Oxfordshire, UK, October 10, 2006 - Alamy is reducing charges to contributors outside of Western Europe and North America by 10 per cent.

It is discontinuing the differential zoning scheme that was part of the commission structure introduced by the company at its launch in 2000.

Alamy CEO James West explained: "We were uncertain at launch whether our business model would be sustainable at 35 per cent, so we put in some protection by charging a higher commission (45 per cent) to contributors from parts of the world where there was less competition to reduce commission."

But the success of the company, which has been in profit since 2004 and is seeing double digit growth, means that it is no longer necessary to continue with the scheme.

"Alamy has proved that it is possible to run a profitable stock photo agency that returns the lion's share of the sale back to the photographer," said West. "We'd like to level the playing field for picture creators all over the world and stimulate the supply of local content from emerging markets."

The company sees an increasing proportion of its revenues in the future coming from photographers selling content into their local markets, especially in China and India.