Getty Ends Agreement with PictureArts . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
August 26, 2005


Jupitermedia has announced that Getty Images will not sub-distribute images from the various PictureArts collections after Dec. 16. The announcement was no surprise. Getty recently terminated other agreements with Jupitermedia-owned stock photography brands.

Jeffrey Burke recently said that JupiterImages wanted to continue the agreement, but understood that Getty might end it. Burke is the former owner of PictureArts and current vice president of product strategy at the JupiterImages division of Jupitermedia.

"They (Getty) are extremely competitive to the point that they make a concerted effort to try to extinguish their competitors," Burke asserted.

Burke added that, in his opinion, Getty will have considerable trouble replacing work from the Foodpix, Botanica and Nonstock collections, all of which are brands of PictureArts.

He noted that Getty currently licenses about 40,000 PictureArts' images. FoodPix, he said, was one of the first independent brands to join Getty's "image partner" program through which Getty represents the imagery of smaller distributors on the Getty Images web site.

In a recent conference call with stock industry analysts, Getty CEO Jonathan Klein said he believes Getty should not support its major competitors by sub-distributing their images. Klein claimed that removing brands like those now owned by Jupitermedia will not hurt Getty Images financially. He said image license buyers rarely search by brand name.

Jupitermedia recently emerged as a major force in stock photography, having purchased a number of stock distributors like Comstock, Creatas, Picturequest, Thinkstock, PictureArts and others. The Darien, CT, company bought PictureArts this summer. The deal closed in mid-July.

 

PictureArts can be found at: http://www.picturearts.com

Jupitermedia is at: http://www.jupitermedia.com

Getty Images is at: http://www.gettyimages.com