Getty Images shuts agency that marketed photos from amateurs
Last Updated: Tuesday, February 3, 2009 | 6:11 PM ET
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An agency that marketed photos taken by ordinary people or "citizen journalists" for mass media publication and broadcast is shutting down.
Scoopt, owned by the stock photo- and video-distributing giant Getty Images, will stop accepting and licensing submissions on Friday, the company said in an email to contributors Tuesday.
"We remain convinced that there is a demand for this kind of material as part of an editorial product, but for the moment are choosing to focus our energies within Getty Images on our core products in news, sport and entertainment," said the email, which was republished on a number of blogs and news sites.
Getty Images spokesman Molly McWhinnie told CBCNews.ca that today's marketplace is highly competitive.
"I think there's a lot of other avenues out there that people can upload this type of imagery onto and I don't think they necessarily think ... 'Ooh, I want to make money off of it first.'"
She was not sure whether the company had explored options in addition to shutting down the site, such as whether it had tried to find a buyer.
Scoopt was founded in 2005 by Glasgow-based journalist Kyle MacRae, who said he was inspired by the images of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami taken by people who were there.
The agency emerged amid a growing interest in "citizen journalism" and user-generated content such as photos and videos taken by the public, driven by the increasing popularity of digital cameras and video recorders, including those of cellphones.
The agency encouraged members of the public to upload photos and grant it exclusive marketing rights for the photo for 12 months in exchange for 40 per cent of the gross sales price after taxes.
Seattle-based Getty Images bought Scoopt from McRae in 2007. At the time, Scoopt told its contributors that it thought the acquisition was "fantastic news" that would provide "the scale to better market your content to a global media audience."
However, Getty itself has struggled in recent years and agreed to a $2.1-billion buyout from the private equity group Hellman & Friedman LLC in February 2008.
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