News
The Cover Story files for bankruptcy
The Amsterdam based The Cover Story (TCS) filed for bankruptcy earlier this month. As a result of the reorganization of the company, it has closed its stock photo operation. Jan-Poul Douma, an image web-site software executive, purchased the remaining assets of the company after the bankruptcy and will manage it as a reportage feature story licensing business.
In the end of 2000, TCS signed an agreement to represent Corbis in the Netherlands. At that time, TCS had only minimal involvement in the stock photo business and was engaged primarily in writing feature stores which it licensed, with accompanying imagery, to magazines in Europe, Asia and South America. The company then made investments in infrastructure – hiring more staff and leasing more office space -- to build the stock photo business. The trouble began for TCS in the beginning of 2005 when Corbis purchased zefa, which had its own significant operation in the Netherlands having purchased Benelux Press in Voorburg, just outside of Amsterdam. The zefa/Benelux business included an experienced sales staff as well as a stock image production company. Having an owned office, and especially one so well established in the local market, made the representation arrangement with TCS redundant.
Wil Merritt, SVP of Sales for Corbis, who, at the time of the zefa purchase worked out of the Corbis office in Paris, says his company and TCS always enjoyed a good working relationship. “Corbis informed TCS of its plans to acquire zefa [and the obvious ramifications for TCS] several months ahead of time,” he said, adding, “TCS was not the only Corbis rep. adversely affected by the zefa acquisition.”
Douma says the business is getting back to its original core mission, which is to supply great feature stories to publishers around the globe. He plans to use his experience with Internet-related businesses to expand the market for TCS’s feature stories beyond the print magazine sector to Internet publishers.
Web: www.thecoverstory.com.
Posted in: News, Stock Photo Companies
