StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Apple´s Aperture: "An Underwhelming Captioning Solution"

Since Apple had announced Aperture on October 19, the „First All-in-One Post Production Tool for Photographers" and supposed Photoshop-Killer, this had been commented a lot.

Rob Galbraith and staff writer Eamon Hickey recently interviewed Apple's Joe Schorr, Product Manager for Aperture, and Rob Schueben, Vice President of Applications Marketing. The results of their investigation (the best one I have read so far) on Aperture in its current first version are partly disappointing.

QuickLinks For 2005-10-29

October had been a busy month and I missed to mention some old and new stuff:

• Corbis recently found a lively market for dead stars (acquiring the Roger Richman Agency); now Forbes updated the annual list of top earners of Dead Celebs (also here). Martin Cribbs, a specialist in branding dead celebrities at image licensing company Corbis, said: "On the surface, Shakespeare was this genius writer, but what's relevant is that his plays were filled with sex, violence and political intrigue" (Link) -- just like in real life.

CromaBASE: A New Digital Platform For Professional Image Management With Integrated Color Management

From the viewpoint of a single professional photographer, companies like Digital Railroad, IPNStock, PhotoShelter and StockPipeline (in alphabetical order and named here despite of all the differences between these companies), are grabbing the headlines today if he starts to think about: "Where should I turn to?". Except for IPNStock I had been writing a lot in the past about these companies.

These are all US-based companies and for the moment they mostly (except for two) have a strong focus on the US market. Any international audience (like the members of StockPhoto.net) clearly tends to listen to what is going on in the US for being able to judge about what are important news and developments in the international picture business at all. Even if they are thus missing what it is happening in the "rest of the world". But as we all know, in these times foreign local news might become global news pretty fast.

New Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) Version 1.0 Released

The Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) is a initiative of "a working group of digital imaging professionals and allied trade groups and manufacturers, dedicated to promoting worldwide standards in the commercial application of digital imaging" with the "mission to bring the creators, distributors, customers, and other vendors in the Imaging trades together to identify and promote digital imaging standards. We will identify delivery protocol that promotes creative and quality control, and builds value and efficiency."

Members include the Stock Artists Alliance, ASMP, APA, Editorial Photographers and other professional associations.

Areas of work and objectives are:

The History Of A Study, Strictly For Internal Use

Joseph Pobereskin, founder and past (2000 - 2002) International Board of Directors member of the Stock Artists Alliance, yesterday in a very interesting message (requires registration; topic: "Join SAA with RF images") in the StockPhoto.net group:

Three years (or so) ago, Getty Images, the worlds largest purveyor of Royalty Free imagery, commissioned a study of the stock photo industry by an independent consultancy (the results to be used internally). Among the many findings were these: 

a) the stock photography industry is $2 Billion/annual globally (all companies, all forms);

b) if not for the existence of Royalty Free it would be a $6 Billion/annual globally.

In other words, because as an industry we/they/you sell RF so cheaply, you've let $4 Billion slip right through your fingers. That's the proof.

Getty Images Launches "Exclusive by Getty Images"

Getty Images just launched "Exclusive by Getty Images", a collection of "distinctive celebrity and editorial imagery".

The collection is "a premier online solution for magazine and newspaper customers seeking to differentiate their publications with highly distinctive imagery not available anywhere else" and offers "premium celebrity portraits, celebrity portrait archives, reportage features and editorial specials."

The imagery offered is created by "a growing network of elite photographers including international celebrity shooter Lorenzo Agius, renowned photojournalist Tom Stoddart and Pulitzer Prize-winner David Turnley." Additional photographers are Polly Borland, Mitch Jenkins, Kevin Westenberg, Julian Broad, Jonathan Olley, Derek Hudson, Uli Weber, James Burns, Dario Mitidierim, Judah Passow, Mike Goldwater, Christopher Pillitz, Joe McNally, Amy Toensing and others. Getty Images states that this is a "completely new product."

"Exclusive by Getty Images" is managed by Steve Blogg (director of photography, editorial contributors, EMEA), Nick Bull (director of photography, celebrity portraiture) and David Laidler (director of photography, editorial contributors, Americas).

Jonathan Klein had announced earlier during the 3rd Quarter 2005 Earnings Call some days ago that:

However, amid all the buzz and excitement of royalty-free, it would be a big mistake for any of us to lose focus on the rights-managed licensing model. Let me assure you, we remain very focused on this important part of the business. Rights-managed imagery represented 42 percent of total sales in the quarter. You would expect us to focus on so big a part of our business. Importantly, rights-managed revenue grew at a double-digit rate in the third quarter, and as Liz will share later, it too was driven by both volume and price. (Link, pdf-file)

The launch of the subscription service Creative Express of Getty Images is just two months old.

More details here.

QuickLinks For 2005-10-25

• SuperStock/a21, announced that it has named industry veteran Candice Crough as Vice President of Direct Sales. Previously she had been working for Imagestate and Corbis. Details.

• Preserving Press Photography is a Photo Archive News intuitive "dedicated to protecting and representing collections of photographs from press photographers too small to be bought by a traditional photo agency and of no present interest to museums or national collections."

As Will of Photo Archive News writes, "One aim for the PPA is to preserve pre digital press photography for future reference and interest. A dedicated website is planned." This is the kind of initiative we all should support.

• PDN looks back at the recently held PhotoPlus Expo 2005 session "What Stock Business Model is Right for You?" in this article (related: this entry):

"Stock Artists Alliance executive director Betsy Reid twice asked the panel to explain why royalty-free collections typically return only 25 percent of the royalties to photographers, a much lower percentage than rights-managed sales. The members of the panel didn't have a clear answer."

Funny to notice that PDN after this entry always inserts the words "IPNStock and the PhotoPlus Expo are owned by VNU Business Media, which also owns PDN."

• The StockAsylum about JupiterImages' New Web Site:

Meckler said the web site should be "official" in a couple of weeks. "But, even when it is officially launched," Meckler added, "the final product won't be done until March. At that time, we'll be second to none." Meckler said his company will add additional independent brands to the web site within 40 to 50 days. JupiterImages also plans to purchase additional brands, the company has said. (Link)

• I wrote earlier about the new stock photo agency for Jewish Stock Photos. Now ChristianPhotos.net is launched, "a new stock photography service targeted for small to medium size churches" (Thx to Will/Photo Archive News). - Also new: EZStockphotos (Thx Thomas)
  

• Bad news from Mactribe: "Hurricane Wilma has temporarily knocked out our main server in Boca Raton, Fl. Please bear with us as we get the site back up and running shortly."

• Small world: Steve Rubel had worked four years with LTU Technologies, the image search technology company mentioned here earlier. Now Steve writes about "Riya Facial Recognition Photo Search Site Set to Launch", a competitor to  Flickr and Picasa.

• Dennis Dunleavy: Photojournalism - A Definition.

• Local News: Fotostoria and Simplephotography are two excellent blogs about photography and related events. Another one is Fotografie-Forum News (all blogs in german). Reading this blogs - and Conscientious - you´ll get a pretty good overview of what is happening in Germany in this area.

Adobe Photographers Directory Expands Through Cooperations With Professional Photographer Associations

WOW! Adobe has closed some deals with different worlwide associations of professional photographers to include their members "through an expanded update to its worldwide Photographers Directory. The Photographers Directory is now highlighted in the Favorites section of the Adobe Bridge feature in Adobe Creative Suite 2 and Photoshop® CS2 software and is also accessible from the Adobe Web site".

Participating U.S. associations include the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP); the Advertising Photographers of America (APA); the Editorial Photographers (EP); International Virtual Reality Photography Association (IVRPA); Professional Aerial Photographers Association (PAPA); Professional Photographers of America (PPA); and the Stock Artists Alliance (SAA) as well as other canadian, european and pacific associations.

More details here: "Over time, Adobe has plans to expand its comprehensive listing beyond professional associations to include qualified professionals who are not affiliated with an organization."

So, Adobe, what is missing now are cooperations with the 5% of top stock photography at Flickr, some micropayment sites and some photoblogs (Link).

Getty Images Announces Q III/2005 Results: Creative Images Used In Advertising Outsold Editorial Images

On July 26, 2005, Getty Images reported (1; 2) the Financial Results for the Second Quarter of 2005. Jonathan Klein noted then that "this quarter is quite possibly the best quarter in our 10-year history". The company predicted that "for the third quarter of 2005 the company expects to report revenue in the range of $180 million to $184 million and earnings per diluted share of $0.56 to $0.58." Here are the full last Q II/2005 numbers for comparison.

Today Getty Images has just released the numbers for Q III/2005. Quarterly Highlights (details):

• Revenue grew over 20 percent. Revenue grew to $184.5 million (compared to $153.5 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Creative image volumes increased 15 percent
• Operating income rose 41 percent and operating margin increased to 32 percent. Operating income grew to $58.7 million (compared to $41.7 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Net income grew 46 percent. Net income grew to $39.1 million (from $26.7 million in the third quarter of 2004)
• Earnings per diluted share increased 36 percent to $0.60 

For the fourth quarter of 2005, the company expects to report revenue in the range of $187 million to $191 million. For 2005, the company expects to report revenue in the range of $735 million to $739 million.

"Our competitive position has never been stronger", said Jonathan Klein, Getty Images' co-founder and CEO.

The average Price Per Image (PPI; "the average Price Per Image data is global as of 1Q04. Prior to 1Q04, PPI data reflect Total Americas + EMEA only", according to Getty) had been in 3Q05:

• RM: $577 (compared to full year average 2004 of $569)
• RF: $233 (compared to full year average 2004 of $199)
• RM Film Clip: $628 (compared to full year average 2004 of $615)

In % of Total Revenue for in 3Q05:

• Rights-managed Imagery (RM): 42.3% (compared to full year average 2004 of 47.9%)
• Royalty-free Imagery (RF): 38.4% (compared to full year average 2004 of 32.9%)
• Editorial (News, Sport, Entertainment, Archive): 11.7% (compared to full year average 2004 of 11.6%)
• Film: 4.6% (compared to full year average 2004 of 5.5%)
• Other: 3.0% (compared to full year average 2004 of 2.1%)
   

For all numbers, read the Quarterly Metrics (xls-download) of Getty Images.

The results "topped Wall Street targets of net earnings per share of 57 cents and revenue of $183.1 million, according to Reuters Estimates". Klein said "for the first time, creative images used in advertising outsold editorial images". He added that Getty, which has made several acquisitions this year, was still in the market to buy more photo companies in areas of the world where it is growing (Reference: Reuters; Getty also competes with Reuters Group Plc [RTR.L: Quote, Profile, Research]  in sales of editorial, or news-related, images).

Continue here with the QIII/2005 conference call transcript (link not availabe in this moment at Getty´s site, will be added later [Update Oct. 24: here´s the link]) or the webcast.

Getty Spokesperson Deb Trevino said earlier (Q II/2005 conference call) that Getty Images generates cash at the rate of about $200 million a year (balance sheet here) and "may choose to spend it on acquisitions".

Getty Images recently acquired according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer and other sources the following companies/parts of their offerings:

• MedioImages ("MedioImages is pleased to announce that we are now part of Getty Images. As of September 2005, Getty Images acquired the MedioImages brand and entire MedioImages collection"). MedioImages states that "since the company was started in 2003, over 36,000 images have been uploaded to the site, with another 10,000 to be added soon." MedioImages features RF and RP/RM material.

• The predominant part of images offered by Rubberball (for the moment, there is no real public announcement of the complete/partial acquisition of their image offerings available so far); founded in 1995 by Mark Andersen and Alan Bailey, the company sells royalty free images and royalty free stock footage. 

The Seattle Post Intelligencer continues:

Getty Images has made two major cash purchases this year, a $165 million acquisition of London-based Digital Vision and a $51 million acquisition of Tokyo-based Photonica West. It also recently bought the collections of Rockville, Md.-based Medioimages and RubberBall of Orem, Utah, increasing its collection of wholly owned images by 50,000.

Klein played down questions from analysts about Getty Images' loss of collections to JupiterImages, a relatively new entrant in the digital-image market. Klein acknowledged that the issue was creating some "noise," but he said it would not cut into the company's revenue.

"The imagery is totally replaceable, which is why we have suffered no impact to date and do not expect any more in the future," he said. "The imagery that we have replaced it with is better and often comes to us at a higher margin."

PS.
Alan Meckler, who recently wrote about "Getty Images In A Panic", in a comment yesterday:

Getty on the other hand must resort to threats and dishonesty in its dealing with the image world. [...]

Related: Peter Appert of Goldman Sachs asked (pdf-file) in the QII/2005 conference call: "... there’s been some – it feels like there’s been some noise in the market, around competitive dynamics in terms of some of your distribution partners, people coming and going."

Meckler continues:

We all know the Bible. One of my favorite stories is that of David and Goliath. Need I say more?

Although this is aimed at Getty Images, these sentences point up generally the differences in the "personal can-do attitude" between an employee world like Corbis and "I don't have a secretary, and I answer my own email and cell phone" (I couldn´t believe it the first time I read it).

Update Oct. 24: The Getty Images 3rd Quarter 2005 Earnings Call Transcript is online:

Online Photo Storage And Marketing Systems For Professional Photographers

Some weeks ago a photographer mailed me and wrote:

Entities like the Digital Railroad and Photoshelter do seem to offer some kind of solution, but I don't know if individual websites can offer the range of content required by time pressured picture editors looking to fill their papers with pictures - especially when the trend seems to be subscription services, which take away the 'headache' of dealing with individual photographers or small agencies dealing in Rights Managed imagery.

Here are some news from both companies:

• Digital Railroad (the company recently appointed Lee Corkran as VP of Products) has announced plans for the Digital Railroad Marketplace with a centralized search function (Global Search). DR states that "more than 10,000 top photo buyers around the world" use their services; see the new Buyer Directory. - More details here.

This was my first story on Digital Railroad in August 2004.

• PhotoShelter is now officially launched. Initial clients include Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet and 2004 Canon Female Photojournalist Award winner Kristen Ashburn. Details here.

Read an interview with PhotoShelter´s CEO Allen Murabayashi I published earlier in July 2005 here and my first story on PhotoShelter here. PhotoShelter also runs the blog A Picture's Worth.

Ongoing discussion at Rob Galbraith and older at Lightstalkers.

Both companies of course do offer more than only a simple solution for online storage because they enable you to market your images. The next issue of a special mag will run a story on the growing demand for online photo storage services for professional photographers. I´ll link to the article later. [Update: Here´s the link]

Next, I´m busy with a five page story for a mag about the new "middleware technologies" which recently entered the picture business. Interview partners include Executives and VPs of photo agencies and photo portals as well as picture editors. Again, I´ll link to the article later.

JupiterImages Launches New Image Collection (re)view, Partners With Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive

JupiterMedia/JupiterImages has announced new activities in the RM-sector:

• To be launched in December 2005, the new image collection "(re)view" is an archive of retro, rights-managed imagery with 4,000 selected images that "each tells a unique story by capturing moments from the past."

"Each of the images in the collection has been carefully selected with a discerning eye for its ability to capture and evoke human connections," said Mitzi Good, collection director for (re)view. More details here.

• The subcultures are coming. JupiterImages had closed an exclusive worldwide partnership with the Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive (PYMCA), a rights-managed image company and "the world's premier archive of youth culture photography". The PYMCA collection is scheduled to launch in early 2006 and is aimed "particularly" at "high-end photo buyers". More details here.

Wallstreet Journal On PicScout, Digimarc And Getty Images Possibly Offering Editorial Subscriptions To Blogs

Today the WSJ/Vauhini Vara in the article "Photo Agencies Scour the Web For Copyright Violations":

PicScout said it charges corporate clients like Getty and Jacksonville, Fla.-based SuperStock Inc. a base fee plus a percentage of the revenue they regain when they bill those who are using the images. PicScout declined to reveal further details of its corporate fees. It also offers a subscription service for individual photographers, starting at $14.95 a month to monitor 500 images.

Digimarc Corp. of Beaverton, Ore., plants a "digital watermark" on images for E. L. Woody, a celebrity photographer in Hollywood, Calif., as well as for Corbis. Photos stamped with the watermark look normal unless they are viewed using software that can be downloaded for free from Digimarc's Web site. Like PicScout, Digimarc uses an automated process to scour the Web for its watermarked photos. Digimarc sends regular reports to clients detailing where it has found their images. The company declined to say how much it charges for its services. [...]

In the first four months of this year, Corbis recovered nearly $1 million by filing lawsuits or sending letters demanding payment, but made "much more" by getting offenders to voluntarily become customers, Mr. Weiskopf said. (He declined to be more specific.) [...]

Getty, for its part, has not filed a lawsuit against a photo thief in at least four years. [...] Sometimes Getty sends warning letters to sites demanding that photos be removed. [...]

Ms. Trevino [spokeswoman Getty Images] said that the company typically does not offer editorial subscriptions to blogs, but that it is reevaluating that policy and might do so in the future. "On the one hand, you can't discount blogs. It's how people like to get information," she said. "On the other hand, are they all legitimate news-gathering organizations? No."

Hello Corbis: That´s it!?

I might be wrong on this (and who is a sage in these times!), but if Alan Meckler/ JupiterMedia continues to be as aggressive and innovative like he and his company have been acting in the last 18 months, then within the next 12 - 15 months (if not earlier) JupiterImages might say to Corbis: "Hello, Number Three ("Reorganizations have become almost commonplace at the company, which has announced a restructuring in each of the last five years").

Come on, we all know the numbers in the background.

[Update Oct. 15: there are "new" rumours from Redondo Beach/PACA-- in fact these rumours go back to the CEPIC -- that another player from the worldwide TOP 20 list is going to be sold. Someone said: "As we see things now, one of the main advantages of possibly selling the business to Jupiter is certainly that the infrastructure of our company will stay in good order and shape. As we assume now, no one will be fired. There´s no groundbreaking reconstruction of our company to fit into the needs of the acquiring company. This would have been definitively the case if we would have intended to sell our company to Getty or Corbis. Everyone remembers what happened after Zefa was sold to Corbis. But we do care about our employees."]

JupiterMedia Acquires BananaStock For $19M, Adobe Stock Photo Adds Four New Collections And Partners With IPN Relay

On the run, so some short quick news for the people visiting Redondo Beach:

• This blog predicted accurately in the past the selling of Thinkstock and Retrofile earlier (1; 2) than it was officially announced, now it´s Brent´s time: JupiterMedia acquires BananaStock for $19M. Details here.

• Adobe Stock Photos adds four new collections: Image Source, Brand X Pictures by Jupiterimages, Masterfile and IPN Relay (see below). Accessible are now via Adobe Bridge 13 collections with over 450,000 images. Adobe points out that "professional photographers and small stock houses" submitting their images to Adobe Stock Photos via certain image partners are now provided with "another option for distributing and licensing their images". Details here.

• IPN Relay, a "suite of technology solutions" serving as a conduit, announces a new alliance with Adobe Stock Photos, enabling photographers and small agencies to sell their images in Adobe Stock Photos. IPNStock states that "IPN Relay will be able to take any royalty free collection that qualifies and add them to Adobe Stock Photos" and that "IPN Relay enables the delivery of photography, illustrations, audio or video to multiple sales and distribution outlets, foreign distributors, news feeds and international portals [among these the Fotofinder]." Details here.

Grazia Neri Meets Digital Railroad

After VII Photo Agency, eyevine, Redux Pictures and a bunch of other photo agencies and photographers, the famous italian photo agency Grazia Neri, the main source for editorial content in the Italian market, has selected Digital Railroad to become its premiere ASP.

Executive Director Michele Neri said: ""We selected Digital Railroad’s technology because of how easily it enables us to distribute and manage content. Ultimately, Digital Railroad will enable us to minimize costs and significantly ease the process of selling our images online, thus making them even more attractive to buyers". Details here.

A21 Aqcuires Ingram Publishing; New Stock Photo Subscription Service Ingramstock Launched

In the last days and weeks, the parent company of SuperStock, A21,

• had just closed on $3.2 Million In Financing
• finished another deal with Art.com (details here)
• closed a deal with WireImage to push its Purestock RF collection
• had raised $1M through stock sale

Now a21 takes over Ingram Publishing Limited, a UK-based global publisher and distributor of Royalty-Free visual content with a growing archive of over 100,000 images that ranges from the just-launched subscription offering IngramStock to single images and CD-ROMs.

"In particular, we are very excited about the launch of IngramStock.com and the opportunity it provides to expand SuperStock's offerings to include an innovative subscription product" (Link). The deal enables A21/SuperStock to act immediately in the european stock photo subscription market.

a21 projects this acquisition to be accretive to its earnings and cash flow. Details here and more at PDN ("a21 is developing an RF subscription service to be sold through SuperStock in the U.S. ... That service will be an extension of the PureStock brand called PureStock X").

StockImagery: A New Yahoo Group For Professional Stock Photographers

StockImagery is a new stock photo related Yahoo group for professional stock photographers, founded by Clarence W. Walker.

From what I notice in the moment, Clarence has already (or intends to) founded the International Stock Imagery Association (no big link available, but this announcement).

Background: Clarence recently wrote

From what I have read there are many, many thousands of stock photographers around the world. Why is it that there is no international stock photography association that transcends issues such as RF, RP, RM, direct marketing or ANY of the other issues such as time in the industry, editorial or commercial, agency served or whatever differences there may be or have been?
[...]
Sure there are other photo industry associations, but there is no totally inclusive STOCK INDUSTRY association that will help us to prepare and position our craft and serve us all as we move forward.

Continue here and here... .

[Update as of Oct. 9, 2005, on the developing story here]

Links to other related Yahoo groups:

Stockphoto
Alamy/Contributors
AlamyPro
Stock Artists Alliance
Fashion Mode
Micropayment (about)
Editorialphoto group (old) and new

More Bucks For A21/SuperStock: A21 Closes On $3.2 Million In Financing

a21, Inc., the parent company of SuperStock, has closed another deal. Investors included StarVest Partners and others.

For the moment, not much to add. Details here.

QuickLinks For 2005-10-06

• Here´s one side of the table. Newratings.com writes:

"Analysts at Stifel Nicolaus & Company initiate coverage of Getty Images Inc (GYI.NYS) with a "market perform" rating.

In a research note published yesterday, the analysts mention that the company has a stellar business model, with EBITDA margins at 56%, gross margins at 74% and revenue growth in the low-teens. According to the analysts, a transition from direct buying towards buying from distributors is likely to have an adverse impact on Getty Images’ margins. The company is witnessing intensifying competition from Jupitermedia and Corbis in the online images market, particularly in the royalty-free segment, Stifel Nicolaus & Company adds."

• Here´s the other side of the table. Well-known photographer Sion Touhig (home) in a recent comment:

"I've been checking this blog periodically for several months and have found it an extremely astute barometer of the state of play in the stock industry. However, from a personal perspective as a professional photographer, I find the analysis seldom discusses the implications of these changes on photographers themselves. From what I can see it appears the possibilty of making a viable living in this business is heading the way of the Kursk submarine, due to the sheer volume of images now available for nothing or close to nothing. The only people appearing to be profiting from this are the amalgamators of images at the top of the food chain, who seem to continually calculate business models to pass over as little of their profits to their image creators as possible. I must admit I find it all pretty depressing to be honest..."

QuickLinks For The Next Three Weeks

• I´m working on a story that requires some investigation for the next two or three weeks. This story is related to a specific topic mentioned here earlier partly and temporarily. However, I decided not to continue the story here (for this a blog is not the right place), but instead to publish it -- this is now confirmed -- in the printed issue of a magazine. I´ll link to the article (the online version) after the publication of the magazine (related: "Blogging vs Journalism").

Next, PACA and PhotoPlus Expo will take place later this month. Thus until the end of this month, there won´t be much/no new stories here -- except maybe new entries at the Stock Photo Industry Press Release Cemetery.

If I spot interesting news in the meantime, I will add them continuously at the top of this QuickLink list.

• "Gates may get a little help covering his property-tax bill from Corbis, the Seattle digital-image company he owns. The proxy reported Microsoft spent $700,000 last year buying images from Corbis but noted Gates wasn't involved in the negotiations." (Seattle Times)

• New Jewish Stock Photos Agency: "to provide a source for Jewish-themed stock photography. I am currently soliciting other professional photographers (particularly Jewish photographers, so they understand the themes!) to participate and earn some extra money from sales of their images. The new site is http://jewishstockphotos.com. The add-on photographer support will be activated in about a week." (Link)

• Getty Images conducts short-film contest

• "I've done a lot of research and find that the best of such imagery is with Getty, although even there a lot is quite bland, safe, technically excellent, but stylistically and photographically run-of-the-mill. Yet, being an edited agency, Getty is miles ahead of Alamy, who I'm signed up with." (Moving on from Alamy)

• "TASI - Technical Advisory Service for Images has just released a completely updated Glossary of image terminology and acronyms ... covering technical terms and acronyms related to digital imaging" (via Will of PAN)
  

• The Stock Artists Alliance Turns 5… Looking Back; SAA

• Is this "The Future Of Photojournalism"? “There are paradigm shifts going on in the news industry,” he says. “The old [agent] infrastructure isn’t viable. And that’s going to [tick] off a lot of companies”; Forbes on the photo agencies for citizen journalists  Scoopt, SpyMedia and Cell Journalist

Related: Camera phone competition launched; BBC News

• ValueClick Discusses the Offline and Online Advertising Markets (VCLK); Media Stock Blog

• Your dentist will be happy! Missed to mention this earlier, but Patrick Lor, President of iStockphoto.com, is blogging: "As the resident old guy in the office, I tell the kids that they play their rock n' roll music too loud and to throw away the 6 week old containers of food in the fridge." Link to another iStockphoto company blog.

• Speaking frankly in parenthesis: "Would you rather have fewer posts with more depth or frequent short posts with high value information? It's hard to combine them (and maintain a life)"; Steve Rubel

The Hype Is Coming Back: The Digital Photography Weblog Sold For $35 Million

Yeah, dream on.

But a few hours ago, PaidContent.org and Steve Rubel reported that Weblogs Inc., the network founded by Jason Calacanis and Brian Alvey, with about 130 weblogs and some 14 full time employees, is going to be sold to America Online for "somewhere between $15 million and $35 million".

"The purchase is the first major acquisition of a blog network by a mainstream media company."

The amateur/end-consumer oriented Digital Photography Blog is a part of Weblogs Inc. and went -- my personal opinion -- online very, very late, as most of the other blogs in this area were already online years earlier. Everyone out there knows that writing about amateur/end-consumer oriented digital photography creates heavy traffic/hits via Google search queries.

Duncan Riley of The Blog Herald once wrote: “If Calacanis can do it, then anyone can do it.” Compare the estimated revenues of Weblogs Inc. (Calacanis wrote earlier, also mentioned here, that his weblog network is generating ad revenues close to $1m) and the estimated purchase price... .

Sounds like Po Bronson and "The Nudist on the Late Shift"-times are coming back.