Archives: May, 2007
News
Getty Images appoints Craig Peters to lead the company’s newly created Footage and Multimedia divisi
Seattle based Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) has announced the appointment of former WireImage Executive Craig Peters to the post of vice president of the newly created Footage and Multimedia division. Peters was formerly the SVP of new media and strategic development at WireImage (Acquired by Getty images in Feb 07) where he managed the company's worldwide video and mobile businesses. As the head of footage and multimedia, Peters will be responsible for growing footage collections, attracting new customers, driving the development of a new web site and advancing technological improvements, along with developing new business models and improving the overall customer experience. He will be based in Los Angeles and will report to Nick Evans-Lombe, senior vice president of Imagery and Services.
News
Getty announces purchase of RF channel distributor PunchStock during 1Q07 conference call
Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) announced yesterday that it has purchased one of the leading RF channel distributors, PunchStock. According to a press-release, Getty says the move is in keeping with its strategy “to offer all products to all customer segments on all platforms at all price points.” Getty CEO Jonathan Klein repeated the announcement on the company’s 1Q07 conference call with analysts later in the day. The company did not disclose the purchase price.
News
Photolibrary Launches Fresh Food Images
Photolibrary Group has announced the launch of a new specialty image library called Fresh Food Images (FFI) located at http://www.freshfoodimages.com. The new site includes the work of over 100 photographers who specialize in food and drink photography with a file of more than 200,000 unique images. In addition, FFI now houses the Anthony Blake Food Library, a leading food and beverage collection from the UK.
Features
Visual case study: Sony Vaio ‘like.no.other’ campaign
Sony Electronics has launched its like.no.other campaign positioning itself as a premium lifestyle consumer brand. This approach corresponds with a growing trend among consumers who are adopting electronics as fashion accessories. Sony’s advertising is intended to appeal to younger demographic that is focused on individuality and self image placing Sony’s Vaio line of Notebook computers on the high-end of the spectrum both in price and perception. Like many other cult-brands (Harley Davidson, Mini Cooper, Bose, Mont Blanc, Etc.) Sony is attempting to appeal to consumers who identify with the Sony brand and value its products as something more than the sum of its parts. Meg Asaro and Karen D’Silva from Spark Visual Research take a closer look at the images used in Sony’s like.no.other campaign.
News
Paul Henning to present ‘Profiting from Stock Photography’ seminar in Minneapolis
Stock photography veteran Paul Henning has announced that he is presenting a seminar entitled “Profiting from Stock Photography” later this month in Minneapolis. The seminar is sponsored by ADBASE, an online mailing list service for creatives, and will be held at Shelter Studios on Thursday evening, May 24. “I’m really excited about the opportunity ADBASE has given me to share information about the stock photography industry,” says Henning from his Milwaukee office. “We’ll cover a lot of ground in about two hours, and send people home with a good idea of what the opportunities are today for photographers to cash in on the booming market for stock photography.”
News
The next big thing? A review of PACA’s Stock Footage Panel
On May 5th, 2007 at the Picture Archive Council of America’s Annual meeting in Alexandria, Virginia, a panel of speakers participated in an enlightening discussion about the current state of stock footage and its place in the stock licensing industry. Jocelyn Shearer, VP of video licensing and archive management for National Geographic moderated the panel, which included Kimber VanRy, Thought Equity Motion; Alan Baily, Rubberball Productions; Graham Smith, Jupiterimages and Carlos Taminez, Artbox promotions. Their in-depth commentary left the distinct impression that, while motion imagery’s day has not yet come, it may be just around the corner. In addition, it may bring with it yet another convulsive change to the still image licensing business in the form of new production methods.
Features
Survey reveals user-generated content is the top threat to media and entertainment industry
The global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, Accenture, issued the following press release about a survey of leaders in the media and entertainment industry. The sector includes advertising, publishing, and the Internet, (among others,). The release provides insight about how executives in these industries view the changing environment in which they operate and gives an indication of their strategies to cope with the changes. abouttheimage posts the release in its entirety with the generous permission of Accenture.
News
Alaska Stock appoints Keith Carnes as Operations and Business Manager
The specialty library Alaska Stock Images has announced that it has appointed Keith Carnes as its new Operations and Business Manager. Carnes, who has lived in Alaska for more than 13 years, will oversee the daily operation of the business. According to Carnes “Alaska Stock Images is one of those unique business success stories that makes you want to be a part of who they are. I am excited at the opportunities that lie ahead for Alaska Stock and about moving with this company into the bright future on our horizon.”
News
German photo agency raided prior to G8 meetings
A long fence surrounding a broad radius of the meeting area at Ostseebad Heiligendamm should ensure that demonstrators – violent or peaceful - cannot disrupt the meeting of the 8 leading industrial nations (G8) in Germany. Nevertheless the German National Administration fears terrorist attacks by anti globalization activists. In a large scale raid in Berlin-Kreuzberg and the Hamburg area of Schanzenviertel, offices and private establishments were searched and documents and hard disks were confiscated. The parties involved claim that the German National Police are trying to criminalize all protest actions against the G8-meeting before they actually transpire.
News
Jupiter posts weak 1q07 - Stock price sags
Jupitermedia posted weak first quarter 2007 results with a 2.5% increase in total revenue over the first quarter of 2006, but a simultaneous decline in operating profitability, especially from the Online Images division, which accounted for 80% of revenue in the most recent quarter. The company’s income from continuing operations swung from a gain of $2,833,000 in 1Q06 to a loss of $1,041,000 in 1Q07. The company spent $1.9mm in legal fees associated with the acquisition talks with Getty which ended with no deal. Even without that extra expense, however, income from continuing operations would have come in at only $859,000 for the most recent quarter, a decrease of 70% from 1Q06. The stock price dropped by 14% on the news to close at $6.17 at the end of the day on May 10.
News
Thomson in talks with Reuters about potential acquisition
Reuters has recently confirmed rumors that it is currently involved in acquisition negotiations with the Canadian Thomson-Group. Reuters is valued at 13 Billion Euros (approx $16.3 billion). In 2006 Reuters turned over of 3.8 Billion Euro in revenue, with an operational profit of 456 Million Euro. The British news agency employs almost 17,000 people – approx. 2400 of which are journalists, photographers and cameramen. Thomson explained: with the acquisition of Reuters the organization will rise to number one and have an edge over the American agency Bloomberg in the data and news business for financial industries. Thomson’s stock value will be over 20 Billion Euro.
News
celebrity space heating up in Seattle
On Getty’s 1Q07 conference call with analysts, CEO Jonathan Klein said he expects the company’s celebrity photography division, though still relatively small in terms of revenue, to become more important in future quarters. The purchase of WireImage certainly shows Getty plans to make a serious foray into an area it had, up to now, ceded to Corbis. Corbis, for its part, has also made an announcement about the launch of OutlineLive, what it calls “a contemporary and fresh collection of celebrity photography” that will feature more than 35,000 images by the end of the month.
News
Pixsy partnering with stock photo companies to consolidate into a single search
Recently a21/Superstock announced a partnership with Pixsy, an award-winning media search platform, to index Superstock’s entire collection. Today iStockphoto has also announced a similar partnership. With approximately 1.5 million images each iStockphoto and SuperStock account for more than 3 million stock images available on site that was named one of TIME Magazine's 50 Coolest Websites in 2006. Under the terms of the agreement, Pixsy will index thumbnails from iStock and SuperStock and customers can search on Pixsy.com. After finding a desirable image the user will then be able to license the image directly from the contributor’s site.
News
A21 narrows loss in 1Q07
According to a press-release issued by the A21 Group on May 15, the company posted a loss of $962K in the first quarter of 2007, an improvement over the $2MM loss the company suffered in the same period a year earlier. Comparison of the quarterly numbers reveals that the newly acquired consumer product division (ArtSelect) carries a relatively high Cost of Goods Sold of 47% of divisional revenue compared to only 30% in the image licensing division. Nonetheless, the company’s Selling, General and Administrative expenses dropped dramatically as a percentage of overall revenue from 96% in 1Q06 (before the ArtSelect acquisition) to only 60% of revenue in 1Q07. This implies ArtSelect, apart from doubling the company’s revenue, is much cheaper to operate and has had a positive effect on profitability.
News
BAPLA honors Mary Evans with Lifetime Achievement Award
At the recent 2007 Picture Buyers' Fair The British Association for Picture Libraries and Agencies (BAPLA) awarded long-time stock photo industry veteran, Mary Evans, with a Lifetime Achievement award. Mary Evans, a pioneer in stock licensing, is the co-founder (with her husband Hilary), of The Mary Evans Picture Library and is also a founding member of BAPLA in 1975.
Features
Interview with Image Source founder Christina Vaughan
Christina Vaughan is part of a new-breed of stock photography professionals to emerge in the last decade. She is young, intelligent, passionate and independent. As the founder and Co-CEO of Image Source, Vaughn has proven to be a visionary in stock photography production having built Image Source into one of the largest independent stock production houses in the world with offices in Koln, New York, and London and nearly 100 employees. Naturally, we had a few questions for Ms. Vaughn having watched the rise of Image Source over the years and Christina was kind enough to accept our request for an interview.
News
PACA announces publication of Nancy Wolff’s Legal Handbook for Photographers
For seven years now, Nancy Wolff, legal counsel to the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA,) has written legal updates for the organizations bi-weekly newsletter to members. These updates have served to keep the entire industry un to date on the myriad legal issues, changes in laws and key cases that affect the business of creating, licensing, using and publishing stock imagery. Wolff has now updated and compiled these invaluable explanations-in-laymen’s-terms in “The Professional Photographer’s Legal Handbook,” a must-read for anyone engaged in any aspect of the stock image industry.
News
Getty Images hires former U.S. Attorney John McKay as general counsel
Getty Images (NYSE: GYI), has announced the appointment of former U.S. Attorney John McKay as senior vice president and general counsel. McKay has made the news in recent months as one of eight fired federal prosecutors at the center of a Justice Department political scandal raising allegations of improper political maneuvering by the Bush administration. McKay had served as the United States Attorney for Western Washington since 2001.
News
Copyright association formed in Washington DC
A new non-profit organization dedicated to “promoting the value of copyright as an agent for jobs, creativity and growth” called The Copyright Alliance has opened its doors in the nation’s capital. The association has an impressive list of member organizations which includes the American Society of Media Photographers, CBS Corporation, the NCAA, NBA Properties, Inc.; NBC Universal, News Corporation, Professional Photographers of America, Recording Industry Association of America, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Time Warner, Viacom, and The Walt Disney Company, among others.
Features
Searching for the Arab identity
How is it possible to define the Arab identity in our society when it is increasingly so narrowly identified with Islam? Unfortunately, Westerners believe that being Arab necessarily means being Muslim. What a mistake they make! Overloaded by the news media, our minds do not stop accumulating such falsities. Amongst 1.6 billion Muslims throughout the world, Arabs represent only a minority today.
Misinterpretations of Islam and injustices committed in its name have led to many misunderstandings regarding the actual realities of the Arab world. I have made a great effort to accept realities without making any judgments. This has allowed me to adopt a better approach to understanding the problem that continues to feed the flame of hatred in the hearts of humans. If only we look at things simply, Islam is nothing other than the third monotheist religion born in this region.
News
PantherMedia and ‘Impact in IT’ offer microstock franchise operation
PantherMedia, a microstock community-based stock agency from Munich Germany has partnered with ‘Impact in IT’ (a Dutch software company) to offer a turn-key microstock franchise operation. The new ‘Royalty Free Budget Images Platform’ consists of 120,000 images from Panther Media and an e-commerce automated technical platform called Stock Media Server from Impact in IT.
News
eVox Productions launches automotive stock collection Drive Images
eVox Productions a production company specializing in creating automotive imagery has announced the launch of a new wholly-owned rights-managed (RM) library called Drive Images. Initially the collection is launching with more than 25,000 images covering current vehicles as well as models dating back to the model year 2000. In addition, the production company which is headquartered in Los Angeles with studios in LA and Detroit, has stated plans for continued growth with an additional 22,000 images to be added to the collection in the coming year.
News
Paul Melcher to lead image aggregator CompassPix in North America
CompassMedia, LLC based in New York City, has appointed seventeen-year stock industry veteran Paul Melcher as CEO of its online image aggregator venture, CompassPix.com. In a press-release announcing the appointment, Melcher makes the bold, attention-getting statement, “Getty Images' business model is obsolete. CompassMedia's solutions will level the playing field by forever changing the way the photo industry does business.” The release further describes its CompassPix service as an online portal for stock images that offers “over 6 million images from 25 photo agencies worldwide.”
News
Getty footage appearing on FOX reality show ‘On the Lot’
Getty Images (NYSE: GYI) has penned a deal with Fox to be the official footage partner for its new reality show, "On the Lot". On The Lot is a reality show where aspiring film-makers compete to create short films every week that are voted on by the audience. At the conclusion of the season the most popular film-maker will be awarded a million dollar movie contract. Getty will provide the competing filmmakers with a custom library of Getty Images Footage clips each week.
