In an apparent move to improve their stock prices, Getty images has announced that it will be cutting staff. No numbers have been released but several dozen employees may be out of a job by November. The move comes just in time for the company's third quarter earnings report which is due out October 24.

In a related move, Jupitermedia CEO Alan Meckler almost immediately announced on his blog that Jupitermedia which includes Jupiter Images would welcome anyone from Getty who might be looking for a new home.

Also this past week, Adobe released an update for Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.0 which brings the version to 4.1. The latest update addresses a number of issues that were found after the initial release of version 4.0. More here . 

Spark*y is a new bi-monthly newsletter from Spark, a stock photography industry consulting firm started a year ago by Karen D'Silva and Meg Asaro. According to the Spark website, “Our goal is to eliminate the guesswork for the image-maker by tracking surfacing trends and providing insight on marketplace needs in order to stay ahead of the curve.”

Even at the special introductory price of $1000 for six issues, the price is pretty steep for most individual photographers. However, the first edition entitled Retail Mama, is currently available as a free download.