VPD To Manage Panoramic Images

586

October 8, 2003

George Sinclair, Chairman and Executive Director of The Virtual Picture Desk (VPD) has
been appointed CEO of Panoramic Images (PI) and will take over the management of
critical activities for PI. Doug Segal the current Chairman and President of PI will
shift his responsibilities to focus on new business development and the oversight of his
new venture, FillPrints.

The VPD was established in New York in 2000 by Sinclair to provide business consulting
services to stock agencies and customers in the content licensing industry. One result
of this consulting has been to lead the company to rapidly expand its services to
include turnkey management services to the owners of major photographic collections,
corporate libraries, and stock agencies. These services include: digitization and asset
management, library management and content licensing.

Christopher Beauchamp has been appointed Chief Operating Offer of PI and will handle
day-to-day management including responsibility for Sales and Content Development.
He will also focus on new marketing strategies including an enhanced web presence
highlighting both right-protected and royalty-free content, and publication of a new
"catazine". The VPD team of account executives will assist in business development.
Beauchamp was formerly Director of Photography at PI and was recently elevated to the
position of Director of Sales & Marketing.

Sinclair says, "The advantage for Panoramic Images is that they can utilize the services
and expertise available from VPD and maximize the revenue opportunities without the huge
investment in technology and marketing. Much of the growth potential for the small to
medium size stock agencies (who represent 55% of the revenues from the stock licensing
industry revenues of $1.4 Billion) is restricted because of the lack of new content
development, marketing and technology, and low profit margins because of high operating
costs relative to sales turnover."

Editors Note: Selling Stock believes that the size of the worldwide stock
photo industry in 2002 was closer to $1.1 billion than the $1.4 quoted above and that it
is growing somewhat in 2003. According to my calculations, if we include among large
stock agencies the revenue of the Big 6 (as defined in Story
564 ), all the small and
medium size stock agencies in the world combined probably represent less than 30% of
current world revenue, not 55% as indicated above.

Segal launched FillPrints in 2002 and has also recently acquired Driendl Skylines, a
poster publishing concern. FillPrints has incorporated the Driendl Skyline inventory of
retail poster images into its growing collection of major city skylines, landscapers and
scenics. FillPrints is designed to capitalize on advances in print-on-demand technology.

VPD Customers

The following are some of the activities VPD and its consultants have been involved in
recently and an outline of some of the services they have provided.

• Business and Technology Services
  

  
  This includes business development, marketing, distribution, technology, financial
  advice, acquisitions, integration and business management. Clients in the last year have
  included Stockbyte, Images.com, Beate Works, The Stock Gallery, and Panoramic Images.
  

  
  

• Digitization and Asset Management
  

  
  Through a services agreement with Archivet
  ( www.archivet.com ) in Tucson, Arizona and New
  York, VPD is now providing digitization, retouching, key wording and asset management
  services to stock agencies, sports affiliates, museums, publishers and private &
  corporate collections. Data base management systems and web hosting services are also
  available through an agreement with VPD's technology partners.
  

  
  

• Library Management
  

  
  The VPD has a long term exclusive management services contract with the San Diego Zoo to
  develop revenue opportunities for its collection of 420,000 natural history and
  botanical images. 14,000 of these images have been digitized and will soon be available
  online for licensing. VPD provides a full range of services for the Zoo including
  editing, digitization, library management, web hosting, fulfillment and distribution.
  

  
  The company also has a services contract to manage the 1.2 million image "Focus on
  Sports" collection which covers 50 years of U.S. sports personalities, sporting events,
  world championships and Olympic Games. VPD has the responsibility for editing,
  digitization and marketing the collection on behalf of its owners, Focus on Sports, and
  many former Sports Illustrated and Topps photographers. About 10,000 images will have
  been scanned and captioned by year end.
  

  
  

• Content Licensing
  

  
  In addition to the Panoramic Images agreement VPD has an exclusive agreement with the
  Heritage Image Partnership (www.heritage-images.com) to undertake business development
  and key account management on their behalf in North America. The company is responsible
  for managing major customer accounts in the advertising, design, publishing, media &
  entertainment and corporate market segments, and developing content licensing revenue
  opportunities on behalf of its clients. Agreements with other stock agencies are
  currently under discussion.

Sinclair's Experience

Prior to creating VPD, Sinclair was Vice President of Asset Management for Getty Images
and Vice President Business Development for Tony Stone & Hulton Getty based in London
and New York. He was also employed by Corbis as Director of Strategic Development and
was responsible for the integration of its Digital Stock royalty free business shortly
after it was acquired, and for putting the Outline celebrity licensing division online

In 1986, as founder and chief executive of Sinclair Imaging Systems, George was a
leading innovator of online digital photo management and communication systems for the
publishing industry and news wire services. Working with Kodak, Digital Equipment and
other leading imaging and technology companies he was involved in the development of
digital asset management systems, photo desks, digital cameras and rapid film scanners.
The business was subsequently acquired by The Monotype Corporation, and he became
Managing Director of its Imaging Systems Division until 1996.

Prior to 1986 Sinclair was Vice President and General Manager of Muirhead North America.
Muirhead was the pioneer of flatbed scanning technology, direct to plate systems, wire
photo equipment, electronic picture desks and large format facsimile systems for The
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, Newsweek and many other publications throughout
the world. The business was acquired by Crosfield and subsequently by Dupont and Fuji.

VPD Team

VPD works with a variety of consultants to service the needs of its clients. Some of the
consultants have worked for Getty Images and/or Corbis, (or businesses acquired by them)
and other major content providers both in the stock photography & illustration, and the
film industries.

Some of the consultants started their careers in professional photography and content
creation while others have worked in technology, finance, business management and law.

Team members include: Carol Reid, formerly Director of Marketing with Digital Stock and
subsequently International Marketing Manager with Corbis and Andy Hill who was until
recently Director of Sales (New York) for Getty Images, was previously Sales Manager for
Tony Stone and for Corbis.

The business development and sales executives all have extensive experience in the
content licensing industry.

For more information about VPD you can email georgesinclair@earthlink.net or call 917-209-0867.