Archives: January, 2007
News
Press Release: Scott Gordon Joins Tetra Images
May 14, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Scott Gordon Named Tetra’s New Creative Director
Jersey City, NJ/USA – Tetra Images, a New Jersey-based royalty free stock image production company, has named industry veteran Scott Gordon as its new Creative Director.
Gordon comes to Tetra with a lengthy resume which includes a stint as an art director for Hallmark Cards in Kansas City, followed by art directing for Ambrosi & Associates in Chicago and, most recently, a 3-year run with the Canadian stock picture library Veer, most of which was spent as their sole U.S.-based art director.
“All of my previous work has contributed to the expertise that I bring to Tetra,” says Gordon, “but certainly my work with Veer prepared me most directly for the challenges I face with Tetra. I’m very excited about the opportunity to help build the Tetra brand’s ‘visual look’ and work directly with a highly creative group of photographers from around the world.”
Tetra Images was founded just over two years ago by stock industry veteran Tom Grill, who is best known for co-founding the Comstock picture agency in the 1970s and then serving as its chief photographer for almost three decades. Tetra is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey and has built a worldwide distribution network for its pictures which includes over 60 partners around the globe.
“Tetra is still a relatively young brand,” said company president Valerie Saunders. “but we’ve now evolved to the point where we wanted to bring a knowledgeable industry veteran on board who can hit the ground running and not only give strong visual direction to our image collection but also actively recruit new contributing photographers. Scott is a terrific fit for that position.”
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For additional information about Tetra Images, contact
Director of Business Development Paul H. Henning:
phone 414.607.9642
e-mail
News
Press Release: Maria Kessler Becomes President of PACA
May 15, 2008
For Immediate Release
NEW PACA EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBERS DEFINE OBJECTIVES IN DESERT
President and Staff Meet In Arizona To Set Goals Including Expanding Copyright Education and Continuing Progress on Orphan Works Legislation
May 13, 2008 - Picture Archive Council of America (PACA) Executive Board members converged in Phoenix for a few days of extensive brainstorming and planning meetings. The retreat served as a kickoff of two-year terms for six Executive Board members. The new leadership looks to enhance a positive momentum the organization has enjoyed in recent years.
“I hope to continue to build upon the already solid foundations that PACA has laid in the past few years as a voice for copyright awareness and as a participating advocate for copyright protection,” New PACA President Maria Kessler stated.
Kessler takes over the reigns from Patrick Donehue, who remains an officer as Immediate Past President. Kessler, the Vice President of Creative Business Affairs at Jupiter Images, brings vision, dedication and enthusiasm to the role.
Kessler’s “cabinet” on PACA’s Executive Board features Christina Vaughan (Image Source) - Vice President, Nancy Carrizales (Animals Animals/Earth Scenes) - Secretary, Dave Herbig (Danita Delimont Stock Photography) - Treasurer, Ben Winters (UpperCut Images) - Members-At-Large and Michael Teaster (Getty Images) - Members-At-Large. Cathy Aron, PACA Executive Director, and Nancy Wolff, PACA Counsel, remain on the Board bringing continuity to the community.
The Executive Board broke from the extensive and collaborative meetings in Arizona with objectives clearly defined and initial plans outlined for achieving these goals. Most prominent on the list is Orphan Works legislation, which has proven to be extremely beneficial to PACA’s membership. Copyright education and the general protection of the copyright laws that sustain the industry are also top priorities.
Kessler firmly believes that a community acting together can make a difference. Under her guidance the Executive Board will continue to promote the organizations mission to foster and protect the interests of the picture archive community through advocacy, education and communication. “During the upcoming term I also hope to guide PACA in an effort to shine a brighter spotlight on available and emerging industry standards for meta data and image identification. I am looking forward to serving the members of PACA.”
Assisting the Executive Board are several PACA members who are rotating into the seats of Committee Chairs. The new Committee Chairs attended one day of the planning sessions in Arizona. They set goals for their committees for the year and added insight to some of the general topic on the agenda for the coming year. Here is a list of the new PACA Committee Chairs:
Carissa Fair (Animals Animals/Earth Scenes), International Conference Chair
Maura Mulvihill (National Geographic Society), Education and Communications Chair
Lynn Eskenazi (Jupiter Images), Legal Chair
Ron Harvey (Everett Collection), Finance Chair
Jonathan Thomas (Look Photo Agency/Built Images), Membership Chair
Laurie Campbell (Alaska Stock Images), Public Relations Chair
Robert Henson (Blend Images), Technology Co-Chair
Luke Vines (Image Source), Technology Co-Chair
Sonia Wasco (Grant Heilman Photography), Marketing Chair
Cheryl DiFrank (Stock Connection), Nominations and Elections Chair
Lauretta Dives (The Picture Desk), Ethics and Grievances Chair
PACA, the Picture Archive Council of America, is the trade organization in North America that represents the vital interests of stock archives of every size, from individual photographers to large corporations, who license
images for commercial reproduction. Founded in 1951, its membership includes over 100 companies in North America and over 50 international members.
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Cathy Aron
PACA Executive Director
Tel: 949-282-5065
Email:
URL: www.pacaoffice.org
News
Chris Walsh leaves post as Vice President of Creative Content for Jupiterimages Europe
Chris Walsh the former Creative Director for IFA-Bilderteam GmbH is leaving his post at Jupiter Images where he provided creative leadership for Jupiter's European collections for the past eight months. Walsh had assumed the role of Vice President of Creative Content for Jupiterimages Europe after IFA-Bilderteam was acquired by Jupiter in May 2006. Chris Walsh has been associated with the stock photo industry for most of his professional career and at Jupiter he was responsible for eight distinct RM & RF Brands reporting to Maria Kessler, the company’s VP of Creative Business Affairs.
News
Mondy Beller resigns as VP of Marketing for JupiterImages
Mondy Beller, who served as VP of Marketing at PictureArts and then at Jupiter Images, has left the company to join the management team of Shop.com. For Ms. Beller, the move marks a return to the online retail industry. Prior to PictureArts, she worked for several online retailers including AOL Shopping, Ticketmaster and Shoes.com. "So, I am basically going back to my roots," Ms. Beller says, adding, "While I have really enjoyed my experience in the stock image industry, I feel that there are bigger opportunities for me in a consumer based business such as online retailing." As Shop.com's SVP of Marketing, Ms. Beller will oversee marketing, merchandising, site design, product development and customer experience.
Features
Visual case study: Microsoft Zune campaign
When Microsoft introduced its new Zune media player (to compete with the popular iPod) it launched with a campaign called “Welcome to The Social” in order to position its new product as a shared, social experience that will be shaped by the collective imagination of consumers. Meg Asaro and Karen D’Silva from Spark Visual Research take a closer look at the images used in this campaign.
News
Luci Gosling headed to Mary Evans Picture Library
Stock photo industry veteran Lucinda Gosling has moved to Mary Evans Picture Library where she was appointed as a Business Development Manager. Luci Gosling is a history graduate who has more than a decade of experience working for several noteworthy agencies including Pictor International, Science Photo Library, and The Illustrated London News Picture Library. Gosling also writes regularly on art and history for a variety of magazines, including Majesty and Illustration.
News
Management changes at Finland’s Kuvaporssi Oy & Suomen Kuvapalvelu
Merja Leppinen becomes Sales Director for Kuvaporssi Oy
Jukka Kaivola appointed Managing Director at Suomen Kuvapalvelu
As of December 11, Merja Leppinen resigned from her position as Managing Director of Suomen Kuvapalvelu, a post she has held for nine years. Until her departure, Ms. Leppinen had spent her entire working career of over 20 years at Suomen Kuvapalvelu, one of the leading stock photo agencies in Finland. Ms. Leppinen has taken a new job as Sales Director of another well-known Finnish agency, Kuvaporssi Oy, the local representative for Masterfile and Mauritius, among other RM suppliers, and an RF distributor for all major RM suppliers. She will report to Kuvaporssi’s Managing Director, Philip Laszlo.
News
Robert Henson appointed Director of Channel Relations and Sales for Blend Images
Royalty free production company Blend Images has appointed Robert Henson Director of Channel Relations and Sales. Mr Henson comes to Blend after a nearly ten-year stint at Getty Images where he gained experience in various positions including, Content Classification Manager, Metadata Engineer, Search Data Editor and, most recently, Director of Image Partner Operations. He will work for Blend out of the company's Seattle office.
News
ImagePoint launches new simplified RF site TopImages.com
Flat Fee of $170 per Image at Swiss Agency topimages.com
ImagePoint, an independent photo agency founded in Zurich and operating in the German-speaking world since 2001 has launched a new web-site at http://www.topimages.com for marketing RF imagery under a flat-fee licensing model. Customers can license any image on the site for US$170.00. That fee covers a broad RF license for an indefinite period of time with two minor restrictions: only one client may use the image and the client must use the image within six months of purchase.
News
Getty offers payment to debt holders in exchange for calling off default notices
On January 4th, 2007 Getty sent a letter to all holders of its $265MM in Debentures expiring 2023, offering a payment of $5.00 for every $1,000 of debt in exchange for a waiver of the default status some debenture holders claim Getty has created by not filing its Form 10Q (3rd quarter earnings report) on time with the SEC. The offer stands only as long as a majority of the debt-holders agree to it by January 17th, 2007. Interestingly, the request for the waiver of default also covers any future possible default caused by Getty filing its year-end 10K report late as well. It gives Getty until May 1, 2007 to file the 10Q for 2006. Assuming 100% of the debt-holders agree to the waiver of default, Getty would owe $1,325,000 on or immediately after May 1st, a sum Getty can easily cover.
News
David Redfern wins Milt Hinton Award for Excellence in Jazz Photography
The British photographer David Redfern has won the 7th Milt Hinton Award for Excellence in Jazz Photography. The international prize honors photographers or institutions that have rendered outstanding services in the field of jazz photography, whether it be artistic or documentary photography.
News
iStock makes aggressive push into video
Getty Images’ iStockphoto, which launched of its royalty free video offering in September of 2006 has announced it now has over 12,000 video clips available on its site from over 350 contributors. In keeping with their aggressive still image pricing, the company offers video clip licenses for as little as $5.00, a dramatically low price when compared the typical single clip fee of over $100 and sometimes much more from RF stock video supplier companies.
News
Digital Railroad announces Plug-In for Aperture
Digital Railroad has released a plug-in for Aperture, Apple’s workflow tool for digital photographers. The new plug-in allows photographers to upload images from Aperture version 1.5 directly into their Digital Railroad archive. The new plug-in saves time by allowing Aperture users to continue working while they upload and archive images with Digital Railroad. The plug-in also converts Aperture’s proprietary image format into JPEG and TIFF formats as it uploads.
News
Mark Ippolito appointed VP of Marketplace Image Sales for Digital Railroad
Digital Railroad has appointed long-time photo-industry executive, Mark Ippolito, to the post of Vice President of Marketplace Image Sales. Ippolito has more than two decades of experience in the world of photography having held senior executive positions at Getty, Corbis, Comstock, OnRequest Images, and was the CEO and President of Matchlight Software Inc. Most recently he was Vice President of Worldwide Sales at Zango Inc., an online media company providing free entertainment content to more than 20 million opt-in consumers.
News
Micro-stock site Dreamstime offers free images
Dreamstime has launched a section on its site dedicated to images "priced so low, they're practically giving them away." In fact, they are doing just that at dreamstime.com. Any photographer who wants to contribute images to the free section can do so, and no one is required to. The company refers to the license that comes with the free images as RF-LL for "royalty free limited license," which allows for a maximum of 10,000 copies if used in print.
News
High-end RM site launches at Stockthatdoesntsuck.com (Really.)
Under a unique name, a unique stock photo agency has opened its doors. Toronto photographer Ron Baxter Smith launched with a group of like-minded investors, stockthatdoesntsuck Inc. (STD-S), an archive of high-end imagery available for rights-managed licensing. The idea for the business and its edgy name came out of a meeting Baxter Smith had with the creative partners of the Toronto/Chicago advertising and design firm, Zig, Inc. Lamenting the proliferation of standard stock photography fare and feeling his work didn't fit with the offerings of most of today's stock photo companies, the photographer decided to create an agency for professional shooters facing the same dilemma.
News
Corbis appoints Sarah McCarthy as Sales Director for Australia
Shortly after acquiring the Australian Picture Library (APL) to strengthen its position in the Australian marketplace, Corbis has appointed Sarah McCarthy to be the new Sales Director for the territory. In addition to managing the integration of Corbis and APL operations, McCarthy has been charged with the task of rolling out Corbis' Creative Resources offerings which include Rights and Music Clearances, Artist Representation, and Media Management.
Editorials
India’s stock photo industry gearing up
Stock photography has been an alien affair to India since the year 2000. Recently the MNC's (Multinational Corporations) including the stock photography industry, has penetrated into the much desired market - India. Previously, India was never seen as a potential market because, the law had it's pitfalls in ensuring the license concept for major channels like movies and music. There were always the threat of piracy lurking under.
News
a21’s ArtSelect launches online custom frame shop
a21’s Fairfield Iowa based, ArtSelect, has announced the launch of a new Custom Frame shop. ArtSelect is one of the leading purveyors of wall décor and fine art prints online with more than $12 million in revenue for 2005. The new online custom frame shop will allow consumers to quickly create custom pieces from the site's library of more than 50,000 images, 80 mats, and 150 frame styles.
News
WireImage makes deal with Variety and opens Amsterdam office
The news, entertainment and sports agency, WireImage, part of MediaVast, Inc., has signed a multi-year partnership with entertainment industry news magazine publisher, Variety Group. Through the deal, WireImage will provide Variety with photographs for its numerous print publications, including Daily Variety, Weekly Variety, Daily Variety Gotham, Variety China, and the web-site, Variety.com. In addition, WireImage will now market Variety’s wholly-owned image collection through its offices world-wide and its web-site, www.wireimage.com.
News
LightBox Network: online workflow for all
David Alexander, an experienced professional photographer and photo lab owner, and James Sorensen, a veteran celebrity photographer, both of Los Angeles, have teamed up to develop a new online workflow system called LightBox Network (LBN.) The system boasts a wide array of features designed to serve every party to the digital photo workflow process from photographers to clients and photo agencies. Alexander and Sorensen developed their system and its unique features over several years by testing it with demanding clients such as the ABC and NBC television networks, among others. They introduced their system to the market at PhotoPlus in New York November, 2006, and officially launched the business this week.
News
Can you hear the music coming from Jupiter?
JupiterImages has acquired StudioCutz, BlueFuseMusic, and other music sites
It’s no secret that Jupiter Media is trying the become the multimedia designer’s best friend with a strategy based on the idea that designers need more than just still images to communicate in an interactive environment. With that in mind, Jupiter has spent the last year building up a music offering to better serve the current and future needs of its customers. Yesterday Jupiter announced that it has acquired the assets of Studiocutz.com, BlueFuseMusic.com, and a few other music sites from Mediatone Music. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
News
Reuters sets tighter guidelines for news photographs
Reuters has established stricter editing guidelines for its news photographers in response to its publication of two photos that had been digitally altered by the photographer who took them. At the same time, the news service terminated its relationship with the freelance photographer, Adnan Hajj, who is Lebanese, and dismissed the chief photographer for the Middle East for his handling of the matter. Reuters named Stephen Crisp, a Briton who has worked for he service in a variety of senior positions since 1985, as the new chief photographer for the Middle East.
News
Motionstream Offers HD DNA Toolbox
Motionstream, a New York City company that offers highly specialized motion and still content. has launched a new collection of high definition illustrations of DNA chains in both video and still formats. Four so-called “Volumes” make up the product, named Genome HD Powertools. Volumes 1 and 2 are the first royalty-free DNA animation libraries currently available in high definition QuickTime files. Volumes 3 and 4 have 46 high resolution still images of DNA chains in various colors and backgrounds.
News
Getty signs exclusive deal with LPGA
Getty Images has announced an exclusive deal with the Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) allowing Getty photographic access to cover all LPGA events and exclusive rights to license images at http://www.gettyimages.com. In addition Getty has agreed to launch a branded print store similar to Getty’s NBA Photo Store allowing consumers to purchase prints of their favorite athletes in action. The new partnership will allow Getty to significantly expand and diversify its current LPGA collection of more than 15,000 images.
News
Paul Henning to give stock photography seminar in Chicago
On February 1st, stock photo industry veteran Paul Henning will give a seminar about the stock photo industry titled “Profiting from Stock Photography.” Henning, a former stock agency owner and a past president of the Picture Archive Council of America who currently runs his own consulting business, Stock Answers, will cover the ins and outs of the industry from the photographer’s perspective. “We’ll cover a lot of ground in two hours and send people home with a good idea of what the opportunities are today for photographers to exploit the booming market for stock photography” Henning said. Adbase, the Toronto mailing list service for photographers, illustrators, stock agencies, artist reps and TV production companies, will sponsor the event.
News
Corbis to represent Smithsonian photo archives
Corbis has announced a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution of Washington D.C. to represent its collection of digitized images. Corbis customers world-wide will have access to the Smithsonian’s vast archival resources and contemporary images in high quality digital format. The Smithsonian collection includes a broad spectrum of imagery, from historical photography, cultural objects, paintings, prints, sculptures, textiles, scientific instruments, and natural specimens, to aircraft and space vehicles from the Institution’s varied museums, which include the National Museum of American History, the National Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the National Air and Space Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, the National Museum of African Art, the Freer Gallery of Art, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and the National Museum of the American Indian.
EditorialsFeatures
Will mobile phone cameras turn all of us into papparazzi?
Recently Kyle MacRae the CEO of Scoopt, an agency specializing in marketing the work of amateur/citizen photojournalists, was interviewed on CNN by Jonathan Mann. During the interview MacRae highlights examples of images sold by Scoopt and the potential revenue that may be earned with your cell phone camera. Mann asks the question “Is this going to turn anyone with a cell phone into a member of a lurking hoard of people chasing celebrities on the off-chance they might be able to get a shot just like professional paparazzi?” MacRae’s response “in 18 months of business we simply haven’t seen it.”
News
Footnote digitizing historic documents and photographs from US National Archives
Lindon Utah based Footnote Inc., has penned a non-exclusive deal with Allen Weinstein, Archivist of the United States, to digitize historic documents and photographs from the National Archives. Footnote has already digitized more than 4.5 million pages and this latest deal will allow Footnote to add millions more. The digitized material will include such national treasures as the Papers of the Continental Congress (1774-89), The Mathew Brady Collection of Civil War Photographs (1874-1875), documents from the Southern Claims Commission (1870’s), and Investigative Case Files of the Bureau of Investigation [Later renamed the FBI] (1908-22), and many other works previously unavailable on the internet.
News
Getty releases 4Q and Full Year 2006 financial results
Getty Images released its results for the end of 2006. The company’s revenue for both the 4th quarter and the full year grew by 10% to $203.5MM for the quarter and $807.3MM for the year. Margins suffered, however, as Selling, General and Administrative expenses grew at a faster pace due to higher staff expenses and expenses related to acquired companies. EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization,) a gauge of the company’s operating efficiency, dropped from 40% of revenue in 4Q05 to 35% in 4Q06 and from 39% to 37% for the full year. Year over year, actual net profit and net profit margins also declined due to restructuring costs. The company posted a 15% net profit margin in 4Q06 ($30.3MM) compared to a 24% net profit margin in 4Q05 ($42.5MM.) For the full year, the net profit margin dropped from 20% in 2005 $149.7MM in 2005 to 16% or $129.5MM in 2006.
News
RF production company Huntstock launched in Boston
Pat Hunt, formerly VP of Corporate Relations at Index Stock, and Mark Hunt, a veteran stock shooter and owner of Mark Hunt Backdrops, have teamed up to found a new royalty free production company, called Huntstock, under the tag line, “Real People, Real Concepts.” As the tag line implies, the wholly-owned collection will encompass lifestyle and conceptual imagery. The company’s web-site currently shows approximately 1,400 images covering the categories “boomers,” business, lifestyles, children, concepts and locations. The founders say the collection is now available for international distribution.
Editorials
Report from North American Nature Photographers Association conference
Over the week of Jan 17-21 I was fortunate to attend my first NANPA (North American Nature Photographers Assoc.) Conference in Palm Springs, California. It was also my first year as a NANPA member. To be honest, I had no idea what to expect, and I had some concerns. I’ve watched NANPA from the outset, and one of my major concerns was that it was nothing but a glorified camera club; and honestly, in part it was. At nearly 3,000 members, it really is a very social organization. That’s not a bad thing, btw. But my personal interests revolves around if, how, and where the organization was working on or supporting professional business issues and education.
News
Jupiter bolsters tradeshow business with acquisition of ISPCON and INBOX
Jupitermedia Corporation (Nasdaq: JUPM) has announced the acquisition of two annual ISPCON trade shows as well as the INBOX trade show from The Golden Group, Inc. Jupitermedia had previously owned 49.9% interest in ISPCON and the recent transaction included the remaining assets making Jupiter the sole owner. In addition, employees of the The Golden Group have become employees of Jupitermedia, including the company’s founder Jon Price. Price will accept the position of General Manager of Jupitermedia's growing Events division. Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.
