If you remember, this is continuation from yesterday’s post. Read the comments in that post to get some insight into how some of this readership feels…
Here, I answer my own questions I asked of you.
1)Please fill in the missing word in the title of this post.
My answer to #1) No Surprise.
2)Do you believe this will affect you personally, either as a non-contributor or as a contributor?
My answer to #2) I don’t feel like things will change in the short term. They know they’ll be watched like a hawk, so they’ll lay low, business as usual for some time to come. Plus, steering that big oil-tanker-of-a-company take time and energy.
3)What is the master plan in place here?
My answer to #3)I suspect a master plan is in place. Noting that the purchasing equity firm is invested in some of the largest ad agencies (Y&R;, Digitas) and media companies (The Nielson Company–ironically the owner of PDN Magazine…), and that the equity firm’s strategy in the past has been to “serve as as value added partner”, something big is cooking. Generally speaking I think the consolidation of large media companies benefits only a few, well-positioned groups and hurts most others. And I do suspect a change (however fast or slow, I don’t know…) in the Getty business model toward a more direct plugin of some sort, interfacing closely their mass infrastructure of imagery with big media companies for serving up segmented online advertising. Sure, they’ll still serve all the picture buying masses, but they’re surely looking to cash in on some model that plugs them more directly into the advertising mainline. Why smoke it, if you can shoot it, or perhaps even do both at the same time?
4)Do you care?
My answer to #4) Certainly I care. As as a photographer, an artist, and a business person, it’s foolish to ignore things that will likely evolve the landscape of your profession. How much to care? Not too much. Why? Because it is what it is, and it will be what it will be. I generally apply to the non-alarmist school here. There is wisdom in knowing when to concentrate less on fighting change and more on emerging from change in a stronger position than you were before. It’s a helluva lot healthier and a helluva lot more fun.
