Pocketstock CEO to slow the growth of subscription by trying to stop Shutterstock’s upcoming IPO

Sept. 12, 2012 - PRLog -- With a long history, which spans over 25 years, in the stock photography sector as both a contributor and business owner, he fears for the future of the industry and has decided that it’s time to organize a fight back. He has brought on board Social Placement (http://www.social-placement.com/cast), who have extensive campaign experience, to help drive 2ten through the photography community, social media and to key industry influencers.  

2ten has a simple campaign request: support a fair deal for contributors.

Prices have dropped so low that the seven leading subscription agencies are selling images for an average of 31 cents each and according to Russell Glenister, “that’s before further ad hoc discounts. One of the Subscription Mafia7, as I call them, has been offering images for 20 cents each, plus they’ll throw in an extra $750 worth of free images for good measure. That’s not only crazy, it’s an absolute slap in the face to those that own the material and whose income depends on it”.

So where will this lead and what’s the plan?

Step one is to try put a stop to Shutterstock’s IPO by planning a new image boycott to coincide with the IPO launch date or until they agree to do something about their low average price per sale.

“Shutterstock are more vulnerable to any kind of subscription boycott by contributors”, stated David Angell of Social Placement, “because they rely almost totally on subscription sales.”

“I want to get enough of the contributors that help make Shutterstock most of their profit, to get behind the 2ten campaign. If support is strong it should pave the way to a much fairer deal for contributors, by forcing agencies to stop selling new, valuable content for less than $2 for the smallest file size and $10 for the largest - which is the ultimate aim”, Glenister explained further.

Step two is to get the other six leading subscription agencies to fall into line and finally he plans to galvanize support from the design and advertising industries. “All creative industries are feeling the pinch, but when those guys who buy images for 30 cents next go to Starbucks, or wherever they buy their coffee, I’d like them to think, ‘do I value my coffee more than I value the images I buy through stock for my campaigns?’” Glenister added.

If you are a stock contributor you can pledge your support by signing up (http://www.pocketstock.com/2ten/sign-up) and find out more at a specially created campaign page at Pocketstock (http://www.pocketstock.com/2ten). Image buyers will be able add their support at a later stage.

Press Contact Marianne Winther 

+44 (0)20 7704 1633 

Marianne (at) Pocketstock (dot) com
www.pocketstock.com