NEW YORK, NY (September 11, 2008) – PhotoShelter CEO Allen Murabayashi announced on the company's Web site today that they are shutting down their stock photography licensing business and "getting back to our roots," meaning they will concentrate their efforts on photographers' personal archives.
In a PhotoShelter blog, Murabayashi wrote, "There was a single moment for a company to capitalize in stock photography, and Getty took it. ... and Getty is far too aggressive (and smart) to allow secondary players to displace them in any fashion."
Murabayashi's comments came under the heading "Stock Photography is a slow growing market dominated by a single player."
PhotoShelter says they will close The PhotoShelter Collection on October 10, 2008. The company says photographers will be paid for any sales that take place between now and closing.
The company's statement says that going forward, they will concentrate on their original product - backup storage an electronic commerce capabilities for photographers to manage sales online.
PhotoShelter collection was started one year ago and offered photographers a 70/30 revenue split. Murabayashi had been with HotJobs.com until 2001 when he met Jason Burfield and Grover Sanschagrin, founders of SportsShooter.com, and the trio developed and launched PhotoShelter.
In other stock agency news today, Corbis announced the cutting of another 175 jobs and a trimming of the executive staff. Seattle-based and owned entirely by Bill Gates, Corbis had already cut more than 250 jobs in two rounds of layoffs in 2007.
