No Omelettes here

March 23, 2008 by pmelcher.

Here are a few of the most recent press release spins that I appreciated the most:

Picapp: Seems every time Picapp sends a press release, everyone picks it up. Hard to avoid anything photo and non photo related without a mention of Picapp this week. The news ? not much, if only to mention that news images have been added. Not sure if it is really news. The web 2.0 community seems lukewarm about this ad supported service while the photo community has no opinion, most still trying to figure out the difference between a Jpg and Tiff.

Seems to be a few issues: Why put in just pro content like Getty ? At a time when even Getty suffers from crowdsourcing, does it make any sense ? Why can’t I put up my images and make money on it on my blog or any other blog ? Do I really need to go through an agency and give up 60% of my earnings ? And why keep on claiming to have Corbis content when the only pictures from Corbis are a few old images of Bill Gates or one of Gary Shenk at a Hollywood podium ? And finally, why no mention of Jupiterimages, Imagesource, Thinkstock and all the others that apparently Getty has dragged into this experiment?

And what’s with the funny, cutesy cartoonish interface ? Sure, one can use a recent image of the Iraqi war, along with a insightful commentary, only to have some little guy’s face playing hide and seek with the image. I do not think serious blogs will appreciate that.

Finally, still wondering why a company that has been in the image tracking and infringement business for many years has now turned around into a licensing platform ? Is this the long arm of their Picscout business ? Look, we caught you in a copyright infringement. Next time use Picapp !! A bit as if a cop would stop you for speeding and try to sell you a speed radar detector.

Photoshelter : A bit less effective with their press releases than Picapp but still able to travel way beyond the photosphere. Changed their interface. Made it all green, not sure why. No pricing for blog usage but the closest I got “web. newspaper” told me $135. But what is with this 1/4 screen, 1/2 screen , full screen question when trying to figure out the pricing for a blog or any web usage . And this 1 week, 2 weeks , 1 month ? One would have thought that for such an internet savvy company, they would not have applied print usage standard for the web. This is not 1994 anymore…

Anyway, under cover of a redesign, another blog launch ( they have 2 now) and added features to the Personnal Archive, Photoshelter changed they contributors agreement to give themselves the right to grant discounts to image buyers . Recently launched, the Photoshelter Collection is already offering discounted prices…It is going to be hard to keep high rates. Using Fotoquote as a billing tool might not have been the best choice. They now have to face the reality of the market and the wake up call is harsh.

Remenber, Getty and others, sell images for web usage for either $49 or free ( if you use Picapp). At $135 a pop, they are not really competing hard. So let the discounting start !!!!

Jupiterimage: Great spin !! “a transition year” says their press release. You have to love that !!. Isn’t a growing company always in a “transition year”, every year? Transition from what to what exactly ? and that “write-down of goodwill and intangible assets” of $82 million. Much much better then the Corbis legendary ” If you do not include our one time expenses, we are profitable”.

and what happened to the celebrity offering promised in September 2007 ?

Posted in No sense, Search, license, technology, web 2.0, finance, getty, corbis, transaction, Royalty free | Print | No Comments »