Archives: January, 2006
News
Amana acquires Sekai-Bunka-Photo
Amana has announced the acquisition of Sekai-Bunka-Photo from the previous owner Sekai-Bunka Publishing Company. The name “Sekai-Bunka-Photo" means, "World cultural photo" and in addition to general stock images Sekai-Bunka-Photo offers a strong collection of scenery and cultural photos from around the world and Japan. Amana will operate the new company starting January 30th 2006 under the name of Sebun Photo. All employees including the Chairman of the board, Mr. Isao Yamaoka and President Masahisa Katsuya will continue to work at the new company. However, the head office will move to the address shown below. This announcement follows Amana’s recent acquisition of Orion, and Aflo’s acquisition of Bon Color Photo Agency. Orion, Bon Color, and Sekai-Bunka Photo have long been considered to be among the largest stock photo agencies operating in Japan.
Sebun Photo
Yamaoka Bldg. 5F 4-8-21 Kudan-Minami Chiyodaku Tokyo 102-0074 Tel 81-3-3262-5123 Fax 81-3262-5387 Sebun Photo will keep their Ginza and Osaka office.
Takashi Yoshida of PLANS, Ltd.
News
Anthony M. Ruotolo promoted to associate publisher of Popular Photography & Imaging
Hachette Filipacchi has announced that Anthony M. Ruotolo has been promoted to associate publisher of Hachette’s Photo Books, American Photo and Popular Photography & Imaging, effective immediately. “Anthony has been a tremendous asset to American Photo and Popular Photography & Imaging and is well respected in the industry,” said Vice President and Publisher Jeffrey Roberts. “I am pleased to have someone as talented and experienced as Anthony overseeing the sales force at our Photo Books.” Ruotolo had previously served as the magazines national sales manager since 2000. He joined Hachette in 1997 as marketing manager at American Photo and Popular Photography & Imaging, then steadily climbed the ranks at the publications. Prior to embarking on his publishing career, Ruotolo began his career at the Foreign Exchange Desk at Dresdner Bank AG in New York, and later oversaw real estate acquisitions for Connecticut based investment firm, APL.
EditorialsFeatures
flickr retrievr and visual search tools
It seems that an area ripe for improvement in the stock photo industry is the development of new and accurate search methods to help customers connect with the right image. Traditionally the way to search for an image is based on metadata associated with an image such as the caption and keywords, but this method does not take into account many of the visual characteristics of the image such as composition and color. This also presents problems when you consider the idea of searching multiple collections at one time in which different keywording and search standards make it very difficult to display the search results in a meaningful way. For these reasons we have seen many companies make attempts at incorporating other more intuitive visual search features such as a search by color feature or iStockphoto’s CopySpace search feature. These features are typically incorporated with a metadata search and, for the most part, seem to work moderately well but it is clear that there is much to be learned about developing a true visual search. That said, it is great to see new innovation and I recently came across an interesting experiment created by System One called the "flickr retrievr".
News
ShutterStock Acquires Photosights.com
The Subscription based stock photography agency Shutterstock has announced the acquisition of the assets of Photosights.com. The acquisition gives Shutterstock access to new customers and the opportunity to add much of the 60,000 images offered on photosights.com to its collection of more than 500,000 images. Shutterstock is encouraging Photosights.com's photographers to resubmit their photos to ShutterStock. Photographers who had 2,500 images or more on the now defunct Photosights.com are eligible for a 'fast track' acclimation to facilitate their transition to ShutterStock. "This deal is particularly newsworthy given how unusual it is for a company of ShutterStock's size to acquire the assets of a competitor. "ShutterStock's model seems to be working, and we will continue to act aggressively to improve our product, build our business, and increase our market share," said Shutterstock CEO Jon Oringer. Click here to review the original press release. Also reported by StockPhotoTalk.
News
iStockphoto launches Custom Photo Request tool
iStockphoto the leading micro-payment stock photo site has announced several new site improvements including, a 10x increase in site speed, Dynamic Licensing, and most noteworthy is BuyRequest, a new Custom Photo Request tool. This new tool (available at the end of Jan 06) allows iStockphoto members to contact photographers directly for specific projects. Members can offer “Finder's Fees” for image library research, make “Open Offers” for custom images and even hire specified photographers to shoot “On Spec.” The idea of Custom Stock licensing has been pioneered by OnRequest Images and until now has not been widely available from other stock photo companies. iStockphoto is changing the dynamic s of the micro-payment site by leveraging the community involvement of its more than 20,000 photographers to allow its budget conscious art buyers to request custom images at an affordable price. Pricing on istockphoto varies from $1 –$20 whereas the minimum license fee for a custom stock photo request from OnRequest Images is $1000. Bruce Livingstone, President, CEO and Founder of iStockphoto had this to say about the recent announcement. “These latest improvements will have dramatic impact for all of our members and further our mandate to integrate iStockphoto into the creative process and the desktop. Powerful new features such as BuyRequest demonstrate our commitment to fostering a great community and direct relationships between buyers and sellers of photography.”
Update (01/09/06): iStockphoto's site has been down all day while they complete the update currently they have posted a notice stating they will be live by 006-01-09 12:10:00 MST
News
WENN and NY Daily News close photo pact
Managing Director Lloyd Beiny of the London-based international picture agency World Entertainment News Network (WENN) and Editor-in-Chief and Deputy Publisher Martin Dunn of the New York Daily News have signed an agreement giving WENN exclusive rights to market the Celebrity, VIP and Entertainment images from the New York Daily News outside of the USA. Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Fotolia introduces extended royalty free license
The micro-payment stock photo site Fotolia has introduced a new “Extended Royalty Free License” that increases the possible usage of a standard royalty free license by giving the buyer the right to resell the images in print on demand products as (posters, t-shirt, mugs, templates, Etc.). This additional license is available both for exclusive and non exclusives Images on Fotolia. Photographers set their own pricing on the Fotolia site within a price range specified on the site. The standard royalty free license is available for 1-2 credits and the extended license is available at 1-20 credits. Click here for more details.
News
FIFA clashes with WAN over photo coverage of the 2006 World Soccer Championship Tournament
The International Football Federation (FIFA) and the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) have appointed a mediator to help resolve their dispute over press-photo coverage of the 2006 World Soccer Championship Tournament. FIFA, bowing to the interests of its sponsors and advertisers, wants to limit reporting on the games, specifically by prohibiting the release or publication of any press-photos until at least one hour after the end of each match. FIFA, who controls the granting of press credentials to photographers for all matches, also sets limits on when and how many photos may be published through on-line media. The World Association of Newspapers has requested that FIFA waive these restrictions. Also joining the negotiations on the side of the newspaper organization are several interested press photo agencies, including Agence France Presse, Reuters, Associated Press and Getty Images, led by Pierre Louette of AFP. Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
Editorials
Editorial: The evolution of the stock photo industry
The reactions of many colleagues in our industry -- photographers and stock photo company managers alike -- to the changes brought about by new technology and innovative ways to use that technology have puzzled me for years. As a group, we have a history of spurning new, legitimate business models, rather than embracing them as a natural progression in an ever-evolving industry. Many will recall the stock photo establishment’s rejection of the Royalty Free model when it first appeared in the early 1990’s. For the most part, our industry now recognizes the legitimacy of the RF business model, but only after much wasted time fretting over RF and many missed opportunities to participate in what has become a dominant method of licensing stock images.
I say for the most part the industry has come around. To my amazement, complaints about the very existence of RF continue, as shown by Holly Hughes, the editor of Photo District News, in her Letter From the Editor in that magazine’s November, 2005 issue. In a passage about the increasing use of RF imagery by clients, Ms. Hughes writes, “Photographers’ rights advocates have long criticized royalty-free “clip-art” for commodifying the creative process and undermining the power of creators to control the use of their work.” I agree with the statement, but it raises several issues:
News
Adobe releases beta version of Lightroom
Adobe Labs has just released a beta version of Lightroom a new digital workflow solution that competes directly with Apple’s Aperture program. Lightroom is a workflow and editing application that lets you view, zoom in, and compare photographs quickly and easily. Precise, photography-specific adjustments allow you to fine tune your images while maintaining the highest level of image quality from capture through output. Adobe Lightroom is currently available for free as a beta for Macintosh, Lightroom will later support both the Windows and Macintosh platforms. Click here for more information.
A preview of Lightroom was posted by Michael Reichmann at The Luminous Landscape.
News
Veer named exclusive distributor of ès rights-managed
Veer has announced an exclusive deal to distribute “ès right-managed” a new collection of rights managed images from PhotoAlto. Created by a collective of professional photographers with a contemporary sensibility, this distinctive rights-managed library embodies the human experience via its striking portraits, and uses varied subject matter to evoke a range of emotional and intellectual responses. “A big part of Veer’s appeal is the high-quality, distinctive elements that our customers can’t find elsewhere,” says Don Wieshlow, head of product development at Veer. “We’re excited to add the ès photography collection to our lineup of exclusive products. We think the European flavor of ès will be very appealing to Veer’s creative audience.”Approximately 1,200 ès images are now available for purchase at veer.com. Click here to view the collection. Click here to view the original press release.
News
Construction Photography builds new e-commerce site
The London based specialist stock agency Construction Photography has re-launched its web site to better serve customers with many new features. Customers will now be able to price and buy both Rights Managed and Royalty Free construction related images, using a credit card with a choice of three different currencies GBP, EURO or USD. Construction Photography is also boasting many new image collections and typically adds approximately 300 new images every week. Click here to view the original press release.
News
Masterfile opens new European headquarters in Dussledorf, Germany
The Toronto-based stock photo company Masterfile has announced the opening of its new European headquarters in Dussledorf, Germany. Masterfile’s Senior VP, International, Tomas Speight will direct the office, which will work directly with clients in Germany, the UK, France, the Netherlands and Italy. As part of this development, Masterfile will end its working relationship with the Corbis-owned zefa visual media group, which had represented Masterfile’s collection in those territories (with the exception of France). Masterfile-Dussledorf will also start handling sales directly with clients in Switzerland and Austria as of April, 2006. The European offices of Masterfile will employ approximately 30 people. Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Nikon stops making 35mm film SLR cameras
Signs that the end is near for film cameras and related products are becoming more frequent. The latest sign is that Japanese based Nikon Corporation has announced plans to cease manufacturing most 35mm film SLR bodies, all large-format lenses and enlarging lenses, most manual focus 35mm lenses, and related accessories. Nikon will continue to distribute the remaining inventory but did not indicate the amount of inventory left. According to the press release “High performance digital SLR cameras are performing well as users shift from film-based SLR cameras or upgrade from compact digital cameras to digital SLR cameras.” Click here to view the press release. In a related note InfoTrends has released a study entitled North American Professional Photography Market - 2005, which indicates that by 2010, 90% of all pictures shot professionally in North America will be captured with a digital camera, up from an estimated 70% today. Click here for more info.
News
Jupiter Images restructures worldwide creative team
Jupiter Images has announced in an e-mail to all contributors that it has restructured the entire worldwide creative team. This kind of restructuring was made necessary due to the many recent acquisitions including ArtToday, Comstock, Thinkstock, Dynamic Graphics, PictureArts, GoodShoot, BananaStock and others. Today’s announced changes are intended to bring the existing creative groups together into one Jupiterimages team capable of quickly bringing to market images that compete with the best in the industry. The JI creative team stands at over 75 picture professionals worldwide and growing. Twelve collection directors lead the individual JI image collections, supported by production and trafficking staffs and by Image Operations, which includes keywording, scanning, retouching and distribution.
News
Virtual Picture Desk named exclusive distributor of De Agostini Picture Library
The Virtual Picture Desk, a Chicago based stock photo consulting service operated by George Sinclair has announced an exclusive contract in North America to distribute the De Agostini Editore Picture Library through stock agencies, publishers, and major corporations. De Agostini Editore is a publisher based in Milan Italy with more than 3,000 employees and publishes books in over 30 countries with annual revenues exceeding $7 billion. The Picture Library currently has over 600,000 rights-managed images that have not been distributed in North America. The Virtual Picture Desk also manages the global distribution of several more collections including Discovery Channel Images, Focus On Sport, and the Axiom Photographic Agency and has stated plans to open an office in London starting in January 2006 and New York City later in the year. For more details contact George Sinclair at or 312-467-5699.
News
PYMCA now live on JupiterImages.com
Jupiter Images has announced that their partnership with the Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive (PYMCA), originally announced in October 05, has come to fruition with the images now available at jupiterimages.com/pymca. “An integral part of our strategy is to expand the exclusive and unique rights-managed content available from Jupiterimages so that we can provide our clients access to images they can't find anywhere else," stated Alan Meckler, CEO of Jupitermedia Corporation. Click here to view the original press release.
Features
LuckyPix launches iPod Sweepstakes
Chicago based stock agency LuckyPix today announced the launch of an iPod Sweepstakes. Any photo buyer who licenses images totaling at least $1,000 through April 2006 will be automatically entered to win an iPod Nano, iPod Shuffle or $50 iTunes Gift Certificate. The sweepstakes runs through April 30, 2006. Sweepstakes winners are chosen at random and will be notified via email within ten days of winning. Prizes may take up to six weeks to arrive. "The iPod giveaway is another way to get close to our customers," says Bill Maday, LuckyPix co-founder. "Everyone loves an iPod - especially a free iPod." Click here for more details.
News
Jupiter invests in Stock.xchng and Stockxpert
Jupiter Media has announced that it has purchased a 49.7% equity investment in HAAP Media Ltd., based in Budapest, Hungary. HAAP Media operates Stock.xchng and Stockxpert.com. Stock.xchng is one of the largest stock photo community Web sites in the world with over 25 million page views monthly and over 500,000 registered users who enjoy free access to images that cannot be purchased from Stock.xchng. Stockxpert.com offers images for sale with pricing as little as $1.00 per image. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The news that Jupiter Images has now purchased a micro-stock community and business should come as no surprise to anyone who has watched the company closely. Jupiter, which comprises the third company among the “big three” businesses in the industry, has already purchased just about every other type of business selling visual content on-line, using just about every type of business model. Jupiter already owns a portal for both rights-managed and royalty-free image licensing, several RM and RF companies, a number of stock image subscription services, a flash content provider and a digital animation company. This acquisition also reflects the Internet-focused approach to growth that seems to separate Jupiter from the other two that make up the big three – Getty and Corbis. Click here to view the original press release. Click here to view comments by Alan Meckler CEO of Jupiter Media.
News
PunchStock & UpperCut Images opens New York office
PunchStock & UpperCut Images has announced the opening of an office in New York City. The office, located in the Murray Hill section of Manhattan, houses the company’s rapidly growing marketing department and New York sales office. PunchStock is headquartered in Madison Wisconsin and also has offices in London and Seattle. Andy Hill, vice president of sales in North America, stated the following. “With many of the largest ad agencies, publishers, media, and corporations located nearby, our new office will enable us to develop deeper relationships with these valued customers and provide an even higher level of service to meet their creative visual imagery needs.”
Features
Stock Artists Alliance offers London seminars
The Stock Artists Alliance is invading London with seminars for stock photographers looking to update their knowledge of the stock licensing industry and plan for the future. The day long program is taking place on 14 February 2006 and will feature a morning presentation, afternoon panel session and include networking opportunities. Photographers are invited to attend one or both sessions.
The morning Presentation entitled Thinking Stock will be presented by SAA Executive Director Betsy Reid and provides an orientation to the quickly changing industry of stock photography. In the afternoon there will be a Panel Session called Straight Talk about Stock presented by members of the SAA Board of Directors. Click here for more details or email to register.
News
Getty releases Q4 2005 numbers
Yesterday, Getty Images reported it’s 4th Quarter, 2005 and FYE12/31/05 results. CEO Jonathan Klein and CFO Liz Huebner hosted a conference call with analysts to discuss the results. Click here for a look at Getty’s financial report for 2005 4Q and Full Year. Year over year, the company achieved it’s projected 13% organic, currency neutral growth (“organic" meaning not including growth from acquisitions and "currency neutral" meaning not including the effects of currency valuation fluctuations on overseas revenue.) The actual sales figure for 2005 of US$733.7MM represents an increase of 18% over 2004. According to Mr. Klein the increase in revenue came from all sectors of the company.
The most intriguing part of the results to this writer concerns the company’s improved operating margins and its projected continued improvement in 2006. The operating margin reflects the profit the company makes after paying royalties to contributors, selling general and administrative expenses, and depreciation and amortization. Getty posted the following improvement in operating profit margins during the past four years:
Features
Stock Photography from the Arab and Islamic world
ArabianEye is a new picture agency based in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, specializing in the cultures of the Arab and Islamic world from international and local photographers of the Near East. Celia Perterson founded and manages the enterprise Click here for contact info. Stefan Hartmann, VISUELL
News
Getty finally severs ties with Jupiter Images
Getty Images has finally made good on its threats to cut PictureArts loose after it was acquired by Jupiter Images. Getty had promised to remove the 40,000 images from its collection by Dec.16th and later extended the deadline to January 20th when the images were removed. Jupiter has known about the change for some time and is making efforts to reassure contributors that it considers this to be a temporary set-back. It still remains to be seen whether customers will flock to license images directly from Jupiter Images but Jupiter Images remains confident. Vice President Jeffrey Burke was quoted on Stock Asylum saying that his company is moving to improve PictureArts sales and has already received a significant number of calls from customers who had been buying PictureArts imagery from the Getty web site. In an e-mail this week Jupiter has attempted to reach out to former Getty customers with the following statement. "We are pleased to inform you that we will honor all Brand X Pictures CDs previously purchased from Getty Images and will make the images available to you immediately upon request and proof of purchase".
