June 20, 2007
Magazines Afloat in Otherwise Dwindling Ad Spending
TNS Media Intelligence reports that first-quarter U.S. advertising spending fell by 0.3%, as compared to 2006. Consequently, TNS has lowered its total 2007 ad growth projection to 1.7% - from the 2.6% the company predicted in January.
Revenues of print advertising, historically the largest source of revenue for the stock-image market, are inconsistent across different types of publications. Newspapers and special-interest magazines are on the decline. First-quarter figures from TNS show newspaper advertising down by 4.7%, with local newspapers suffering the largest losses. Ad revenues of business-to-business and local magazines are down by 5.2% and 3.3%, respectively.
Despite predictions of the magazine industry's eventual demise, ad revenues of all magazine media have grown by 4.4% , and are outpaced only by the Internet. Consumer magazines are up by 7.1%, and Spanish-language publications take the lead with a 14.3% increase in ad dollars. It is probably not a coincidence that only days after TNS announced its research findings, PunchStock launched an email promotion of its newest image collection: Latin Side of Life.
Even television is struggling as more people, particularly the 18-34 demo, spend more time online. Network TV spending is down by 7.1%; spot spending is down by 4.1% and TNS predicts that trend for spot will continue to drop.
Though Internet advertising amounts to less than one-tenth of total ad spending, it remains the fastest-growing segment, with ad revenues up by nearly 17% in the first quarter. The long-term implications of such growth for the stock market are not clear-cut. Images used online are of lower resolution and thus lower cost; display advertising comprises only one-third of all Internet ad revenues.
Yet even that third amounts to $5.4 billion dollars globally, according to 2006 figures from Pricewaterhouse Cooper and the Interactive Advertising Bureau. TNS predicts a 16% rise in Internet ad revenues in 2007.
Dreamstime Partners With PicFindr.com
By: Julia Dudnik Stern
Dreamstime became the first microstock agency to be indexed by PicFindr.com, a search engine that covers free images available for commercial use. PicFindr searches a number of free stock, public domain and photo community sites, providing users with access to 2 million images and their licensing requirements (e.g., credit, permission, etc.). Dreamstime's entire collection of 1.3 million images has been added to PicFindr's engine.
Compassionate Eye Foundation, Getty Images To Raise Funds
By: Julia Dudnik Stern
Compassionate Eye Foundation, founded by Vancouver photographer Robert Kent, is the only philanthropy that generates funds through image licensing. The next CEF event will be held June 21 and will unite over 60 photographers worldwide in a Summer Solstice Shoot. The photographers will donate the copyrights in the resulting images to CEF, and the collection will be sold at gettyimages.com. Getty Images has sponsored CEF since its inception in 2005. This year, the company will also donate an undisclosed but major percentage of its licensing fees to CEF. Funds will sponsor humanitarian efforts in Guatemala and other potential future projects in South Africa, Tanzania and India.