Garth Johnson Joins Fotolia
Posted by Lee Torrens
Fotolia have recruited their second ex-iStockphoto executive in as many months after having just appointed Garth Johnson as SVP of North America.
Last month they announced iStockphoto co-founder Patrick Lor as Fotolia President of North America. Today it’s iStockphoto’s former VP of Business and Community Development who joins Fotolia’s rapidly growing crack team in North America. Garth has been out of the industry since leaving iStockphoto last June in search or more entrepreneurial opportunities.
Garth’s community development responsibilities at iStockphoto included the development of the popular iStockalypse shooting events – the above photo is Garth interviewing me at the Buenos Aires iStockalypse last March.
The great news for microstock contributors in this announcement is that Fotolia have emphasized that Garth’s new role will involve advocating for Fotolia contributors. Fotolia doesn’t enjoy the same confidence among their contributors as their competitors, making Garth’s experience and skillset a valuable addition.
Fotolia have been busy so far this year:
- Raised prices
- Lowered commission to fund marketing, technology and human resource growth
- Added an RF exclusivity option (not just image exclusivity)
- Introduced microstock video
- Launched the large free photo site PhotoXpress
- Recruited Patrick Lor
They’re clearly working hard to increase their position in the market and, as a recent statement said, “gaining on the industry leader”. Not wasting any time, Garth and five of his new colleagues are currently on their way to the CEPIC conference in Germany where Patrick Lor will be speaking.
Now that Garth’s appointment is public he’ll be able to update his LinkedIn profile and Facebook profile to reflect his new position. The iStockphoto tatoo on his arm may prove a little more painful to update. 
Welcome back to the industry Garth.
Posted June 3rd, 2009 by Lee Torrens
BWAHAHAHA Does he really have an Istock tattoo? This is why tattoos are fail!
Yeah, he does.
I believe that industry execs shuffles are always good as they usually pump new ideas and give opportunity to the company to do some good changes.
At the end it will be beneficial for both customers and contributors.
All the best to Garth for his new challenging assignment.
Antonio D’Albore
hopefully he’ll find a way to make fotolia more contributer friendly.
hope things will get better at fotolia
it’s my second best seller already
about Fotolia many things can improve and certainly one is very important and getting more importance everyday once lots of contributors suffer from that, credit cards fraudulent, which take a lot of money from contributors..
when we got stolen by a thief our bank solves the problem and give us the money, why don’t fotolia assume that problem?? does that money go back to the bank or person card??? what also happened to their 70% commission?? this a very open question to the all contributors.. i really don’t know if this actually happens in other agencies, i just know this because FT was my first stock agency..!
cheers Garth
Luis, all agencies treat credit card fraud the same. Dreamstime previously absorbed the entire cost, letting contributors keep our commission, but it became too costly. The agencies all pay their portion of a fraudulent sale back to the bank too, not just us contributors.
But don’t worry, there’s plenty of other reasons to pick on Fotolia without this one.
thanks nice to know that dreamstime keep it, but for how long?? it just microstocking, shrinking…
but we need to survive..! about FT i have got nothing to say, the rejections are normal and its ok, other think is a lot of views and little sales…!
cheers