Archives: December, 2005
News
a21 reports third quarter financial results
A21 Group / Superstock, has reported the 3rd
quarter financial results for the period ending September 30, 2005. According to
the press release revenues
for the third quarter of 2005 were $2,064,000 compared to $2,077,000 for the
same period in 2004. Net loss for the third quarter of 2005 was $1,343,000 or
$0.03 per share, versus a net loss of $1,046,000, or $0.03 per share, for the
same period in 2004.
However, A closer look at the company’s SEC filings
raises questions not answered in the press-release.
Fotosearch Promotions (Dec 2006)
- Get 25% off all Brand X CDs from fotosearch.com. Includes nearly 350 CDs. [Click here for details]
- Free magazine subscription. Get a one-year subscription to How, I.D., or Print magazines with purchase of any Ingram Publishing CD on fotosearch.com. [Click here for details]
- Amazon Gift Certificate. Get an Amazon.com gift certificate with purchase of Goodshoot CDs from fotosearch. Certificate value increases with value of purchase. [Click here for details]
- Free iPod Shuffle. Get a free iPod shuffle with any purchase of 2 CDs from Purestock on fotosearch. [Click here for details]
Jupiter Images Promotions (Dec 2006)
- 50% off on Jupiter’s JI Unlimited subscription service through December 31st. [Click here for details]
- 20% off any single purchase during the month of December. Simply enter promo code “holiday20off” at check out. [Click here for details]
- Win an iMac contest. Find a specific image by a specific date and ad it to your “contest” light box on Jupiter and you will be entered for a drawing to win an iMac. [Click here for details]
- Gift cards available for minimum purchase amounts. [Click here for details]
Matton Images Promotions (Dec 2006)
- Free iPod offer. Spend minimum of $999 and get an iPod Shuffle, $2,999 and get an iPod Mini, or $4,999 and get an iPod. [Click here for details]
- Get 25% off all Brand X CDs from matton Images. Includes nearly 350 CDs. [Click here for details]
- Get 25% off all Westend61 VCD’s (virtual CDs) New RF supplier from Germany. [Click here for details]
- Free iPod Shuffle from inspirestock on matton.com. Buy any Inspirestock CD or $549 of Inspirestock single images on matton.com and get a free iPod Shuffle. [Click here for details]
Punchstock Promotions (Dec 2006)
- Free Chocolate Punch Bar with RF purchase.
Purchase any royalty-free image or CD in December from PunchStock and receive a 4 oz Chocolate Punch Bar. [Click here for details]
- Free French Press with RM purchase
Purchase any RM image and receive a PunchStock French Press [Click here for details]
- 3. Gift cards when you spend $499+ on Corbis
Spend $499+ on CDs and/or single images from Corbis and recieve a Gift Card for Macy's.com, RedEnvelope.com or Amazon [Click here for details]
- 4. 25% Off All Brand X CDs. Save 25% on all Brand X CDs from PunchStock. Includes nearly 350 CDs [Click here for details]
SuperStock Promotions (Dec 2006)
- Rewards Points Doubled in December. Get twice the rewards points through December 31st in the SuperStock rewards program. [Click here for details]
- Sony MP3 Player. Spend $999 or more on Jupiter Images RF products form SuperStock and get a free Sony MP3 Player. [Click here for details]
- Photography Book. Spend $350 on Mike Watson Images on SuperStock and receive CENTURY – an award winning book featuring a history of the 20th Century told in photographs. [Click here for details]
- iTunes Voucher of Spa Gift Certificate. Spend over $389 on PhotoAlto imagery from SuperStock and get a $40 iTunes Voucher. Spend $1,000 or more and get a $100 Spafinder.com Gift Certificate. [Click here for details]
Veer Promotions (Dec 2006)
- Rewards Certificates. With every $1,000 purchase of images or type from Veer, you’ll get $200 to spend on designer-friendly merchandise. [Click here for details]
EditorialsFeaturesNews
Corbis offers 25% coupon code for RF images
Getty has thrown a white glove in the face of Corbis with
its 20% discount and now Corbis has responded by offering a 25%
discount of its own (Take that!). That’s right folks we have a good old fashioned duel on
our hands. Corbis is offering this 25% discount on all RF images until Dec 31st
which also happens to be the same time frame of Getty’s promotion. To take
advantage of this discount you need to enter the coupon code 250FFRF05.
So far it seems that is still a gentleman’s duel rather than and all-out street
fight as Jupiter Images and other agencies seem to have resisted the urge escalate this price war with a 30%, 40%, or 50%
discount.
Features
ISIA gaining momentum
Recently a new industry trade association launched called the International Stock Imagery Association (ISIA). From the very beginning this new organization has set itself apart from other industry trade organizations as it seeks to be more inclusive than many of the other trade organizations serving this industry allowing anyone to join and the fact that it has supported itself entirely through the volunteer efforts of individual members. That means that no one has been charged a dime and no monies have been spent to fund the organization. ISIA has recently launched a brand new website (created entirely by volunteer efforts) click here to review the site.
Features
Leica once owned by Salgado sets record price at auction
A collector from Taiwan has recently purchased at auction a Leica camera once owned by
world-famous photographer Sebastiao Ribeiro Salgado. The Leica M7 with a
housing of solid titanium had been auctioned some days ago at the Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna.
Salgado had been presented the collectors piece with the serial number
3,000,000 by Leica in acknowledgment of his "humanitarian photographic
work". The auction closed at a world record of 108,000 euros (Approx.
$130,000 US Dollars) making the Salgado M7 the most valuable camera, built
after the Second World War. The profits from the auction were donated by
the Brazilian photographer to an environmental protection project to prevent
deforestation of the rain forest in his homeland. According to Salgado
"presumably more than 200,000 trees can be planted from this
contribution". Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Jupiter acquires Bigshot Media and BBM.net
Jupiter Media has just announced the strategic acquisitions of Bigshot Media and BBM.net. Bigshot Media is touted as the words first and largest collection of royalty-Free stock flash footage and was conceived by a group of folks at firstlight, a stock photo agency in Toronto, Canada. Alabama based BBM.net is an international group of commercial music composers and recording artists offering royalty-free flash music loops created by musicians from around the world. Alan Meckler (CEO of Jupiter Media) had the following statements about the acquisitions "Bigshot Media's leadership position in providing stock flash footage further expands JupiterImages' range of image offerings and makes JupiterImages the number one company in the rapidly growing field of flash imagery for Web sites.” “BBM.net's royalty-free music loops in flash and other formats adds yet another dimension to our image and media offerings," Specific terms of the acquisitions have not been disclosed and it is unknown whether the assets acquired include ownership of the content offered by each of these companies. Click here to review the original press release.
Update (12/07/05): Bigshot Media has confirmed that all of the flash movies are wholly owned by Bigshot Media Inc. The total number of movies within the collection is approximately 5500-6000.
News
New Creative Director at Corbis Europe
Siri Vorbeck (40) has been promoted to Director Creative Photography Europe
with immediate effect. The former top creative at zefa visual media, which was
taken over by Corbis at the beginning of 2005, has had many years’ experience in
the selection of high end photography. According to Corbis "The important
impetus for photography mainly comes from Europe, so European photographers can
ensure their work is used even more than in the past via the Corbis
platform." Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
PhotoSpin has tapped Pepper Stark to develop “Franchise” operation
Southern California based Photospin has adopted a unique approach to offer their stock photo subscription product through international “Franchises” to be developed by the Stock Photo consultants Pepper Stark. Distributors will be empowered to sell a localized version of the product with control over pricing, and positioning in their market. PhotoSpin’s back-end technology also allows the distributor to offer a native language site with total control over the image collection and the tools to manage client buying behaviour and accounts. Photospin also has plans to buikd uo the collection by returning a percentage of the distributor’s monthly fee so that each distributor can acquire local content for its subscription service. Click here to review the original press release.
News
Keystone appoints Toma Kadlcik Editor-in-Chief
Keystone, Switzerland, the largest stock
photo agency by sales volume in that country, has re-established the post of
Editor-in-Chief as an independent position. Since late 2003, Keystone had
combined the title with that of Chief Photographer making Alessandro della
Valle responsible for both jobs. As of January 1st 2006, Keystone
has appointed long-time employee Toma Kadlcik Editor-in-Chief. della
Valle will remain Chief Photographer. Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Liz Huebner retiring as CFO of Getty Images
Getty Images announced that Chief Financial Officer, Liz Huebner, plans to retire during the first half of 2006. Ms. Huebner has been with the company since October 2000 and will remain actively involved in the management of the company until her successor is appointed. "Serving as CFO for Getty Images has been an honor, and my decision to retire has not been an easy one." said Liz Huebner. Commenting on today's announcement, Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO, stated, "When I hired Liz five years ago, she told me then that she planned to retire early and, as ever, Liz is doing exactly what she said she would do. Liz's contribution to the success of Getty Images over the past five years has been enormous, and the strong position we are in today is a testament to her legacy." Click here to view the original press release.
Features
Medical stock photo resources
Medical stock photography is one specialty where it helps to work with
an agency that has a thorough understanding of the field. Because of
this there are several niche stock photo agencies offering expert
knowledge and service above what a general stock collection can offer.
For your viewing pleasure I have compiled a short list of agencies who
specialize in offering images of science and medical images.
Medical stock photography resources
www.anatomicaltravel.com - Anatomical Travelogue Inc
www.cmsp.com - Custom Medical Stock Photo
www.phototakeusa.com � Phototake USA
www.burnsarchive.com - Burns Archive
www.cellsalive.com - CELLS alive!
www.cvmd.net - CVMD
www.doctorstock.com - Doctor Stock
http://images.md - images.MD
www.lifeart.com - LifeART
www.mediscan.co.uk - Medical-On-Line Ltd
http://catalog.nucleusinc.com - Nucleus Medical Art
www.indexedvisuals.com - Indexed Visuals
www.doereport.com - The Doe Report
News
Hachette Filipacchi now represented by TCS-Netherlands
The French heavyweight photo agency, Hachette Filipacchi has signed a representation agreement with TCS in the Netherlands. The partnership applies to Hachette�s editorial and commercial material. This includes the imagery from six agencies Hachette controls: Gamma (news and celebrities and feature stories), Rapho (photo journalism and feature stories), Hoa Qui (lifestyle and travel), Keystone France (historical archives and fine art), Jacana (nature and wildlife) as well as Top (food and dining imagery). Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Personell change at RIA Novosti Photo Library
The London office of the Russian news and information agency, RIA Novosti has a new photo library manager. Mikhail Savkin took over the post from Vaughan Melzer, who recently left the enterprise. Contact: . Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Jupiter Media has acquired Agence Images
To complement the recent acquisition of the French RF distributor PR Direct, Jupiter Media has announced the acquisition of Agence Images a leading distributor of rights-managed images in France. Along with the acquisition Jupiter is appointing Laurent DiCostanzo, founder of Agence Images, to head the combined JupiterImages operations in France. �We anticipate significant marketing and business synergies between Agence Images and our JupiterImages division," stated Alan M. Meckler, Chairman and CEO of Jupitermedia Corporation. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Click here for the original press release.
EditorialsFeaturesNews
BrandX offers 10-20% discount on CD’s
2005 is going out with a bang in the stock photo industry as many agencies are locked in a price war in order to entice customers to spend the last of their 2005 budgets. First Getty offered a 20% discount on all images, Then Corbis launched a 25% discount on all RF images and now the latest to enter the fray is Jupiter Images offering a a 10% discount off one BrandX CD or 20% off two or more CD's. This latest promotion is being offered to all distributors of the BrandX line and is scheduled to start on Dec 15th the same day that Getty has declared it will no longer carry the brand.
News
Louette appointed AFP president
Pierre Louette (42) has been selected as the new president of the Agence France-Presse (AFP). The board of directors in Paris has unanimously voted to appoint Louette as the successor of Bertrand Eveno (61), who resigned last month citing personal reasons. Louette was previously a managing director and executive vice-president of the Agence France-Presse. The French enterprise, established in 1835, is considered to be the oldest international press agency. Beside photos and films it offers news wire services in six languages. According to its records, AFP currently employs approximately 2,100 employees, and 250 photographers, in 118 offices world-wide. Stefan
Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Ellen Boughn has left UpperCut Images
Andy Goetze at StockPhotoTalk is reporting that VP Ellen
Boughn is no longer at UpperCut Images.
Ellen had been working for UpperCut since 2003 where she guided the launch and creation of the UpperCut brand. Ellen can be reached at her
office 206.780.8166 or .
News
Mauritius signs deal to represent Jupiter
German stock photo company Mauritius Images has announced a partnership with Jupiter Images to represent Jupiter�s entire stable of rights managed and royalty free brands. The RM collections include Botanica, Foodpix, nonstock, Untitled and IBID and the RF brands include BrandX Pictures, Goodshoot, Creatas, IT Stock, Comstock, Thinkstock, Dynamic Graphics, Liquid Library, Big Cheese and BananaStock. According to a Mauritius spokesperson, "Hans Joerg Zwez, managing director, and his entire staff are extremely happy with this close connection to Jupiter Media." Stefan
Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Amana buys Orion and sells Corbis-Japan
Mr. Hironobu Shindo, President of Amana Corporation, and Mr. Junichi Nakamura, President of Orion Press, have announced an agreement for the sale of Orion to Amana. In a deal to be completed on December 28th of this year, Amana will buy out 100% of Orion's stock. Amana plans to continue to operate the Orion�s photo news service and stock photos business under the Orion brand. Gross sales for Orion, with 23 employees, for the fiscal year ended on March 31, 2005, totaled 1,151,000,000 yen, or just under US$10MM at today�s exchange rate.
At the same time, Amana announced it plans to sell all its holdings of Corbis-Japan stock back to Corbis International. All agency agreements with Corbis-Japan will revert to Corbis International, Japan. The stock transfer will be completed on December 31, 2005. Takashi Yoshida of PLANS, Ltd.
News
Photolibrary acquires Stock Image Group
Photolibrary Group NZ Ltd, a subsidiary of The Photolibrary Group, has announced the acquisition of Stock Image Group Limited (SIG) of New Zealand. SIG has developed a reputation as a reliable resource for stock art buyers in New Zealand. Glenn Parker, CEO of Photolibrary Group, stated: �We are strongly committed to the New Zealand market and very proud of the high level of service and real customer focus that has seen us become a market leader. All of the SIG staff will be joining the Photolibrary team, which was an important part of the transaction. We will also continue to support the top New Zealand based photographers, not only within the New Zealand market, but also via Photolibrary�s world wide office and agency network.� Specific terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed. Click here for the original press release. Also reported by StockPhotoTalk.
EditorialsFeatures
More end of the year promotions
End of the year discounting from stock photography companies continues as competitors try to entice buyers to spend their remaining 2005 budgets. Several discounts have already been reported (Getty, Corbis, Jupiter), click on the link below to see a list of more promotions for December 2005.
News
New Sales Manager at Alaska Stock
Alaska Stock has announced the promotion of Laurie Campbell to Sales Manager and Marketing Director. Laurie Campbell has 16 years of experience as a photographer, designer, marketing consultant and account executive. She will lead the Alaska Stock sales team and be responsible for growing the company's marketing efforts, international, national and regional sales. Laurie Campbell has been with Alaska Stock Images for three years as an Account Executive. Ms. Campbell had this to say about the promotion, "I find photography, design and advertising as dynamic industries and I fully embrace the new challenges and possibilities that lay ahead. As the world of stock photography grows, so does the opportunity for Alaska Stock to play a significant role as Alaska's leading photo resource." Click here for the original press release.
Features
Beta launch of the new and improved website
Welcome to the beta version of the new and improved abouttheimage.com brought to you by industry veterans Chris Ferrone and Brent Phelps. We have re-built this site to better serve the three constituents of the stock photo industry -- stock photographers and illustrators, stock photo company professionals, and the creative decision-makers who license stock images – with news, analysis, feature stories, general information and links to all industry related resources. Feel free to explore the new site. We hope you find it useful. Please note this is the beta launch. As we continue to refine certain aspects of the site, we would very much appreciate your feedback on what improvements or changes would help us make it more useful to you. For more information, please see the About Us page.
News
StockPhotoFinder launches widget
Recenty Pat Hunt interviewed Randy Taylor, one of the cofounders of StockPhotoFinder and long time expert in image searching technology, after he launched a Mac-only Widget. The Widget makes searching faster, easier and more fun. See what else Randy has up his sleeve.
Pat: Please tell me about the “Widget.”
Randy: First, I must give credit to Evan Frohlich who is in charge of software development. He created both the Widget and the StockPhotoFinder.com web site, great examples of how gifted he is at programming and interface design. The Widget is a fabulous toy that has wonderful business applications. It is only usable with the Macintosh Tiger OS 10.4 operating system. It is a Dashboard tool that allows you to search for stock photography through our StockPhotoFinder site without using a browser. It gives instant and direct access to search without having to go to any individual website. At the same time we have added functionality to make it more valuable to the buyer and the seller. It automatically watermarks the images on the fly upon download of the preview image. If you go directly to a stock agency site and download their preview, you may have the watermark. If you download that same preview through the Widget, you will have the email address and the web address of that stock photo agency. We realized that there are many places that don’t have watermarking and the image can get lost very easily. There is the possibility of unauthorized use. The Widget is very fast and you can get price quotes through it. Well over half of our users are on Macs, so the Widget is appropriate for our user base.
News
Adobe Stock Photos improves search
Adobe Stock Photos has announced new search functionality to offer an advanced search similar to what you might find at most stock photo websites. This announcement was coupled with the news that Adobe is now offering more than 575,000 images from its many contributors including (Amana, Blend, Corbis, Getty, Jupiter, IPN, Masterfile, Stockbyte, Etc.). Adobe has an advantage in the way it offers images through the Adobe Bridge software coupled with Adobe’s Creative Suite 2, however because this is software and not an online solution you have to download the latest version of the software to see the new search features.
News
Jupiter spends 9.35 million to acquire Animation Factory
Jupiter Images has announced yet another acquisition to gain more unique wholly-owned content. This time Jupiter has acquired South Dakota based Animation Factory, Inc., which includes the MediaBuilder Network of Web sites, (www.animationfactory.com) and (www.mediabuilder.com), from VA Software Corporation for $9.35 million in cash and the assumption of certain [unknown] liabilities. Animation Factory offers subscriptions for royalty-free 3D clip art, animated graphics, video backgrounds, Microsoft PowerPoint templates, and e-mail, and Web page backgrounds for business and personal use. Animation Factory's collection of more than 400,000 original animations and Web designs is primarily targeted at pro-sumers and corporate professionals and might be a nice complement to Jupiter’s Clipart.com. It is likely Jupiter will use Animation Factory's MediaBuilder Network of Web sites, which generates over 18 million page views per month, to help to drive users to buy other Jupiter products. Click here to view the original press release. Click here to view comments about the acquisition by Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupiter Media.
News
Aflo acquires Bon Color Photo Agency
The Tokyo based general stock agency, Aflo (www.aflo.com) has agreed to acquire Bon Color Photo Agency (www.boncolor.co.jp), also based in Tokyo. The acquisition will make Aflo one of Japan’s largest agencies. Bon Color has over 1 million images, mostly scenic travel images from around the world with an especially strong collection of scenic images of Japan. The acquisition will take effect officially in February of 2006. Takashi Yoshida of PLANS, Ltd.
News
Apple releases Aperture 1.0.1 update
Not long after the initial release of Aperture (Oct 19 2005), the all-in-one post-production tool for photographers, Apple has released the first update to this groundbreaking product. This is a step in the right direction for a tool that for many digital photographers has already become an integral part of their daily workflow. The new release, Aperture 1.0.1, addresses a number of issues related to reliability and performance. It also delivers improved image export quality and metadata handling. Among the key areas addressed are:
- White balance adjustment accuracy and performance
- Image export quality
- Book and print ordering reliability
- Auto-stacking performance
- Custom paper size handling
If you already have a current version of Aperture click here to download the update. Click here to learn more about Aperture.
News
Jupiter Media gets $100 million credit limit
Just before the holidays Jupiter Media announced that it has closed a $100 million senior credit facility arranged by JPMorgan Securities, Inc. Jupitermedia has used this new credit to pay off $53 million peviously borrowed from JPMorgan, and expects to use the remainder for potential acquisitions. That leaves Jupiter with the resources to spend another 47 million in the near future and it seems likely that the Jupiter acquisition machine will keep rolling well into 2006. Click here to view the press release. Also reported by StockPhotoTalk.
