Against all odds – Westend61 increases prices and tightens its collections

Fuerstenfeldbruck, Bavaria, Apr. 16, 2008. As of May 1st 2008, Westend61 will increase the prices of its royalty free imagery in printing format by an average of 25%. Stephan Bock, Westend61’s CEO, explains: „Our royalty free collection is an international player in the Champions League. Our products Made in Germany are appreciated by more than 180 partner agencies all over the world. However, keeping and continuously improving this high level requires increased investments in research, productions and in a highly skilled and motivated team at Westend61. Therefore, we will go against the current trend in the business and increase our prices. Quality has to have its price.“

Westend61 will at the same time remove those images from its collection that do not meet the quality requirements or have not been sought by customers for a longer period of time. This applies to both licensing models offered by the agency. 3,000 royalty free images have been removed from its collection in December 2007.

In the beginning of May, 4.000 rights managed images - approximately 40% of the total RM collection - will be deleted. Westend61’s RM collection contains imagery from most requested topics such as people/lifestyle and latest travel photography.

Furthermore, Westend61’s RM portfolio features some extraordinary, out of the frame people images that target the creative market (westendstyle). The RM collection will always remain a small and premium brand, only upgraded by Westend61 through own productions and tightly edited image series from photographers.

Deleting images from its collections, both RF and RM, will become a regular exercise of Westend61 in the future. „The decisive element for turnover is not the quantity of images you offer, but their quality“, adds Stephan. 

 

About Westend61

As the No. 1 producer of Royalty Free imagery in Germany and one of the largest independent RF brands in Europe, Westend61 currently works with over 100 freelance photographers. Founded in Munich in 2003, Westend61 today offers a diversified collection of fresh and creative stock images, in particular covering the topics lifestyle and people. The major characteristics of Westend61’s portfolio are its European visual language and the blend of contemporary and creative imagery. Westend61 distributes its images over a worldwide network of more than 180 partner agencies, e. g. Getty Images and Jupiterimages.

The target groups are advertising agencies, graphic designers, corporate and editorial clients as well as publishing houses. Customers enjoy the extensive service and benefit from professional and individual consultation. The entire product range and service can be found on www.westend61.com.