PictureArts Goes Away . . .
Stock Asylum Staff Report
February 16, 2006
Updated February 20, 2006
The PictureArts name, which once stood for a well-known stock photography
company built by Jeffrey Burke and Lorraine Triolo, has ceased to exist
now that its web site has been turned off in favor of the larger and
faster JupiterImages site.
All PictureArts brands, Foodpix, Botanica, Nonstock, (re)view and Brand X, continue on the JupiterImages web site, said Burke, who is now a senior vice president at JupiterImages. He said Jupiter also will continue distributing other brands like ibid, which have been represented on both PictureArts' and JupiterImages' web sites.
Burke said the transition should be relatively painless for both customers and contributors. He said PictureArts customers can use their current passwords to gain access to the JupiterImages site. "At this point most of the buying traffic has already been moved over to the Jupiter platform," Burke added.
He noted that PictureArts contributors will continue to have access to "back door features," including those that provide sales data.
JupiterImages, which has purchased a number of stock distributors over the past two-and-a-half years, acquired PictureArts from Burke and Triolo last July for more than $63 million.
It is among the first JupiterImages-owned companies to close its own site, Burke said. Others like Comstock, Thinkstock, Photos.com and a number of European brands will continue to operate independent web sites for the time being, Burke noted.
"JupiterImages.com is the platform for the future of this company," he said. Burke added that European versions of the JupiterImages web site will be launched eventually.
In the meantime, Burke added, "We are aggressively going after Getty customers." Getty Images recently ended a subdistribution agreement with PictureArts and removed all PictureArts imagery from the Getty web site.
Burke said JupiterImages customers can now find PictureArts images on the Jupiter web site using the old Getty Images identification numbers.
The company also has told customers that it will honor Brand X royalty-free agreements forged with Getty Images as long as the customers prove they purchased products like "virtual CDs" from Getty. A virtual CD is a group of images similar to the collections that come on CDs and DVDs, but which are kept available for on-demand download at the stock distributor's web site.
Burke also noted that JupiterImages has added about 30 new sales people, some former Getty and Corbis employees, and hired industry veteran Lindsey Nicholson as director of the Creatas and Thinkstock collections. Nicholson has worked at Index, Imagestate and WireImage.
JupiterImages can be found at: http://www.jupiterimages.com
Getty Images is at: http://www.gettyimages.com
