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Story 794
PRESS RELEASES 12
January 20, 2006
Jupiterimages Names Creative Team
In 2005 Jupiterimages (www.jupiterimages.com) acquired a number of stock photo brands that have provided the company, not only with a wealth of image, but also some very talented and experienced individuals working in production facilities around the world. As part of the integration of these operations the company has announced new leaders of various creative teams. They are:
- Mark Berns, formerly Jupitermedia's Chief Technology Officer, has been named Senior Vice President of Creative and Operations for Jupiterimages. Berns is a longtime Jupitermedia senior manager. Berns, together with Jeffrey Burke, Senior Vice President of Product Strategy and former CEO of PictureArts, lead the JI worldwide creative team.
- Edie Tobias and Sal Siggia have both been promoted to Vice President, Creative Content, with responsibility for premium royalty-free and rights-managed collections. Patricia Vargas has been promoted to Senior Director, Creative Content, and manages our subscription collections. Lynn Martin becomes Vice President, Strategy and Creative Intelligence. Maria Kessler becomes Vice President, Creative Business Affairs.
- The JI creative team stands at over 75 picture professionals worldwide and growing. Twelve collection directors lead the individual JI image collections, supported by production and trafficking staffs and by Image Operations, which includes keywording, scanning, retouching and distribution.
West Coast Team
Edie Tobias, formerly president of Sharpshooters, director of photography at Corbis, and collection director for Brand X Pictures, is in the South Pasadena, Calif., office. Tobias oversees rights-managed collections Nonstock, FoodPix, Botanica and Photis, as well as RF collection Brand X Pictures. Team members include:
- Edie Tobias, VP, Creative Content
- Lorraine Triolo, Collection Director, FoodPix
- Amy Osburn, Collection Director, Nonstock
- Lila Garnett, Collection Director, Botanica
- Alisa Guttman, Collection Director, Brand X Pictures, (newly hired former managing editor at Corbis in Los Angeles)
- Ellen Kasemeier-Herbert, Collection Director, Photis, (newly hired former head of art buying at Ignited Minds agency in Los Angeles)
- Alison Armstrong, Director of Production
- Camille Evans, Creative Operations Manager
East Coast Team
Sal Siggia, formerly Group Content Director for Dynamic Graphics, has 20 years' experience in the stock industry. Based in New York, Siggia leads the teams responsible for royalty-free collections Creatas Images, Thinkstock Images, Comstock Images, Thinkstock Footage, Creatas Footage and Big Shot Media's flash library. He also manages the recently launched RM retro image collection (re)view.
Leading in-house image production at the Jupiterimages/Comstock studio in Mountainside, NJ, is Comstock VP of Production & Graphics Ed Gronske. Team members include:
- Sal Siggia, VP, Creative Content
- Lynn Eskenazi, Collection Director
- Mitzi Good, Collection Director, (re)view
- Graham Smith, Collection Director & Cinematographer, Footage Collections
- Ravi Aujla, Creative Production Mgr., Big Shot Media
- Ed Gronske, VP of Production & Graphics
- Nancy Ralph, Creative Operations Manager
- TBD, Collection Director, Creatas & Thinkstock
European Team
A new VP of Creative Content position in Europe will be filled as soon a great candidate is found. Until that time, Sal Siggia is the interim VP responsible for BananaStock, IT Stock and Goodshoot. Also on the European team: is Bill Holden, Collection Director, IT Stock.
Subscription Team
Patricia Vargas, formerly of Hemera Images and ArtToday, is responsible for the world's largest combined image subscription service from JI's Tucson, AZ, office. Paddy directs the content teams for Photos.com, Ablestock.com, LiquidLibrary.com, Clipart.com, Print Media Service, Animation Factory and Photoobjects.net. The subscription team under Paddy Vargas is:
- Patricia Vargas, Senior Director of Creative Content
- Chris Thornburrow, Content Director, Photos.com & Ablestock.com
- Sebastien Poulin, Product Manager, PhotoObjects.net & OEM Licensing,
- Corey Smith, Content Director, LiquidLibrary.com & Print Media Service
- Jim Mistic, Content Director, LiquidLibrary.com & Print Media Service
- Janice Lodato, Product Manager, Clipart.com & Animations.com
- Art Holden, Director, Animation Factory
Creative Strategy & Intelligence
Lynn Martin is a former VP at Image Bank and a veteran of the Aperture Foundation as well as Getty and Corbis. Lynn is based in South Pasadena. Her team tracks sales metrics, customer feedback and market research to support production and ensure an optimized and competitive product mix. Their positions are as follows:
- Lynn Martin, VP, Creative Strategy & Intelligence
- Keith Simonsen, Manager, Creative Analysis
Creative Business Affairs
Maria Kessler manages image acquisitions and third party image partnerships from the New York office and has responsibility for photographer representation and production agreements. Maria previously worked for a number of years at the National Basketball Association, as well as image agency FPG. Team members include:
- Maria Kessler, VP, Creative Business Affairs
- Don Bitzer, Image Partner Relations Manager
- Jennifer Goodwill, Creative Business Affairs Manager
ShutterStock, Inc. Acquires Photosights.com
ShutterStock (www.ShutterStock.com) has announced the acquisition of Photosights.com. Through the deal ShutterStock has increased its customer base, recruited new professional photographers to the site, and gained access to new images to consider for its library of premium royalty-free photographs, an unparalleled collection that, as of this week, now exceeds half a million images. The acquisition is in line with the company's strategy of rapid growth based on providing the best service possible-in this case, an accessible and highly successful subscription model-to the creative community.
"We're very excited about what this means for ShutterStock," said CEO Jon Oringer. "With the assets of Photosights.com, we're able to offer ShutterStock clients, existing and new, an even stronger service than before."
The deal will accelerate the pace of growth for ShutterStock's photo library (the site already adds over 5,000 images each week) as images from Photosight.com are evaluated by ShutterStock screeners and, if accepted, posted to the site. Photosight.com's photographers are encouraged to resubmit their photos to ShutterStock immediately to expedite the approval process and begin earning money from ShutterStock customer downloads. Photographers who had 2,500 images or more on the now defunct site are eligible for a 'fast track' acclimation to facilitate their transition to ShutterStock.
The deal is particularly newsworthy given how unusual it is for a company of ShutterStock's size to acquire the assets of a competitor. "ShutterStock's model seems to be working, and we will continue to act aggressively to improve our product, build our business, and increase our market share," said Oringer.
Media Bakery To Represent Index Stock RM
Media Bakery (www.mediabakery.com) announced it will begin offering Rights Managed imagery in 2006 and has entered into a representation agreement with Royalty Free and Rights Managed image publisher Index Stock. Media Bakery will offer select Royalty Free and Rights Managed images from their image libraries which will include Photography and Illustration under the deal.
"As always, Media Bakery has a commitment to representing quality collections within its offerings. The recent addition of the Index Stock Rights Managed collection is the first step towards a more diverse offering for customers. Many clients have a need for specific imagery, often hard to find in generalized Royalty Free libraries. With the addition of Rights Managed imagery at Media Bakery, specific image seekers will be able to find more specific images. It's a continuing request from our clients and as many of our customers already know, we listen and quickly respond to customer requests," said Chad Newell, chief executive officer of Media Bakery.
Index Stock is the latest collection to join the Media Bakery family of products with their collection launching later this month.
Media Bakery uses its website technology to allow customers to preview, purchase and download images, footage, music, fonts, and software directly from the site. Customers can also download entire Royalty Free CD Titles on line. Traditional drop shipment delivery is made available for customers who wish to receive a Royalty Free product sent to them.