Exclusive Images from Getty . . .
Stock Asylum Staff Report
October 25, 2005
Getty Images will try to tap into the high-end celebrity and editorial
markets with a new product that offers exclusive, high-quality imagery.
Exclusive by Getty Images, is essentially a new area on the Seattle stock photography company's web site that requires special registration.
Images in the Exclusive section are specially-chosen, high-quality work in four categories -- celebrity portraits, with images from recent photographic sessions; portraits archive, with older celebrity images; reportage features, with in-depth photo essays; and editorial specials, with unique news, sports and entertainment imagery.
Getty Images says the new service will help publications differentiate themselves from the competition with exclusive imagery. The company did not release pricing.
According to Getty, the images will be created by top professionals like Tom Stoddart, Lorenzo Agius, Polly Borland, Julian Broad and others.
Celebrity imagery can be a high-ticket item. A number of companies like WireImage and Retna are apparently doing very well selling photographs of the famous. Reuters Pictures also has a large entertainment section.
However, to date, many of the big-money images are not the high-quality portraits that Getty is touting. Famous people caught in naughty situations or at huge weddings and parties, seem to be where the real money is at. The tabloids compete for such exclusives with wide-open checkbooks.
Getty's new approach certainly has more class, but it is not clear how big a market exists in this area.
Other companies also offer in-depth news features, most notably zReportage at Zuma Press. Unfortunately, the photo-essay mostly died when magazines like Look and Life stopped publishing. It will be interesting to see if this kind of feature can find a significant audience in the digital age.
Exclusive by Getty Images is at: http://www.gettyimages.com/exclusive
WireImage is at: http://www.wireimage.com
Retna is at: http://www.retna.com
zReportage is at: http://www.zreportage.com
