31 Oct 2008 This Month in Microstock – October 2008

This was a massive month for all sectors of the stock photo industry with each major traditional agency and each microstock agency included in the action. Mergers, rate cuts and closures – there appears to be very little confidence in the traditional sector of the market in this financial climate.

Microstock News

iStockphoto parent company Getty Images announced a merger with StockXpert parent company JupiterImages for $96million USD.

Citing rising competition from microstock and economic factors, Corbis announced a 10% cut in royalty rates for Rights Managed contributors.

Digital Railroad, a backup and ecommerce platform for photographers, closed down suddenly after announcing staff cuts and the need for further funding earlier in the month.

Fotolia stopped paying for new referred contributors via its affiliate program, didn’t tell their affiliates, and deactivated a portion of active referrals.

iStockphoto signed a deal with label giant Avery to provide a selection of free images and discounts for credit purchases at iStockphoto.

Shutterstock passed the milestone of 100,000 editorial images and BigStockPhoto started accepting editorial submissions.

Dreamstime pre-announced a partnership to sell greeting cards featuring stock photos via MySpace.

StockXpert images became available for pay-per-download via Photos.com at all sizes, not just extra large.

Crestock got back into the competition game with a MacPro and massive 30″ cinema display on offer.

Jupitermedia announced the User Generated Content Expo and Conference (UGCX) in San Jose next February.

The MSG community said farewell to our friend The Miz.

Microstock Press

Dan Heller returned from a blogging sabbatical with a massive post providing insights into the future of stock photography and the consumer.

Kelly Thompson took time out from his vacation down under to appear on Sky Business News Australia, receiving some flack from friends and colleagues for being portrayed as CEO (he’s actually COO).

The inimitable Paul Melcher retold the history of stock photography portraying traditional pro stock photographers as parasites and concluding that microstock is returning the passion to stock photography.