Mira Unveils New Web Site . . .
Stock Asylum Staff Report
June 23, 2005
A new web site unveiled by Mira is just the tip of an iceberg that could
put the rights-managed stock supplier on firmer financial footing.
Creative Eye Chairman John Greim said the new site -- which is part of a deal with a company named ImageSpan -- should reduce costs, improve customer service and create more image sales for photographers.
In addition, Greim asserted, “I think this will attract more photographers to Mira because we are now up there with the big guys in terms of our web package.”
The deal also makes ImageSpan a subdistributor of Mira content under an approach that is uniquely favorable to photographers, Greim said.
The new Mira site is fully e-commerce enabled with 24-hour-a-day download capabilities. It also has "a new pricing interface, smart search and advanced lightbox tools," according to the company.
Though the Mira logo and colors are unchanged, the home page is now considerably wider with much larger images and more room for information about Mira.
Mira rushed the new web site into service because, “We were put in a position where we had to accelerate the process and launch ahead of schedule,” Greim said.
For a brief time, customers coming to the Mira web site found a message that said, “Mira is moving.” The message gave an e-mail address and phone number to use during the transition, but no additional information.
Other than the message, the site was not functioning.
Greim was obviously frustrated by the development, saying he had expected to inform Creative Eye members before unveiling the new site. Creative Eye is the artists’ cooperative that owns Mira.
According to Greim the new site was not yet fully functional when it launched. He said it ran slowly because it was still on a development web server. Only about 75 percent of Mira’s collection had been uploaded. Greim said the site will be moved to a faster server with all the images as soon as possible.
The deal with ImageSpan will improve Mira's marketing in several ways, Greim noted.
First, he said, ImageSpan is charging considerably less than Mira has been paying for web hosting services.
In addition, ImageSpan hired Jeff Shear, a veteran stock industry web site developer, to build the new site. Shear has worked on the Corbis, zefa, Imagestate and Stock Market web sites. Greim said Shear has developed a state-of-the-art site for Mira and ImageSpan.
Finally, he said, ImageSpan will become a subdistributor for Mira. Greim noted, however, that this will be an arrangement unlike any other in the stock industry.
Under the agreement, ImageSpan will market Mira content directly to large stock buyers. ImageSpan is creating software that will make the Mira collection accessible directly through the internal networks of participating companies. Greim said ImageSpan has already signed up one large stock user.
Greim explained that ImageSpan will take 40 percent of license revenues produced through its new channels while Mira will take 10 percent, leaving 50 percent for the photographers.
Many subdistributors today receive at least 50 percent of sales before passing on the ramainder to the primary distributor, which then takes at least 50 percent of that figure before paying the photographer’s share.
Mira will continue to market images directly to buyers, Greim added. Photographers will continue to get 60 percent of these direct sales, he said.
Mira has struggled financially since its bank withdrew a substantial line of credit after the World Trade Center disaster. The setback all but crippled the stock distributor, which almost folded at the time.
The new deal with ImageSpan should go a long way toward helping Mira get back on its feet, Greim said.
Mira can be found at: http://www.mira.com
ImageSpan
will be at: http://www.imagespan.com
