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The Picture Industry is getting smaller
This is a picture of the former teaser, before we up-loaed the latest up-dated list of members.
BySylvie FodorFor the first time since CEPIC's foundation, the number of picture agencies represented has decreased.
Although one additional European national association, SAPHIR from France, has joined us this year and the number of Affiliates has remained stable, CEPIC now claims not over a thousand but less than 900 picture sources.
The dramatic loss clearly shows how our industry has been affected by the latest economic crisis, coupled with deep structural changes.
The 2009 - 2010 crisis has hurt more than any other crisis before. Picture agencies revenues were reported to have dropped materially - between 20% and 80%. A number of longstanding picture agencies, such as Grazia Neri in Italy, Hellas Press in Greece and SUPERBILD in Germany filed for bankrupcy or closed .
The shift from print copies to digital copies has significantly reduced the revenues within the industry, while the costs of this transition and digital assets protection remain high. Picture agencies have adapted to the new technologies but at the CEPIC conference, it became evident that there is still no clear view on how to monetise these changes.
At CEPIC, we want to educate our members on these evolutions - this was for example the purpose of the New Media Conference which took place for the first time in Dublin this year. We want to be an advocate of a flexible yet strong copyright infrastructure insuring fair remuneration to content providers. This is ensured by our participation in diverse organisations and forums of discussion : WIPO, IPTC, ICOMP and the Inter-MEDIA group set up by Jean-Marie Cavada within the European Parliament. He reminds us that a free society also means a free media, self-financing and autonomous. Content providers must be able to live from their content.
The complete list of CEPIC's members has been now up-loaded on our website.
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