StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

Pino Granata: Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum

There are very deep changes in the industry and all are very bad.

Alan Meckler has sold Jupiterimages to Getty Images and we can imagine why he sold. If I remember well he bought PictureArts for $65 millions and he made other acquisitions that somebody says have cost around $170 millions dollars including PictureArts so I realize that in selling Jupiterimages for $96 millions Alan Meckler and his shareholders have lost some money.

Maybe it was a good choice and by selling he has saved his company from bankruptcy which is a bad thing.

Slowly but safely Getty Images is going to have the monopoly of the industry which is not good news for us. Now I hear the news from Corbis.

QuickLinks For 2008-10-31

• Getty: Flickr photo fees still not decided:
  Photographers whose Flickr pictures are to be used by Getty Images still don´t know how much they will get paid. Nearly four months on, it is not yet clear whether amateurs will get paid the same as a professional for their images.
  A Getty spokeswoman told us that the amount amateurs will get paid will be decided when images are uploaded to the Getty website early next year.
  When asked whether the photographer will be given details of their prospective fee, before or after their photos appear on the Getty website, the spokeswoman added: "Getty will work directly with Flickr members who are invited to be part of the Flickr collection to determine the specifics of each business relationship, and members will have direct connections with representatives at Getty."
  Amateur photographer/Chris Cheesman (abbreviated).

Digital Railroad: "Sorry, no events in the near future"

"To our valued Members:

We´re sorry to inform you that Digital Railroad (DRR) has shut down.

On October 15th we reported that the company had reduced its staff and was aggressively pursuing additional financing and/or a strategic partner. Unfortunately, those efforts were unsuccessful. Therefore Digital Railroad has been forced to suspend all operations.

This archive may only be accessible for the next 24 hours."

From a NPPA report today ("Digital Railroad Shuts Down": "Calls to Digital Railroad´s published phone numbers in the States this morning, including their Marketplace Image Sales number, were answered by phone company recordings that said the phone numbers have been disabled"), quotation in the title from Digital Railroad´s Event Calendar (as long as it is accessible).

Related:

• Interview With Digital Railroad´s CEO Evan Nisselson (March 23, 2006)
• Digital Railroad: A New Hub For The Professional Photographer (August 14, 2004)

QuickLinks For 2008-10-26

• Hard Times for Stock Continue, Corbis to Cut Royalty Rate:
  Corbis CEO Gary Shenk said the company faces “a moment of disruptive change in the image market.”
  “Overall, we expect the image licensing market to shrink in the coming years". He showed a slide forecasting that the total stock image licensing business will fall from $2.3 billion dollars in 2007 to $2.2 billion in 2011. The traditional stock licensing that makes up most of the industry will shrink at an even faster rate.
  PDN/Daryl Lang.

Jupiterimages to be sold to Getty Images for $96 million

So where had Alan been?

In Spring 2007 it sounded like a $450 million deal (the New York Post story), now it comes down to $96 million which will "allow Jupitermedia to pay off all of its bank debt".

Getty Images´ press release, followed by Jupitermedia´s press release for Jupiterimages.

More financial details here in the last two paragraphs of this article at 24/7 Wall St.

A Short Fall Conversation With AudioMicro´s Ryan Born on Microstock Audio

Andy:

Ryan, first off, congratulations to the good news for AudioMicro. Before founding AudioMicro, which started officially in May 2008, you were formerly the VP of Finance for WireImage. How did you get into the music and especially the microstock audio business?

Ryan:

As a finance professional at WireImage, I analyzed the photography marketplace (crunching numbers, reviewing financial statements of the public photography companies, and reading outlets like StockPhotoTalk) and in late 2004/early 2005 it became clear to me that the micro stock model was the future of photography licensing.

When Getty announced that they were acquiring WireImage, I needed to make a career decision. I had always wanted to try and build a micro stock photography site, but it seemed like a very saturated market. I wondered what outlets, other than photography, the micro stock model could be applied to - video, flash animations, fonts, vectors, and music all came to mind. I chose to move into the music market because it was the largest market that had yet to be swept up by the micro stock licensing phenomenon.

QuickLinks For 2008-10-22

• Fotolia Swiss photo agency Kursiv launches the new image collection BloopPix, "from" Fotolia´s Reseller API "the deepest sources of the internet", because "Bloop is the name of a sound of unknown origin, captured somewhere west of south america in deep sea", and "the source of the sound however remains unclear".
  
  This specific Image and pricing here at Fotolia, and this specific image and pricing here at Kursiv.
  
  It is however possible and likely that other images from other sources are included in BloopPix.
  

Pino Granata: The Stock photo market crash

Barack Obama and John McCain have Joe the plumber from Ohio. We have, let´s call him, John Smith, a friend of mine who used to live between New York City and Los Angeles.

I saw him again after a few years in LA during my last trip. He told me: I have to reinvent my life which wasn´t bad.

Until a few years ago, shooting stock, I used to make a couple of thousands with one of the big three and another couple of thousands with an english photo agency.

I also used to have assignments for 3 or 4 thousands and my life wasn´t that bad.

QuickLinks For 2008-10-17

• 2008 Stock photo market crash - So where do we stand today?:
  I wouldn´t predict anyone re-inventing the stock photo industry any time soon.
  The biggest uncertainty right now is how deep the current recession will be (lets call it what it is). It could potentially squeeze otherwise well run companies out of business, period, no matter what the state of the stock photo business itself is.
  Phil Nealey/unsharpmasked.
  Related: 2008 Stock Photo Market Crash? (May 10, 2008)

Digital Railroad: Final Curtain?

"For the past few weeks, Digital Railroad (DRR) has been seeking additional funding required to sustain its current level of operations. To date, those efforts have been unsuccessful." Consequences of this announcement:

• Charles Mauzy is no longer CEO, Maris Berzins is no longer President
• Diablo Management Group is now engaged "to shop the entire company, as is, around, or to sell off the company in parts".

Sources:

• Digital Railroad continues the “rebalancing” of the photography industry
  (Taylor Davidson)
• Digital Railroad Announces Staff Reductions, May Liquidate (NPPA)
• DRR going under?? (Lightstalkers)
• Digital Railroad Likely Being Liquidated (John Harrington)

Related:

• Interview With Digital Railroad´s CEO Evan Nisselson (March 23, 2006)
• Digital Railroad: A New Hub For The Professional Photographer (August 14, 2004)

Pino Granata: The Death of William Claxton

Every time I see a William Claxton picture I can´t help thinking of the time I had the chance to work with this great photographer.

For most people Claxton is the jazz photographer and this is partially true.

He worked for many years for Globe Photos, at that time the best celebrity photo agency of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

For more than 20 years I was the sales manager of an agency which represented Globe Photos in Italy and William Claxton was one of the best photographers of that agency.

QuickLinks For 2008-10-07

• Getty launches Premium Playlist:
  The new online service for film makers and advertising agencies service Premium Playlist resides alongside Getty Images Pump Audio.
  In the new service, Getty is putting together deals that allows them to represent songs on a non-exclusive basis. Premium Playlist already includes 1,000 songs. The content partner decides which songs or albums it will allow Getty to represent globally and in addition to synch licensing, some deals also include the masters too.
  The company plans to expand its content by striking non-exclusive deals with other majors and independent record labels, music publishers, management companies and other content owners to act as a synch licensing arm.
  Billboard.biz/Ed Christman (comp.).

QuickLinks For 2008-10-02

• GumGum launches partnership with Glam Media and Splash News:
  GumGum will provide the entire Glam publishing network (over 600 publishers) with free and legal access to entertainment content from Splash News (photos typically range between $75 and $500 a piece), the content will be ad-supported.
  More details over at TC: "Glam Teams With GumGum".

• October Corbis Creative IQ Trend – Low Tech Living (PDF Download):
  However, as Blackberries, mobile phones and laptops have become more ubiquitous, our lives have become more "connected" and faster-paced than ever. It’s getting more and more difficult to take time away from the devices that were originally meant to set us free.

QuickLinks For 2008-10-01

• Edited interview with iStock´s Kelly Thompson:
  
  • Question: "Beyond that, will you still look for other niches to get into?"
  • Answer: "We have a couple of pretty game-changing things that we can’t really talk about yet... . I think they stand to fundamentally change the stock industry; not to sound too over-the-top, but some of the things we´re introducing could change the stock industry as much as microstock did in the early days."
  Article by Australia´s smartcompany in the "Lunch with an entrepreneur" series.
  Interview by James Thomson as MP3 file (5.8 MB/17 min.).