Photoshelter Closes Collection + Corbis Cuts Jobs

9/11/2008 02:10:00 PM

Today Photoshelter announced that, beginning October 10, 2008, they will no longer be licensing stock images. Major bummer for the industry. I'm currently in NYC, so I'll try to connect with Allen and Grover to pass along well wishes over a stiff drink...

Accompanying that news, Corbis today announced that they've cut a bunch of jobs and trimmed spending. Ouch.

In looking for a silver lining amidst today's news, Photoshelter will refocus their resources and continue to enhance and grow their Personal Archive feature that allows for bi-coastal, bulletproof backup of your images. That's a good thing. Consider also that, although Photoshelter has pulled the plug on Shoot! The Blog, the witty and charming blog stewardess, Rachel Hulin, is spinning off another blog of the same flavor. Tune into her - she's great.

Condolences to our comrades.

--



15 Comments:

Anonymous lady said...

Argggggh. I JUST put my stuff up there.

2:42 PM  
Blogger Jim Goldstein said...

Sad news indeed. I think they would have gained a bit more traction with a little more time. The tools made available were quite good it just needed some fine tuning. Hopefully they keep what they've made and relaunch sometime in the future.

With a soft economy marketing departments are always impacted negatively. Resulting in image buyers with pinched budgets and smaller projects. With out a doubt this either has had or was projected to have an impact on Photoshelter. Not much of a surprise with Corbis. I would expect many of the larger stock firms to begin cutting back as the economy weakens.

Lets hope the economy turns around in the near future.

2:57 PM  
Anonymous mark r said...

i haven't had much contact with photoshelter but it is sad to see Shot the Blog! ending, it has been an interesting read. Look forward to Rachel's new blog.

as a designer i will reiterate the above comment, the economic crunch continues to trickle down. it is quite a shame that this seems to affect the artistic community a bit more quickly as businesses are tightening their collective belts and cutting back on advertising and collateral. looking forward to brighter days indeed.

3:02 PM  
Anonymous Richard Cave said...

absolutely gobsmacked!

I look forward to upoading my images to photoshelter. I am shocked that I will lose sales. This is the second site that I have lost.

This is was a good site as it was not ripping off the photographer. Now I am stuck for an outlet, this belt tightening has hit us all.

When I recieved the email of allen I was so upset.

Photoshelter was the best company for photographers. Micro stock sucks the fat one.

Now stuck for what to do now?

Rich

I am now officially looking for work.

4:26 PM  
Anonymous Trevor said...

Chase,
If your buying drinks, I could use one with this news today.

Sad Day,

Trevor

4:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Its such a shame that the senior Corbis management is digging the grave for that company. It use to be one of the best and brightest in the industry. Now, its a turd rotting in the setting sun.

5:08 PM  
Blogger Eric Schmiedl said...

Yeah, it sucks. But as the saying goes -- "you pays your money and takes your chances." I don't know about the rest of you, but being part of PSC taught me a lot about the industry.

Chase, on some level it's too bad you never joined in the PSC party while it was still running. Your work would have fit the collection well. On the other hand, sticking to the established players and not wasting time on what we now know to be a bust is the kind of business sense the rest of us should probably learn from.

9:15 PM  
Blogger billsallans said...

I felt like I got punched in the gut when I heard the news. I really feel like the PSC was such a good deal for photographers and a huge step in the right direction for creating a sustainable system for the industry. Hopefully in the future photographic community can do a better job of demanding what is right and do a better job of supporting the people(photoshelter) who are supporting them.

I am glad that Rachel is continuing on and the Archive is still going strong.
It was good while it lasted.
Bill

12:07 AM  
Blogger Liza said...

Why did they only give it a year? Why didn't they sell it?
It was Chase's speech that inspired me to try PSC.

But hey they tried, we were all very excited but now we just have to try somewhere or something else.

Wonder how stable tomato farming is.

Chase keep up the great work.

10:42 AM  
Blogger Liza said...

It was Chase's speech that inspired me to try PSC.

Why did they only give it a year? Why didn't they sell it?


But hey they tried, we were all very excited but now we just have to try somewhere or something else.

Wonder how stable tomato farming is.

Chase keep up the great work.

10:44 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Competition with microstocks is too tough. People are cheap and most images I've seen on microstocks are good. Sorry to say it was bound to happen and honestly I think microstocks are ticking time bombs about to go off. Lots of photographers will be out of work in the future... I'm against microstock and the new subscription plan did it for me. Lots of micro photographers will be screwed because of this. Currently, I'm looking elsewhere to make a living. I wish everyone luck.

3:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Why do you say that microstock will leave a lot of people out of work in the future, the market changes and is a matter of supply and demand based on Maslow's Pyramid for needs, the needs were there they just gave it a new approach that the client took advantage of, so there will always be a need for RM and RF images if you specialize in RM you can still make a lot of money.

I dont think microstock will go out soon there is a huge community behind it. Ill give it at least several more years.

Jut my two cents.

6:47 PM  
Anonymous Nathanael Gassett said...

I had just started used the PSC last week, and had been keywording up a storm. Sad to see it go, as I thought it was a great community and a fair business. They had a great education base, and that's probably what I loved most about it. I don't consider the time I put in to it a waste for that reason alone. I learned.
Out looking again now, and man have I got a lot of contributor agreements to read.

_Nathanael

7:54 PM  
Blogger observer said...

The general standard of image was dreadful and they got what they deserved....they gave false hope of stardom to rank amateurs....frankly PSC didn't have a clue.

2:11 AM  
Blogger Photophix said...

Wow thats crazy. Fyi i featured you on my blog.
http://photophix.blogspot.com/

11:30 AM  

Post a Comment


<< Home