August 6, 2007 by pmelcher.

Why is that ?: Corbis decision to launch SnapVillage after firing 160 employees makes as much sense as Ford Motor company launching a fast food franchise. Who at Corbis decided that creating a new business was a good idea when they have yet to post a profit from the “old” one ( you know, the traditional licensing one)? Does that mean that it will cannibalize their losses ? At least they can take comfort in the recent events at Getty and for once, claim they were ahead of the game.
A quarter more: Getty’s decision to go multimedia is a dangerous one. Those who see photography as the smaller sister of video, as the one with no arms, could have been the same as those who said that photography is the mature sister of painting and drawing. Video is not the evolution of stills and the two are as far apart as photography and drawing. It is a common misconception to believe that photography is just video with no sound or movement and one that leads to fatal mistakes. Furthermore, I did not read, in all the Getty quarterly report commentary, anyone questioning its approach to consumer based revenue. Although I did write a post about this a while back, it seems that Getty is stepping in the field of some of its customers and will become competition to them.

Will Corbis announce same ?

It also very interesting to read commentaries who declare that the Seattle based company with the CEO that is moving to New York will save $20 million a year thanks to the lay off. But how much will they loose ? Does that mean these people where not generating any revenue at all ? At least some cashed in their stock before the announcement.
Other tidbits from the financial media where also of interest, like this one on Forbes, talking about Getty bright outlook: “However, Ashley said Getty still remains the dominant player in the industry and has an attractive business model, since most of its images are owned by independent photographers and are created at their expense.” For one, this is the business model of all photo agencies, and second doesn’t that also mean they can leave at any time ?

Finally, no one should rejoice on Getty’s hardship. To paraphrase a French saying about Renault, If Getty sneezes, the whole industry gets sick. Maybe this guy can help Jonathan Klein raise his profits margin…

Posted in editorial, corbis, getty, Royalty free | Print | No Comments »

August 2, 2007 by pmelcher.

Getty Images released its second quarter revenue. Not too good. A few 100 people will pay for that by loosing there jobs. Apparently traditional RM is hurting due to, according to Jonathan Klein, a move toward text based advertising. This opens the door for everyone else to post declining revenues even if the reasons are elsewhere. Think Corbis. Besides continued increase in Microstock revenues, without admitting cannibalization openly, an a growth in editorial once again fueled by acquisitions ( mediavast) there are a couple of items of importance:

- The push towards B2C. Probably under pressure from shareholders not understanding why Getty does not capitalize on the successes of Flickr and other UGC based platform, Jonathan Klein warns of an upcoming launch. (think http://www.viewimages.com/).

- The push towards music licensing. Will we soon see the launch of a micromusic website in the spirit of Istockphoto? Dirt cheap music clips for your sideshows and other web based multimedia.

- The push towards video. Probably the most important news of this report: “In fact, soon all of our photographers will be covering news and entertainment with video cameras and will also be wired for sound.” said Klein. Getty is going all Mutlimedia with probably the intend of capture stills from video if necessary. That is very interesting news and might announce a major shift in the editorial market.

Posted in photojournalism, flickr, editorial, corbis, Royalty free, getty, Microstock | Print | 1 Comment »