Luck Changes for Shut-Out VIBE Photographer

Last week we told you about photographer David Anthony's ill-fated shoot for VIBE. To recap: Anthony was photographing 15-year-old skateboarding star Chad Ortiz for VIBE magazine on the same day that VIBE Media Group announced that the entire company was going out of business immediately. Anthony was stuck with the studio bills and no client to pay for the images. What's more, he said he felt so bad for Ortiz and his family that he was considering giving the photos to the skateboarder's agent to use for promotions.

Anthony called us today with an update. Youth marketing agency Fuse approached him with an offer to buy unlimited usage rights to the photographs. They paid five figures — far more than VIBE would have paid for the pictures.

Forecast: Magazine Industry to Recover By 2013

2013? That long? Here's a report from Lucia Moses at our sibling publication, Mediaweek:

The U.S. consumer magazine industry will recover modestly by 2013, but only after falling sharply in the near-term, tamped down by the economic downturn and continued shift of readers and advertisers from print to digital, projects a new five-year forecast.

Between 2008 and 2010, print advertising will plummet 22.8 percent to $9.8 billion before rising 14.3 percent to $11.2 billion by 2013, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2009-2013.

The weakened economy also will continue to take its toll on circulation as consumers forego magazines and more titles shut down. The forecast calls for circulation spending to decline a sharp 8.3 percent in 2009 as shoppers buy fewer copies at the newsstand and cut back on subscriptions to save money.

Dan Winters at Aperture

Dan Winters spoke to a full house last night at The Aperture Foundation to publicize his new book, Periodical Photographs. Winters, who is best known for his editorial portraiture, shared anecdotes about many of the images in the book. Winters also showed some of his personal black and white work and material from his bookmaking process.

When he started out as a newspaper photographer, he says, he treated his news assignments like magazine work; he had grown up with Life and other illustrated magazines and knew that type of image-making was his calling. Winters says he was a "black sheep" in his newsroom years.

Early in his career, Winters says, he identified a "continuous need for portraiture," and worked to create images that transcended any personal style. Instead he focused on delivering "definitive, iconic likenesses" of his sitters using a 4x5 camera to set a more formal tone for his portraiture sittings. A born tinkerer who likes to build his own sets, Winters also said that despite his love of lighting, he has tried to make sure the lighting in his photographs never calls attention to itself, which he thinks leads to more timeless images.

Winters spoke of his great appreciation for the number of lives he has been able to enter and learn about as a portrait photographer, and said his work shooting actors and artists has been the most rewarding because of their shared respect for artistic expression.

To a question from the audience about what it takes to be a successful editorial photographer, Winters responded by talking about the competitiveness of the business, and called on a music industry adage: "You're only as good as your last album."

If the Journalism Business Fails, Who Pays for Photojournalism

Time magazine pop culture columnist James Poniewozik blogged yesterday about what might happen to journalism if the entire business fails.

"What replaces it? And by that, I mean, who pays for what replaces it?" he wrote [his emphasis]. The post outlined several possibilities for who might create, fund and edit reportage in the future. He concluded his post by writing: "I guess all these ideas boil down to one principle: if journalism—reporting, analysis, communicating, whatever you want to call it—takes time, then someone will have to either pay for or donate that time."

There have been myriad discussions recently about what future models for journalism might look like, but not many mention photojournalists directly. It’s interesting to consider where photography fits into these new business models. Is professional photojournalism more or less susceptible to being undermined by "free" photojournalism created by amateurs, hobbyists or people with other means for supporting themselves?

If the journalism business were to fail, would the void left by professional photojournalists be easier or more difficult to fill than the void left by professional writers? Can the photojournalism business find its own means of sustaining itself separate from the models being discussed for the rest of the journalism industry?

New iPhone, New Camera Functionality

This afternoon Apple announced the latest iPhone, the “3G S,” which features a 3 megapixel, auto-focus still camera and new video capabilities. The new auto-focus camera allows users to push on the touch screen to indicate which area of the frame they want the camera to focus on. If the photographer doesn’t select a specific area, the camera will automatically focus on whatever is at the center of the frame. There is also an automatic macro feature for close-up photographs, and the camera can shoot more quickly so users can shoot a sequence.
            The new iPhone’s video camera function allows for landscape and vertical recording, and users can also edit videos quickly right on the touch-screen.
            Various demonstration videos and sample photographs are available at Apple.com, including the above photograph, which illustrates the new camera’s ability to capture images in low light situations.

How Sports Photos Go From Courtside to Greeting Cards

This NBA greeting card product is simple enough: Basketball fans can order customized, printed cards with current photos of players. You can see it in action at nba.com/greetingcards.

Under the hood, it takes a complicated chain of new technologies and licensing agreements to make this product possible—and make it fast. Potentially, a fan can choose a photo from a game they watched last night and have it sent to a friend within about two days. We recently spoke to some of the people behind this print-on-demand technology about how it works.

Bankruptcy Looming for Annie Leibovitz?

Gawker is reporting today that the rental house that sued Annie Leibovitz may be preparing to file an involuntary bankruptcy petition against the photographer. This unusual step could lead to Leibovitz's debts being settled under court supervision. Threatening to make such a filing might be a maneuver to persuade Leibovitz to pay up rather than face bankruptcy.

We put in an e-mail to the rental house, B2Pro (formerly known as Briese USA), to try to learn more. We'll update this post if we learn anything.

A search of public records this afternoon turned up no filings related to Leibovitz in bankruptcy court.

Since our last update in March, there appears to have been no court action on the two outstanding lawsuits against Leibovitz in the New York State Supreme Court. Both suits allege that Leibovitz failed to pay bills for photo-related services.

At the ICP Infinity Awards last week, Leibovitz acknowledged that she's "having some difficult times right now." Earlier this year, Leibovitz offered the rights to all her photographs as collateral for a mortgage.

Source: American Photo and Popular Photography Sold

American Photo and Popular Photography are being sold to a new owner, a source with knowledge of the deal tells PDN.

According to the source, magazine staff were told today that Bonnier Corporation is acquiring five magazines from Hachette Filipacchi Media: American Photo, Popular Photography, Boating, Flying, and Sound & Vision.

In March, Hachette was reported to be shopping the five magazines. Bonnier was considered a likely buyer.

Neither company confirmed the news Monday afternoon. A spokesperson for Bonnier said the publisher "is constantly evaluating possible acquisitions in our strategy to further expand the company" but said "we only discuss such acquisitions if and when those deals are finalized." A spokesperson for Hachette confirmed that the company had received interest from possible buyers for those five magazines, and added, "When we have something to announce, we will issue a statement."

Bonnier is based in Winter Park, Florida, and publishes about 40 enthusiast magazines including Popular Science and Field & Stream. According to the company's Web site, Swedish publisher Bonnier Group formed Bonnier Corp. in 2007 by combining 18 former Time Inc. magazines with titles published by World Publications.

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is based in New York City and owned by the French media company Lagardère.

What Media CEOs Earned in a Year of Layoffs, Part 2

Last month, we posted a list CEO salaries for major media companies. (Please see: What Media CEOs Earned in a Year of Layoffs, Part 1.) We were intrigued by how many CEOs got bonuses and incentive payments while overseeing severe drops in business and mass layoffs. We promised an update once more annual reports had been released, and here it is.

As before, some media companies are prudently suspending bonuses and other executive perks to save money during the recession. But not all. Some of the things we learned:

Kodak Cuts CEO's Salary 15%

In our very popular post on CEO salaries, we singled out Kodak for paying its CEO $8.6 million (including $264,143 in personal aircraft usage) while the company laid off thousands of employees.

Kodak must realize how bad this looks. Yesterday the company announced that CEO Antonio M. Perez will take a 15% salary cut. Other Kodak senior leadership are taking a 10% salary cut and the board of directors will reduce their cash compensation by 10% for the rest of the year.

Kodak is looking to save money wherever it can. All U.S.-based Kodak employees will have to take a week off without pay between now and the end of the year. And Kodak has suspended its stock dividend.

Sales were down 29% at Kodak in the first quarter of 2009 compared to 2008, as the recession resulted in lower demand for almost all categories of imaging products. For all of 2009, Kodak expects digital revenue to decline 6% to 12% and overall revenue to decline 12% to 18%.

We are planning to a follow-up post with more CEO salaries from photo-related companies next week.