Steve Smith owns and operates World of Stock , which is headquartered near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. World of Stock is one of the new generation start-up agencies and prides itself on both its customer support and the way in which they treat their international contingent of photographers. Steve even goes so far as to personally answer questions from any of his current or potential contributors.Steve also writes and is a regular contributor to Digital Photographer and other magazines .
Steve graciously agreed to take some time away from his busy schedule to take part in an e-mail interview with Jim Hunter which, was conducted on January 10, 2006.
StockPhotographer.info: Steve, thanks for taking the time to participate in this interview.
Could you tell us something about your background and what led you to found World of Stock?
Steve Smith: I have been an avid photographer for many, many years however my regular job often got in the way of turning it into something more serious. A departure from the bloated and crazy high tech industry a few years ago was the incentive I needed to combine my love of photography with my knowledge of business, the internet and computer applications. Now, when I'm not running World of Stock, I'm out, shooting my own stuff with my trusty 20D , always improving and learning...
SPi: What year did you start World of Stock?
SS: 2003
SPi: How does World of Stock differ from other stock agencies?
SS: I'd have to say in the transparency and closeness with the photographers. I've always tried to keep an open mind to new ideas and answer photographer's questions personally. I also provide feedback to the photographers and expect them to do the same even if they don't always like the feedback. In addition, the photographers get access to a lot of information that many other agencies don't provide.
SPi: How many contributors do you currently have?
SS: 65 with about another 50 or so currently in various stages of pre-approval.
SPi: Are you currently accepting new contributors?
SS: Yes and No. We are currently offering 'Associate Membership' which is basically a limited membership which gets you limited access but you can't submit images whenever you want. Once we get through our current systems expansion we'll pull from that list as we can. Having limited resources we have to manage our growth carefully and ensure we can sustain it and grow the sales at the same time. Soon, I hope to be adding another batch of photographers from our associate list.
SPi: Approximately what percentage of contributors who apply are accepted?
SS: Lately, we're a lot tougher than we used to be. It's probably around 20% or less now.
SPi: Can you tell us a little about your selection process?
SS: Sure. We have a minimum set of things we look for in terms of size of portfolio, image size, quality and format, etc but we also look to fill holes in our library and areas where we know we are weak. I don't want an environment where hundreds of photographers are competing for the same keywords or category.
I also look at how the photographer conducts themselves in their communications with us. If they are impolite, abrupt or overly aggressive that is a sign of potential trouble later. I guess what I'm saying is, it's not just about the images, its about ensuring a productive and cooperative relationship as well...I know there's a bad taste with many photographers when it comes to dealing with agencies and I'm working hard to try to change that.
SPi: What type of contract(s) does World of Stock offer its contributors?
SS: Non-exclusive only. In fact I discourage any photographers from signing exclusives with anyone except for specific images or with the big players. All of our contracts are 2 years in length and includes optional sales through third party distributors.
SPi: What types of licenses do World of Stock offer its customers?
SS: Both RF and RM, no subscriptions. RF images are all available for instant download and RM images have an online price calculator but no instant download.
SPi: What percentage of your images are licensed RM? RF?
SS: RM is something fairly new for us and we are just starting to grow that collection. It currently makes up only about 5% of the total but I expect that will change as new photographers come on board.
SPi: What percentage of your revenues come from RM? RF?
SS: To date we have only had a few RM sales but as I say we have only a small collection. I should also mention all of our images can also be sold through our printing and framing studio as well and this has been a growth area for us in 2005.
SPi: What industry segments do most of your clients come from?
SS: We have a broad segment of customers, however I would say many are small to medium sized businesses in the graphic design and publishing fields, although we've had a few larger clients as well. Lately we seem to be getting a lot of educational type customers.
SPi: What is World of Stock position on releases?
SS: We strongly recommend releases on all recognizable people and property. We designate an image as released or not online and a customer can search by this criteria. We can also flag an image with certain selling restrictions if we feel there may be a risk.
SPi: What is your commission percentage paid to contributors for images licensed direct through World of Stock?
SS: 65% of net direct sales. Less on third party or affiliate sales.
SPi: What percentage of you licensing revenues are direct?
SS: So far 90% plus however I expect that will change going forward.
SPi: What about through third party distribution?
SS: Glad you asked. The reality is I see this as almost a necessity now for small agencies like ourselves. Without getting into details we are in discussions with several distributors and have some agreements in place with some regional distributors for non - English speaking countries already.
SPi: What is the frequency of your commission payments?
SS: Quarterly except by special arrangements on larger amounts.
SPi: How many images does World of Stock have online?
SS: 46,000 +
SPi: How many new images do you receive each month?
SS: Approximately 2000 approved per month. More than that received.
SPi: Does World of Stock accept film or are you completely digital?
SS: We only accept digital through direct upload, FTP or DVD submission. We prefer digital originals however high quality scans can work as well. We expect all images to be captioned and keyworded.
SPi: What type or types of image delivery methods does World of Stock employ?
SS: We ship CDs only rarely by special request. Everything else is downloaded from our server or FTP'd to the client. For prints we work with a couple of different suppliers who deliver direct to the customer.
SPi: Does World of Stock source primarily from individual photographers or other agencies, production companies etc.?
SS: We source solely from individual photographers so in the new scheme of stock photo acquisition and distribution one could say we are more of a 'consolidator' than a 'distributor'.
SPi: What are your primary marketing channels?
SS: Primarily through web based marketing - search engines, email updates with our customers, etc however we sometimes take out ads in some of the better known stock photo guides .
SPi: Have you seen the quality of images improve since you started or have they stayed about the same?
SS: Definitely it has improved. This is due to improvements in technology as well as tightening our edits and photographer requirements.
SPi: What are the most requested subjects at World of Stock?
SS: It's really all over the map. Just when I start to think I've got it figured out our customers throw something completely new at us, which is great...
SPi: Have you seen any changes in this recently?
SS: In some ways yes, more requests lately around children , education, cultural stuff.
SPi: What about future trends in subject matter?
SS: I read the same articles most of us do and provide our photographers with as much guidance as possible. I just recently started a 'More or Less' list, which lists areas where we need more content and areas where I think we've got enough for now.
SPi: What types of images are you looking for at the present time?
SS: Overall I feel we need more high quality lifestyle images with releases. Also certain lesser known locations that other agencies may not cover so much. Its quite amazing sometimes to see how many times photographers shoot the same location or thing. There's a lot of unique stuff out there if we can just think outside the box a little. I'm always impressed when a photographer takes a good look at our library and can suggest areas where they can help us fill in.
SPi: What is the typical price range of images licensed?
SS: Anywhere from $50 to over $1000 for some RM licenses. Average is probably somewhere around $100-120.
SPi: Do you plan on raising or lowering your prices in the near future?
SS: We just raised prices a little. If anything I'd hope to continue to do that as we improve the overall quality of the library.
SPi: What is the typical contributor payment per image licensed?
SS: As above - 65% of net which, would mean on average maybe around $60-70. Can be higher or lower.
SPi: What is your average annual payment to contributors per image listed?
SS: Last year we averaged a little over $1 per image, depending on the photographer. I am sure many will scoff at that but keep in mind, it was only our second full year in business and it was our first year of really starting to develop a customer base. My goal is to increase that going forward of course.
SPi: What do you see as the biggest threats to World of Stock and to the stock industry as a whole?
SS: Well, where do I start? I will speak in terms of general threats to small agencies such as ours, rather than specifically to us.
Overall I agree with some of the experts that say we have a major imbalance towards the supply side in the industry. The same technology which has made our lives easier and allows us to get images to the end customer much faster has lead to a massive amount of new imagery hitting the market in the last few years and I expect with new sub $1000 8 MP+ cameras coming at us now this trend will continue for some time. Some of the industry players unfortunately chose to capitalize on this by bringing millions of images to the market in a very short time, rather than allowing the market to gradually absorb the supply.
Related to this, I am quite concerned about the proliferation and growth of micropayment sites and low priced subscription sites. While I cannot dispute their business savvy and leadership in creating a new, aggressive business model I can't help but feel this will hurt professional photographers over the long run. I mean for serious amateurs it offers a great way to make some money from their work but it sure makes it tough for those that are used to making all or part of their income from stock.
Some have compared micropayment stock photos to downloadable MP3's for $1. The only problem with that logic is that millions of teenage girls are not going to buy a business stock photo to put on their media players.
Other threats include a trend towards more and more locations being off limits without releases as well as continued rise in piracy and copyright abuses in some emerging countries.
SPi: What can be done about these types of threats?
SS: Strangely enough, I see that photographers and agencies, rather than band together to try to counter these threats in a unified way tend to prefer to look out for number one and hold their information very close, rather than discussing openly what to do about it. Rather than come up with alternative ideas and work with the players in the industry many prefer to just hang on ever tighter to their dwindling piece of the pie and squabble amongst each other.
I would love to see an industry wide organization that will establish a 'stamp of approval' of sorts on stock media. You know just like the little 'dolphin friendly' seal on the can of tuna, why can't we have a 'no photographers were forced to sell their work for peanuts' seal on a web page or an ad space? I say some of this with some degree of sarcasm but its a serious issue in need of a serious solution.
SPi: What do you see as future challenges for the stock imagery industry and for World of Stock?
SS: More or less more of what I talked about above.
SPi: How will World of Stock meet those challenges?
SS: I have spent a great deal of time thinking about that exact question. The way I see it is that the middle ground is basically in the process of liquefying. This is where small to medium sized agencies could sell stock for more than the 'micros' and less than the 'megas'. This middle ground will be forced to follow one of two streams - either try to compete with the micro players on volume and lowest price OR try to carve out a piece of the high end pie by creating very high quality, unique content and pushing it into distribution. Given a choice between those two streams I'd much prefer to take the high one.
I think that small agencies like World of Stock may still have a good opportunity to grow if we can attract some more really great talent. I think photographers are really feeling the squeeze right now as many of the bigger players are looking to create more exclusive branded content while the low end continues to saturate the market with a lot of look-alike content. If talented photographers can recognize that its in their long term best interest to not sell their stuff for next to nothing, or to sell out their collections we and others may be able to provide a third option. This third option will be to provide high end content at 'fair trade' prices. Prices that are realistic to both customer and photographer.
That's our best chance to meet those challenges. We have a model and a set of tools now which works well and has room to grow. Now we need to fill it up with some great content that will be in demand by those that are willing to pay for it...
SPi: How have some of the newer technologies affected how you operate?
SS: We are a child of these new technologies really. We have never done anything the more traditional way so I guess it's hard to compare.
SPi: What will be your focus in the coming months?
SS: Attracting some more great talent as well as expanding our reach in the market. My goal now is not to try to out market and/or under price but to become viewed as a high-end supplier of unique images. It's a transformation which is already underway.
SPi: What do you enjoy most about your job?
SS: I know this sounds like a cliché but the thing I enjoy most is when we have a happy client and they tell us so. I also enjoy the camaraderie and relationships with many of our photographers. Oh, and as I am a bit of a computer geek I get pretty excited when we launch an exciting new feature on the website too...
SPi: Which of your accomplishments are you most proud of?
SS: Building a sustainable company and a really cool website from an idea in less than a year and going from 1000 to 44000 images in 2 years...Now as we go into the third year we're continuing to improve all the time. It will always be that way.
SPi: What do you feel you have yet to accomplish?
SS: I would be nice to get a good paycheck at some point, like when I used to work for that big bloated high tech company...Paychecks are always good....
| < Prev |
|---|
