in a business-development position at Getty; both Popes and Lion once worked in sales at Corbis. This reshuffle and image-centric hiring strategy suggests intent to more aggressively compete in the distribution space.