Friday, December 24, 2010

Zoonar strengthens its international partners network


The picture agency Zoonar (Hamburg, Germany) announced the Photolibrary picture agency is the latest partner. Now there are six reselling partners in the company network. In addition to the German suppliers DDP Images, Fotofinder, DFJV and Picturemaxx, the photographers can now also offer their photos via Alamy, AGE/THP and Photolibrary.

As of 24 December 2010, Zoonar offers the photographers a lump-sum share of 60% of all received commissions via the partner network. A brilliant commission in comparison to other international agencies.

Zoonar's CEO Michael Krabs announces the aim of integrating further partner agencies in 2011. "Our aim in the long term is getting 20-30 partners who are extremely well in direct selling." According to Michael Krabs 100 agencies can already be integrated in the selling with the existing partners. The winning of sales networks is very popular in the agency business. 

Though the speciality of Zoonar according to Krabs is "that the photographers own the complete control over their pictures and that they can variously distribute single photos, price segments or license types. Other than that, microstock photos can be integrated in the distribution network".

According to Zoonar's CEO, the sale via the new partner network will mainly start in the first quarter of 2011. That's why they calculate with a considerable growth in sales as of the second quarter of 2011.

All of the above sounds nice. Let’s wait to see how the guys cope with this.

Monday, December 20, 2010

123RF minor interface change for submitting artists


123RF image agency has recently relocated the 'Sell Images' tab to accommodate the webpage appearance.
You may access all Contributor related links by clicking the `Sell Images` link located at the footer of the main page under `For Photographers`.

Well, it seems not as convenient as before, but it does save the page space for the search index bar.

If you are not yet registered at 123RF, you can join the agency here.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Keymaster program changes at Dreamstime



The keymaster program from Dreamstime has been frequently used lately and those using the program might have seen an increase in the pending time for their images to be keyworded. At this point, the images submitted via this program are far too many for the existing keymasters to handle. There is a need to select new members as well as motivate the existing ones to work faster and better. Hence, it was decided to increase the price for this service. The new price is $0.60/file keyworded via this program.

The new pricing structure goes live as of December 15th. All images submitted and/or reviewed prior to this date that are pending for keywording are charged at the old $0.40 price. The price, although increased, is claimed to still be the lowest in the industry.

Dreamstime also points out that the images submitted for re-keywording are now given low priority for keywording. They will be keyworded but the pending time will be longer than that of newly uploaded files.

Monday, December 13, 2010

iStockphoto Now Accepting Contributor Submissions of Editorial Images to be Offered on iStockphoto.com Early Next Year


iStockphoto has announced to its community of more than 85,000 contributing artists that in January it will begin accepting images for use under a new “editorial use only” licensing agreement to be rolled out in early 2011. These images will be available to those needing non-released imagery such as news outlets, publishers, magazines, bloggers and presenters. They will be licensed for use as a descriptive visual reference to a product, place, event or concept.

While all images currently available on www.istockphoto.com can be used for editorial purposes today, they are most commonly used commercially for advertising and promotional materials. This creative type of usage requires contributors to follow a stringent set of guidelines. For example, images of specific products or anything marked with a logo are not allowed, images of people require model releases, and many buildings and landmarks may not be shown.

Because editorial only images may not be used for commercial purposes, they are not subject to the same guidelines. This makes it easier for contributors to provide additional content and provides customers with access to more great imagery.

iStock is currently accepting several types of editorial imagery including:

                  Products
                  Architecture and landmarks
                  Travel and lifestyle
                  Social commentary
                  Urban living

iStock is not looking for time-sensitive news items or images or items that fall within the realm of traditional photojournalism. Contributors looking to submit these types of images are encouraged to contact Getty Images. For more information on submitting editorial content, please visit http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=939.