May 20, 2009 by pmelcher.

“ITN’s shareholders have reportedly held detailed discussions to sell a majority stake in the News at Ten and Channel 4 News producer to Getty Images, the international picture agency.

Getty Images, founded by Mark Getty, grandson of J Paul Getty, and the former banker Jonathan Klein in 1995, “is an enthusiastic bidder for a majority stake in the commercial broadcaster”, according to a report by the former FT and Times media correspondent Ray Snoddy, published in the latest edition of the Royal Television Society’s monthly journal, Television. It is not clear if the talks are still ongoing.”

Read more here

Seems Getty is going all out video stock in order to escape the declining photo market.

Posted in technology, web 2.0, wire service, transaction, getty | Print | No Comments »

May 20, 2009 by pmelcher.

Like a tree that falls in the forest and no one is present to hear it fall. Did it make any noise ? The war in Sri Lanka, is it even happening ?

War photographer Don McCullin reflects in the Times ( UK) how the war in Sri Lanka has become another example of how governments manage to  shield themselves from word opinion by blocking photographers to do their jobs. As the USA, along with other countries, continue to loose daily newspapers and reduce staff and cost, so goes the truth in information. It is slowly vanishing. Trust me, if a news outlet would offer $100,000 for any valid images coming out of Sri Lanka, there would have be hundreds of photographers. But why risk your life for $200? or less. Why bother getting arrested or wounded for your images to end up as a few frames in a bland daily wire feed ?

It is just not governments that have succeeded in hiding the truth. Corporations like Getty Images, by applying their “burned grounds” pricing policy, are they accomplices. They have rendered the job of photojournalist unsustainable for individuals. Thus, making it unrewarding to try and capture the images that make us learn.

Citizen photojournalisms, the buzz of  2008, cannot help here, as the victims cannot be observers in their own tragedy. And even if they did, they would have a hard case in getting those images out. Only a pro could have brought us back compelling images.

As McCullin writes, ” I am 74 now and I have been watching this conflict in Sri Lanka unfold with the same horror I felt 50 years ago. We cannot afford to be shielded from what people do to each other in war.”

Thanks Will !

Posted in photojournalism, newspaper, technology, wire service, finance, news, editorial, getty | Print | No Comments »