Stock Image Market Sizing: 2007

Jim Pickerell began his career in 1963 as a freelance photojournalist in the Far East. His first major sale, a Life Magazine cover, was a stock photo of the overthrow of the Ngo Dinh Diem government in Saigon. In 1990, he began publishing Selling Stock, a bimonthly newsletter dealing with issues of interest to stock photographers and stock photo sellers, with particular focus on issues related to marketing stock images. Selling Stock is recognized worldwide as the leading source of in-depth analysis of the stock photo industry. As a result of his many years in the industry and his work with Selling Stock, Jim has an expert understanding of the stock industry, its standard practices and developing trends. in Stock Photography on April 19th, 2007

The Industry Measure (formerly TrendWatch Graphic Arts) has released an update to its popular Stock Image Market Sizing report. The company collected data from graphic arts firms, creative firms, publishers and Internet design and development firms. Some key finding in this report are:

  • In three out of the four marketplaces surveyed, respondents were moving toward single-sourcing of stock images. Among creative firms, the percentage single sourcing rose from 28 percent to 38 percent.
  • In three out of the four marketplaces surveyed, “price of images” is declining as a major factor in choosing a stock image provider. Among publishers, for example, this dropped from 90 percent citing price as a key deciding factor to 82 percent.
  • In the creative markets, graphic designers dominate the rights-managed image market by units (54 percent), but the market by dollars is dominated by ad agencies (43 percent), based on their significantly higher monthly expenditures.

While the report may indicate a slight trend there is still a significant percentage of respondents that look to multiple sources to find their images and where price is still a key deciding factor.

The Industry Measure “Stock Image Market Sizing: 2007″ report is available for immediate PDF download at The Industry Measure eStore online. The price is $995.

Share/Save/Bookmark

Leave a Reply