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iStockphoto: COO Kelly Thompson Projects $200 million in Revenues, Microstock Agency launches Vetta Collection

Kelly Thompson became COO of iStockphoto in September 2008, a few months before Founder & CEO Bruce Livingstone left the company.

In his new position Kelly is responsible for the future of the world´s - in absolute numbers - economically most successful microstock agency, which employs a staff of 115 in Calgary (including contractors and the Berlin office) and additionally 110 image inspectors around the globe, in total about 225 people.

Recently I spoke to Kelly and asked him: what is the future focus of iStockphoto under the COO Kelly Thompson?

"I´m a pretty technical guy: I have a computer science degree with a specialty in UI design and worked at a major enterprise search company for a long time, so you´ll see a focus on that for me.

Bruce left the company in brilliant shape with the content we have: I might be biased, but I think we have some of the best content on the planet, micro or not - as Vetta attests to.

Bruce Livingstone resigns as CEO of iStockphoto and SVP Consumer of Getty Images

From the announcement:

This is my last communication as CEO of iStockphoto and SVP Consumer at Getty Images. It's been a difficult decision, but it’s the right moment to move on. I need more time with my family, and time to figure out what I'm going to do next. Anybody who knows me, knows I'm a bit of a workaholic. So I'm finally going to make some time for myself and the people in my life.

Continue over there in the iStockphoto forum. -More over at Stephen Shankland.

Bruce Livingstone sat on one of my panels during the CEPIC congress 2008 in Malta where iStock also organized an iStockalypse event. It was a great experience for everyone in the audience to listen to him. Finally he now has the time to care more about his family. Sooner or later we will see him acting again, in another new venture.

iStockaudio beta to lauch tomorrow - or later this week

After several delays, iStockphoto will launch the beta version of its audio iStockaudio site on Wednesday. Professionals won't be able to participate if they belong to organizations that require them to only distribute their content on a royalty basis.
Over 10,000 audio clips will be available, Livingstone said.
He said a lot of video customers have asked for audio so he expects interest there, but also from new customers.
Adding video support with iStockvideo came from frequent requests by customers, and proved an immediate hit. "In late 2006, we launched video and in two years, it's become a substantial part of our revenue," Livingstone said.

InternetNews in "From Passion to Profits in User-Generated Content" (compiled).

Related:

• Listen up: audio to launch this week (iStockphoto´s Audio Forum)
• A Short Fall Conversation With AudioMicro´s Ryan Born on Microstock Audio
  (Oct. 22, 2008)
• A Short Midsummer Conversation With Shutterstock´s Jon Oringer on Microstock Footage
  (Aug. 05, 2008)

iStockphoto: New pricing, a new premiere collection of "best exclusive content" and more changes

In a nutshell the changes at iStockphoto with a new three-tier offering:

• "Low end": new Dollar Bin (around 200,000 images at start, priced by size at much lower rates, starting in spring 2009):
  
• "High end": a new Premiere Collection "of our best, exclusive content" called The Finite Collection:
  • Starting in May 2009 with a higher pricing:
    
  • "We'll be looking to put about 200,000 images in collection by the end of the second quarter [2009]".

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.

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.).