Aaron's got it spot on yesterday!
What's happening with the Writers Guild of America, sadly, cannot happen for us. We have no union. If we did, we would have more power to affect our future, diminishing the capability for media conglomerates to screw us.
Yet, we're screwing ourselves because few of us individually has the fortitude to withstand draconian contracts foisted upon us by major media outlets, who say to us "take it, or leave it, there's a line of suckers down the block willing to sell their soul (or at least all rights) to be a photographer", and we have no recourse.
Let's see, take $25.7M and divide it by $37.3M, and you get just over a 30% drop over 3Q of 2006. From their press release:
Net income for the third quarter of 2007 was $25.7 million...compared to $37.3 million...in the third quarter of 2006.Meanwhile, back at the ranch:
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) totaled $84.0 million...compared to $73.6 million...in the third quarter of 2006.So, you're down 30%, but are still bloated by staff you just couldn't bear to terminate in your previous 'redundancies' layoffs?
"The increase over the prior year is directly attributable to recently acquired companies, the impact of changes in foreign exchange rates and investments that the company is making in areas that will drive future growth."Perhaps those folks are being spared until it's necessary to make Q4 numbers look good, so you'll dump them just before then? Yes yes, I know you've dropped your SG&A by 3% relative to but really, come on!
Revenue growth came from increasing licenses for editorial and micropayment imagery, digital asset management, photo assignments, and publicity distribution. This growth was partially offset by lower revenues in the company's traditional creative stills business.Translation: We've screwed our profitability in creative stills along the way with our roll-up of all the stock photography shops we acquired, and we've seen revenue grown from the penny-ante micropayment images, and with WireImage now in our fold, and us charging $5,000 to cover an event and post images online - a.k.a. "publicity distribution", and pay photographers only $250 and requiring them to transfer copyright to those assignments, that kind of cost-to-profit ratio sure can cover a lot of losses from when we dropped from $500 average online sale to a buffet of $49 for the same thing.
"We have made tremendous progress expanding beyond our traditional creative stills imagery business on our way to becoming a complete digital media company," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer.Translation: We're coming for you next audio and video purveyors. We're going to slash and burn prices there too, just look at what we've done "for" creative stills! You're next!
And so, without further ado, the additional post that accompanies my post about Getty: (With thanks to Chase Jarvis for the heads-up on this video!)
So today I've got duty covering the White House, and travelled from there to a hotel for the President's remarks on healthcare. I then spotted, in use by the AFP staff photographer - a bonafide Nikon D3, and handsome D3 strap!
The photographer seemed pleased, shooting the 24-70mm and 85mm f1.4 on the Nikon, and shooting with his 70-200 on his Canon.
The last event for the day was the President signing the Internet Tax Freedom Act in the Oval Office with a group of Senators and Members of Congress, and there, again, was the D3, hard a work. Some wise philosopher once said "you can never predict the future, only your responses to it."
Indeed.
I consider that one of my axioms.
This isn't to say you can't look to signs that point to, say...the demise of Getty. I almost forgot! Let's start again.
This isn't to say You can't look to signs of what the future will bring, but predicting it? Just be ready to respond.
Man, you can't make stuff like this up! Checking the witching hour at Wikipedia, and you learn "the witching hour is the time when supernatural creatures such as witches, demons and ghosts are thought to be at their most powerful, and black magic at its most effective. " And, lo and behold, the double whammy that is Halloween, followed by the fact that we are at the point where, perhaps, Getty's CEO is wishing for some black magic to come to his rescue, since they announce their 3Q financial results tomorrow, 11/1 - a Thursday, after the bell, just in time for them to get sacked all day Friday - a surefire way for JDK to have a really crappy (and well deserved) weekend. To take a page from storybook television..."When we last checked in with our intrepid executives at GYI (GYI - The Downward Full Court Press Continues) things weren't going so well. And, well, that continues. At that point, GYI was trading at the loftly (relative to now) figure of $31.40, and, Wednesday's close was at $28.93, down a net 8%. If it hadn't been for a late day rally, it would have been significantly more than that. Setting themselves up for a fall again, hmmmm?
Yesterday (and that would be Sunday, as I am writing this) I did a family portrait. It was more for a friend than a straight-up client. (Note - they paid the sitting fee). I said it would be a few days for them to see the files, and they'd be able to see the images online. It was also done at the end of the day - you know- golden hour light. Park setting, creek below, family on a bridge. You get the picture.
So, what do they want?
Ten years ago, if I'd offered to wager a dollar that Blockbuster Video would be struggling now, heck, even five years ago, I'd have had a line of people willing to take my "easy bet". Yet today, against innovators like Netflix, iTunes, and so forth, the concept of going to the video store to get a movie, and then paying late fees, seems antiquated and just silly.
Titans of industry - Pan Am, IBM, and Kodak, are but a shadow of their former selves, or gone. I had to chuckle at the repeated presence of Kodak and Fuji hawking film at this past year's PhotoPlus Expo. They're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic.
What of previously "hot" photographers? One I recall in particular was photographer Aaron Jones, aka The Hosemaster.
. 
that I wrote about back in June (" Go Jimmy Lo", 6/27/07), and is now available. (Check the link from June for some amazing videos that are essentially a prologue to the book).Do you know who your target audience is? Who it is not?
Every so often, I get inquiries about nude/boudoir photography, and I don't do that type of work, for several reasons. However, I do know of an exceptional person who does, and I refer them to my friend/colleague. On occasion, usually in the Spring, I get a call or two asking if I do senior portraits - I do not. Again, I refer these folks to someone I know. Unless you're a boudoir or senior portrait photographer, the above are probably good examples for you too of the type of work you also don't do. From this point, it's about refining your message even further.
