StockPhotoTalk | Special Interest Blog

QuickLinks For 2009-01-23

• Building the Flickr Collection on Getty Images:
  The 2nd phase of our partnership with Getty Images has launched.
  Since the initial announcement of our partnership, we’ve had the opportunity to meet with a number of the Getty Images editors both in Seattle and in London and we’ve heard the same thing — they’re inspired by the quality and creativity of our members.
  We won’t have to wait long until we see the end product. The Flickr Collection will debut on Getty Images in March.
  Heather Champ on the Flickr Blog.
  Related:

• The Flickr Collection on Getty Images?
• Getty Images on Flickr
• Received An Invitation?
• The Photo Marketplace That Never Launched: Flickr Stock

Getty Images withdraws Rights-Ready as stand-alone Licensing Model for Images, but not for Footage

Some may recall the year 2006 when Getty Images introduced the Rights-Ready licensing model for creative stills and the Q4/2006 conference call when Klein said: "The rights-ready model is already getting strong feedback from our customers. The volumes, as well as the average price per image, so far for rights-ready have exceeded our expectations".

Some may even remember Ron Rovtar´s polemic pamphlet "They must be kidding …" (sorry, no link availabe, The Stock Asylum is permanently offline) as of July 26, 2007, when Getty applied this licensing model to the footage collections.

Today, there are messages flying around stating: "The fantastic news last week that Getty has abandoned it[s] failed ‘rights ready’ model, means that the focus of production and demand is firmly turning back to Rights Managed imagery".

After the jump follows Getty´s official statement on this matter from today:

[Update] QuickLinks For 2009-01-16

• Buyers of a21 subsidiaries to be decided Friday:
  A21 Inc. should be able to finalize agreements to sell its two major subsidiaries on Friday. But the identity of the buyers is still up in the air.
  Masterfile agreed to buy SuperStock’s assets for $1.5 million at the time of the bankruptcy filing. But since then, RGB Ventures, a new company formed by three existing photography-related companies, has offered a bid of $1.75 million, said Davis, an attorney representing a21 in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.
  Onstream Media had asked the court to extend the deadline for SuperStock and said in court filings that it was negotiating to buy a21 before the bankruptcy filing. But Onstream said Wednesday it has decided to withdraw its bid.
  Jacksonville.com.

[Update]:
a21 is selling SuperStock to RGB Venture Partners [RubberBall, Glow and Blend Images] for $2.825 million. RGB won the right to buy SuperStock after a bidding war with Masterfile. The major downside to the reorganization is that a21 shareholders will not get anything.

Fotolia to launch Microstock Footage

Probably starting at the end of January 2009, Fotolia will begin to offer microstock video, "all the formats" (details at 3:21 in this video).

Related:

• A Short Midsummer Conversation With Shutterstock´s Jon Oringer on Microstock Footage (Aug. 05, 2008)

Dexter by iStockphoto

Kelly Thompson here: "For the past 3 months, we've been developing this stand-alone app that allows customers to rapidly find and download iStock content. Some of the things you're seeing:

1. Scalable preview sizes
2. 3 different search result viewing options, including cover-flow
3. Batch downloading
4. Batch downloading of thumbnails (!)
5. Lightbox management
6. Purchase history"

[Update] JPG Magazine says Goodbye

Emailed yesterday to subscribers by Laura Brunow Miner, Editor in Chief of jpgmag.com, the community of nearly 200,000 photographers:

We've spent the last few months trying to make the business behind JPG sustain itself, and we've reached the end of the line. We all deeply believe in everything JPG represents, but we just weren't able to raise the money needed to keep JPG alive in these extraordinary economic times. We sought out buyers, spoke with numerous potential investors, and pitched several last-ditch creative efforts, all without success. As a result, jpgmag.com will shut down on Monday, Jan. 5, 2009.

More here and here. (LO)

[Update] Michael Arrington yesterday:

But the attention the site received after the announced shutdown changed things, it seems, and a number of buyers have now approached the company to buy it and keep it alive (SmugMug is one of them, it seems).