There is an interesting article in the current issue of PDN that cites five major threats to Stock Photography. I won’t recite those reasons here, but let it suffice to say that the article’s writer, Daryl Lang, hit the nail on the head in terms of identifying the threats.  Another interesting article in PDN, written by David Walker, provides some insights into how much money some photographers are making through licensing Microstock. It too is worth reading. You can’t have too much information when making business decisions.  PDN’s Website is at: http://www.pdnonline.com.  You have to be a subscriber to the online edition to read the articles. I recommend that you subscribe since PDN seems to be doing a credible job in reporting what is happening in the industry. Current, a subscription to the online edition is worth the cost as it contains articles from PDN’s print publication for November, which is focused on stock photography.

The new president of PACA, Roger Ressmeyer, has offered his comments on the future of stock photography to the members of PACA. That fact is reported at this site’s url: (http://www.stockphotographer.info/content/view/323/92/). Ressmeyer offers an optimistic view of the business while acknowledging that the business has its problems. I have known Roger since he and I served together on the ASMP Board of Directors, almost 20 years ago. Roger went on to become an executive at Corbis and then Getty. He is a very knowledgeable man, and his speech offers more insights into the problems of the business, and it lays out some guidelines for a solution.  I think Roger got it right in his proposed solutions. They tend to support my 12 part series of articles published here on Successful Stock Strategies. However, while Rogers’s ideas are on target, the question is whether the big agencies are listening to him.  Personally, I doubt it. I don’t think Roger can stop the cannibalization of the stock photography business by its prominent players.  I hope he can, but I don’t see how he can.

Don’t get me wrong. I am not predicting doom for stock photographers.  They have been doomed for more than a decade now. The only question is how can they manage to stay afloat. Based upon my recent observations, I’d say that they have to be either shooting unique and creative stock that licenses for big bucks, or they have to be producing low average to better stock in volume to be licensed at low prices. Of course, that is what I said in Successful Stock Strategies. What’s changed?  Only this. The facts are now bearing out my projections.

Am I pessimistic?  No, I am not. I will find a way to make a buck in the game because I do business in addition to doing photography. I do know that I will have to work harder as the market changes. For now, I will stick with my strategy of shooting special images for targeted licensing as rights-protected stock, but as Microstock continues to stab holes in the RF and RM market, I have to think that it is possible that some day I will dump a few thousand good but not great images online to get my share of Microstock revenues. That would be a big change in policy for me, since I have been dead set against RF and Microstock because it is too inexpensive. But, like I said, I do business, and the business is changing rapidly so my plans will be adapted to meet the emerging marketplace. The business has three tiers: high price/low volume, medium price/medium volume, and low price/high volume. Now it seems that the low price/high volume tier is forcing shrinkage in the medium/medium market. It comparable to what Kmart and Walmart did in the retail goods business. It just might be that sensible diversification is having one foot in each end of the continuum of stock photography licensing. I don’t know what I am going to do yet, but I have to do something or else give up on stock shooting. I don’t want to do that, at least not now.

(c) 2006 Richard Weisgrau [contact] [bio]