Editorial

MEGA Introduces "Cash Out' System For Contributors

By Jim Pickerell | 427 Words | Posted 3/9/2017 | Comments
The Mega Agency, a provider of news, sports and entertainment content, has announced the launch of a revolutionary payment system that allows content providers to ‘cash-out’ on their media sales the moment content has been licensed to select customers.

Shutterstock Editorial Clarification

By Jim Pickerell | 136 Words | Posted 3/2/2017 | Comments
In the article “Understanding Editorial At Shutterstock” I reported on a London photographer had to find uses of his images and report the uses to Shutterstock in order to be paid. Shutterstock provided a clarification pointing out that they use the same procedures as other editorial agencies to track usages of their images.

Understanding Editorial At Shutterstock

By Jim Pickerell | 304 Words | Posted 2/24/2017 | Comments
An editorial photographer in London pointed out to me today that he has to notify Shutterstock when his pictures are used in order to get paid. Evidently Shutterstock doesn’t know that it is standard practice of many publications in the UK not to notify the agency when they use an image. Instead, they wait for the agency or the photographer to call them or send them an invoice.

ImagineChina Secures Image Copyright Deal With Chinese Super League

By Jim Pickerell | 280 Words | Posted 2/22/2017 | Comments
ImagineChina (IC), a leading photo and video agency on the Chinese Mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, has signed a three-year exclusive agreement with the Chinese Super League (CSL), the country's most prestigious football league.

Editorial Photography In France

By Jim Pickerell | 506 Words | Posted 2/20/2017 | Comments
Is there a future for editorial photographers in France? France used to be one of the most vibrant markets in the world for editorial photography. That seems to be rapidly dying, not because of a lack of French publications (See chart) that want to use editorial pictures. Some just don’t want to pay for the images they use.

Decline In Textbook Use

By Jim Pickerell | 430 Words | Posted 1/23/2017 | Comments
Pearson has reported that in 2016 the North American higher education courseware market was much weaker than expected and that their net revenues fell 30% in the final quarter resulting in an unprecedented 18% decline for the year.

Mega Agency Does Syndication Deal With AMI

By Jim Pickerell | 505 Words | Posted 1/16/2017 | Comments
The Mega Agency launched its newly-signed syndication deal with American Media Inc. (AMI), one of America’s biggest publishers, with world-wide coverage of the first wedding of Prince Harry’s new girlfriend Meghan Markle.

Getty Granted Temporary Restraining Order Against Roxanne Motamedi

By Jim Pickerell | 357 Words | Posted 1/10/2017 | Comments
Getty Images has been granted a temporary restraining order against it former VP of Global Entertainment, Roxanne Motamedi. Motamedi held the post at Getty from June 2009 to November 2016 and was based in Los Angeles.

Shutterstock Announces UK Distribution Deal With AP

By Jim Pickerell | 259 Words | Posted 1/10/2017 | Comments
Shutterstock, Inc. has announced that it has expanded its milestone multi-year deal with The Associated Press (AP). Beginning this week, Shutterstock will distribute AP’s daily global photo output for license to customers based in the United Kingdom. Shutterstock’s enterprise customers in the United Kingdom will have access to over 30 million photos from AP Images.

ImagineChina To Represent Framepool

By Jim Pickerell | 400 Words | Posted 12/12/2016 | Comments
A week after announcing that it had acquired 86.6 percent of Framepool, Broadside Enterprises, Inc. (also known as Emaji) has announced that Frampool AG has entered into an agreement with ImagineChina, one of the largest photo and video agencies in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Splash: Roundabout Trip To Shutterstock

By Jim Pickerell | 702 Words | Posted 12/7/2016 | Comments
According to a document filed with Companies House in the U.K. (see here) it appears that Rex Features Limited (owned by Shutterstock) lent Silverhub Media the money necessary to purchase Splash. In return Rex Features has received very extensive control over the activities of Silverhub with regard to certain unspecified assets.

Splash Sold Again

By Jim Pickerell | 228 Words | Posted 12/2/2016 | Comments
Celebrity photo agency Splash News was sold to Corbis in 2011 and has now been acquired by SilverHub Media. SilverHub Media recently did an exclusive deal with Shutterstock for worldwide representation of the images in its collection. Thus, the Splash images should now be available through Shutterstock.

Shutterstock Does Exclusive Deal With SilverHub Media

By Jim Pickerell | 424 Words | Posted 11/16/2016 | Comments
Shutterstock, Inc. has signed an exclusive deal to distribute SilverHub Media’s growing collection of imagery worldwide.

Getty Launches Verbatim

By Jim Pickerell | 374 Words | Posted 11/3/2016 | Comments
Getty Images has launched a new commercial assignments venture, Verbatim and is dedicating focus, resource and its world-leading photo expertise to capture the opportunity within the commercial sector to bring authentic visual storytelling to the fore.

european pressphoto agency and Shutterstock Sign Global Distribution Deal

By Jim Pickerell | 264 Words | Posted 11/2/2016 | Comments
Shutterstock, Inc. has signed a deal with the european pressphoto agency b.v. (epa) to distribute its unique collections of visual content globally. Beginning in January 2017, Shutterstock’s editorial customers, which include some of the largest media companies and publishing houses, will be able to license epa’s daily image content from around the world.

Adobe Stock Partners With Reuters

By Jim Pickerell | 545 Words | Posted 11/2/2016 | Comments
Adobe Stock has announced a partnership with Reuters that will enable creatives to access Reuters editorial content, as well as over 60 million royalty-free commercial photos, videos, illustrations, graphics, 3D assets and templates.

Mega Expansion Continues With Australian Office

By Jim Pickerell | 1023 Words | Posted 9/12/2016 | Comments
The Mega Agency is partnering with the News and Entertainment division of Australia’s premier photo agency, Snapper Media, the two companies announced today, September 12th, 2016. The Snapper News and Entertainment division will operate under Mega’s name and both partners are confident the new venture will become an even more formidable player in the Australasian markets.

Archive Value Of News Pictures

By Jim Pickerell | 2756 Words | Posted 9/7/2016 | Comments
I have a theory that a very high percentage of the uses of editorial or news pictures occur in the first month or two after they are shot. Newpapers, magazines and websites use the images when they are fresh and then move on to the next news happening. Of course, certain events will have historical value and key images from these events may be used over and over in future years – Iwo Jima flag raising, World Trade Center, Hindenburg crash, etc.– but it seems to me that such situations represent a very small percentage of overall use.

Shutterstock Acquires The Kobal Collection and The Art Archive

By Jim Pickerell | 316 Words | Posted 9/6/2016 | Comments
Shutterstock, Inc. has acquired of over 700,000 images from two prominent photo collections: The Art Archive and The Kobal Collection. Both collections, previously held by UK-based The Picture Desk, are now available to Shutterstock Premier customers globally.

MEGA Agency Signs Global Licensing Deal With Newscom

By Jim Pickerell | 495 Words | Posted 8/30/2016 | Comments
The Mega Agency is launching with an archive of 30 million images after signing a ground-breaking agreement with Newscom, the world’s largest multi-agency archive of digital images.

Three Senior News Executives Join The Mega Agency 

By Jim Pickerell | 527 Words | Posted 8/19/2016 | Comments
Three senior news executives have joined Kevin Smith’s new media company, The Mega Agency. Smith is delighted to announce that Paul Tetley, David Leigh and Karlo Pastrovic have joined the Mega team.

Celebrity Photo Agency For Sale

By Jim Pickerell | 221 Words | Posted 8/11/2016 | Comments
A US-based celebrity photo agency is currently looking for a buyer interested in taking over its operations or acquiring its archives. Founded in 2003 by a music photographer, the company has established reputable and strong relationships with publications, artists and publicists. With just one highly motivated owner who wishes to retire, it is profitable, has no debt and is reasonably priced. A buyer could either manage the company as an independent archive or integrate the archive (1.4 Million images, fully captioned in English) to its own collection.

Alamy Adds Reuters Content To Its Collection

By Jim Pickerell | 229 Words | Posted 6/22/2016 | Comments
Alamy has been chosen as a distribution partner for photo content from international news agency Reuters. The deal will give all of Alamy’s customers in the UK, US, Canada and Ireland access to millions of images that span over 20 years of incredible news photography.

ZUMA Press Offering Reuters Images In News Feed

By Jim Pickerell | 394 Words | Posted 6/17/2016 | Comments
ZUMA Press, has announced that it is now offering images from top wire service Reuters through its news feed. ZUMA proudly becomes a distributor of Reuters images in the United States and Latin America as of today.

Getty Images And Virtual Reality

By Jim Pickerell | 483 Words | Posted 6/7/2016 | Comments
Getty Images has launched the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group, a new business dedicated to the creation and global distribution of virtual reality (VR) content.