Monthly Archives: April 2009

PantherMedia (panthermedia.net), the leading and rapidly growing marketplace for royalty-free photography, today announced that the agency will offer its over one million images also at microstock price levels and invites new photographers to participate in the new microstock offering. PantherMedia introduces also “credits” for single image sales and a flexible image subscription plan which is optional for photographers.
The outstanding feature of the new image subscription plan: it is not based on the “Images-per-Day” model like elsewhere, but on the new “Credits-per-Day” model. This allows picture buyers to scale the subscription plan to their individual needs.
Besides the purchase on credits or via the subscription plan, the purchase of single images on invoice will remain. “PantherMedia is by far the biggest native German mid- and microstock agency”, explains Robert Walters, CEO of PantherMedia. “We pursue a strategy of sustainability and fairness. In the future, photographers will only keep on delivering high quality images if they are treated in a fair and respectful manner and earn appropriate money.

New Microstock Offering From PantherMedia
Depending on the resolution the prices for images for web use will start in the very near future at $1,90, $2,90 and $4,90 (all excluding VAT). These images can be purchased on invoice (single image purchase) or through so-called credits. Credits can be bought in different packages and sizes. This way, the image buyer can instantly download images and does not need to use the shopping cart or to pay single invoices any longer. A comprehensive overview about Panthermedia´s new microstock offering for photographers can be found here:
www.panthermedia.net?contributornews

New Credits-Per-Day Based Image Subscription From PantherMedia
In contrast to almost all other microstock agencies which offer a fixed amount of images for a fixed period of time for a fixed price (so-called “images-per-day” or image-based subscription model) and consequently pay their photographers only a few cents per image, PantherMedia has created the new Credits-per-Day image subscription plan.
This new image subscription plan guarantees a potentially higher commission for photographers as well as a flexible subscription plan for image buyers which can now configure individual packages which fit their needs.
“This way PantherMedia guarantees that photographers do not only receive very few cents per image sold. The full revenues of the Credits-per-Day image subscription plan will be shared with our photographers equally. Our priority is clearly a win-win-situation for photographers and image buyers”, explains Robert Walters.
Also in contrast to nearly all other microstock agencies, the participation in PantherMedia´s new Credits-per-Day subscription is optional for photographers. “We are very happy that over 95% of our photographers have decided to offer their images in our new Credits-per-Day subscription. A clear sign of acceptance and trust”, added Robert Walters.
PantherMedia´s new Credits-per-Day subscription starts at $75 net per month.

PantherMedia Welcomes New Photographers
PantherMedia’s new microstock offering and the new Credits-per-Day image subscription plan are currently open for all existing as well as for new photographers of the stock agency.

The new microstock offering and the new Credits-per-Day image subscription plan will be available for images buyers from the end of April 2009.

About PantherMedia
PantherMedia is a marketplace for royalty free (RF) photography. Suppliers as well as buyers of commercial and editorial imagery meet on one shared platform consisting of a photocommunity for photographers and a stock agency for image buyers.
The photocommunity serves as the creative heart of the image marketplace. Professional photographers and shutterbugs from all over the world can upload, rate and comment on images. They can share their experience, further develop their photographic skills and showcase their artistic potential.
After a legal and qualitative check through PantherMedia, picture editors chose adequate images for the stock agency. Agencies, publishing houses and enterprises which need images can licence photographs for their individual purposes – either as single images or through a flexible subscription plan.
The revenues will be shared with photographers. This novel business model allows through so-called „User Generated Content“, provided by over 20,000 photographers worldwide, to keep the offer of RF-images far below the average market price.
PanterMedia.net is an enterprise of PantherMedia GmbH with headquarters in Munich, Germany and was founded in October 2004. At present, PantherMedia offers more than 1 million images worldwide directly and via an international network of over 90 distribution partners in 36 countries. Twelve employees are working on the success of this business. During the FounderChampions competition of the 25th German Days of Founders and Entrepreneurs PantherMedia represented the Federal State of Bavaria as the best bavarian Start-up.

Concurrent Launch of Major New Version of Industry-leading OpenX Ad Server
Seamlessly Integrates with OpenX Market

OpenX Technologies, Inc. (OpenX), the world’s leading independent ad server for web publishers, today announced the launch of OpenX Market (Market), a groundbreaking new online marketplace that is the first simple and neutral advertising platform for all classes of buyers and sellers. The company also announced OpenX Ad Server 2.8, a major new version of the company’s globally adopted technology that provides seamless integration of the ad server with OpenX Market, thereby making it extremely easy for publishers to participate in the Market. Given that OpenX’s vast publisher base of more than 150,000 websites flows more than 300 billion impressions through the company’s software monthly, the company believes that the potential to rapidly scale the Market is great. At launch, OpenX Market already has a monthly run rate of more than one billion impressions.

OpenX Market is designed to help publishers maximize revenue and to help advertisers much more easily reach their target audiences across large numbers of publishers. Publishers can easily route any or all of their ad impressions into the OpenX Market through tools now completely integrated into OpenX Ad Server. Publishers define a minimum “floor” price for their ad impressions. OpenX Market then runs a real-time auction for each impression. If the winning bid from the auction is higher than the publisher-set minimum price, the higher paying ad is served and the publisher makes more money. If the winning bid is less, the publisher’s original ad runs. The entire approach is designed to maximize publisher revenue with zero risk. Advertisers benefit by having a simple way to buy across the potentially enormous pool of primary inventory available from OpenX’s publisher base.

“Historically, the online advertising market has been fractured, opaque, hard to participate in and therefore inefficient. In particular, mid-sized and smaller publishers lack the ability to reach a broad set of advertisers. Conversely, advertisers see lots of value in niche sites and audiences, but find it very hard to discover and buy those sites and audiences.” said Tim Cadogan, chief executive officer, OpenX. “The OpenX Market is all about making these connections simple, seamless and scalable. We have listened extensively to our very large global community of publishers and have developed the Market specifically to overcome these inefficiencies by providing all classes of publishers and ad buyers with a unique monetization platform that we believe will create enormous value for both.”

OpenX Market – Benefits for Publishers & Advertisers

Aggregating and structuring historically fragmented inventory is an important way that OpenX Market will help to transform online advertising and significantly benefit both publishers and advertisers.

OpenX Market enables publishers large and small to maximize their advertising revenue by selling their inventory via a simple to use marketplace where all classes of buyers bid for each impression in a real-time auction.

Publisher Benefits:
Revenue maximizing
Simple
Publishers can participate with just the click of a button
Publishers receive one consolidated check at the end of the month from OpenX
Zero risk
Fast
Neutral
OpenX Market enables buyers to define and buy ad inventory based on their unique criteria across a vast pool of diverse, primary inventory.

Advertiser Benefits:
Simple
Advertisers can immediately access and participate on 100% of ad inventory
Advertisers make one consolidated payment to OpenX
Real-time auction
Structure provided by a growing set of targeting parameters
Huge growth potential
Neutral
Signing Up for OpenX Market

Enjoying the benefits of OpenX Market is simple and fast. Detailed information on how to participate can be found at www.openx.org/market.

OpenX Ad Server 2.8 – Market Integration, Plugin Architecture, eCPM Optimization and More

OpenX Ad Server 2.8 is the latest version of the company’s ad server and contains major new advances over prior versions of the software. A key feature of 2.8 is the new OpenX Market plugin, which allows publishers to seamlessly flow their inventory directly into OpenX Market to maximize their revenue. This native integration of the Market into the ad server makes it simple for publishers to access the new platform and provides the potential for the company to quickly scale the Market.

Other key benefits of 2.8 include:

Easier Customization
eCPM Optimization
Improved Scalability
Enhanced Usability
OpenX Hosted

Publishers can take full advantage of the benefits of using OpenX, including access to OpenX Market, while letting OpenX run the software on its infrastructure. To learn more about OpenX Hosted, please visit: www.openx.org/hosted.

OpenX Download

Publishers can also download OpenX 2.8 and gain instant access to OpenX Market. To download OpenX, please visit: www.openx.org/download. To upgrade to 2.8 from any prior version of OpenX, please visit: www.openx.org/upgrade.

About OpenX

OpenX is the world’s leading independent ad server for web publishers. Building on the strength of our open source heritage, we offer our vast community of publishers comprehensive, customizable and free to use ad serving technology. OpenX Ad Server empowers our community of more than 150,000 websites across the Internet with the ability to take control of their ads and maximize their ad revenue and relevance. OpenX Ad Server products are translated into 25 languages, used in more than 100 countries around the world, and serve more than 300 billion ads each month. OpenX Market is the company’s unique monetization platform and is designed to help publishers maximize the price of their inventory and to help advertisers much more effectively target where their ads are served. The Market uses a real-time auction marketplace in which multiple classes of buyers bid for each impression provided by OpenX’s vast publisher base.

OpenX Technologies, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of OpenX Limited, is based in Pasadena, California, with offices in London and Poland. OpenX is backed by leading investors including Accel Partners, Index Ventures and O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures. For more information, please visit: www.openx.org.

OpenX is a trademark of OpenX Limited.

The payment service provider Lancore Merchant Services have announced that they will be exhibiting at two exhibitions in April. The first event taking place is the Cards Asia 2009 Exhibition at the SUNTEC International Convention & Exhibition Centre in Singapore between: 22nd – 24th April. Lancore will be based at stand E4002 for this event. The second exhibition is Internet World 2009 showing at Earls Court 2 in London between: 28th – 30th April where Lancore will be based at booth 4B15.

Lancore view the exhibitions as an important part of their marketing strategy. Yvonne Lankry, Lancore’s Marketing Director says “Both the Internet World and Cards Asia events are key exhibitions in our marketing calendar. The exhibitions provides a wonderful opportunity to meet people in all areas of the digital marketing and online industry”

Cards Asia is Asia’s leading Cards & Payments conference attended by over 200 industry professionals within the banking sector. The exhibition will include speakers from the region’s major banks, card issuers, acquirer and merchants to help provide a high level, case-study driven conference programme. This year sees a more interactive experience with extra panel sessions, debates and ultimately more audience involvement and networking opportunities.

Internet World is Europe’s longest running, best attended and biggest event for digital marketing and online business, attracting over 13,000 visitors and more than 300 exhibitors. Now in its 17th year, the event brings you everything you need to formulate and implement your online strategy, from digital marketing to ecommerce, content management to hosting. It showcases the UK’s leading suppliers and delivers Europe’s best free education program. The exhibition will also have key speakers from all areas of the industry, including Barclays and John Lewis, each offering their own expert insight.

With thousands of visitors attending both of the events the exhibitions will provide Lancore with the ideal opportunity to meet potential customers and demonstrate new products and services. The diverse nature of both events mean that people from all different areas of the industry can exchange views and gather feedback to formulate their online strategy. Lancore is a leading payment service provider and can offer payment gateways solutions and money transfer servicesto help grow your online business.

Everyone wants to get something for nothing, and now you can, thanks to Collect.com’s free classified ads.

“The classified ads are completely free — no gimmicks, no strings attached and no limit to the number of classified ads that can be placed,” said Dianne Wheeler, the community leader for collect.com. “This is a great way for collectors to sell the items that they don’t love anymore — and shop for new ones that they will — without pricey consignment fees or drawn-out bidding wars.”

Placing an ad is easy. Just visit www.collect.com, click on the collectibles area that applies to your item (Comics, Music, Sports, Militaria or Antiques and Collectibles), and add in the details. The Ad Wizard walks you through every step of the process, including writing the description and adding a photo of the piece that’s for sale.

The free classified ads are the first of numerous improvements that are scheduled to come to collect.com this year, Wheeler said.

Produced by F+W Media, the world’s largest hobby and collectible publisher, Collect.com is an online community where collectors can discuss and display their finds, keep tabs on the value of their collections, connect with buyers and sellers, read about the latest hobby news and more.

Visit http://www.collect.com now to sell your collectibles with Collect.com free classified ads.

Generate (www.generatela.com), the cross-platform production and management company, today announced it has established a new market research division, Generate Insight, as it continues to grow and diversify its entertainment and production offerings. Generate Insight, which is run by new hire and senior vice president Janis Gaudelli, collects and analyzes proprietary data sourced directly from a community of “Insighters” who Gaudelli has personally recruited and developed relationships with over many years, beginning when she oversaw Teen People’s Trendspotter network. The division will produce custom research initiatives help brands and companies interested in engaging the Millennial demographic, in addition to supporting Generate projects across the company.

“Generate was founded with a mission to understand the Millennial audience and develop content that suits their unique worldview and consumption habits by being quickly adaptable and able to move across mediums,” said Jordan Levin, CEO. “Bringing Janis in and creating the Generate Insight division is a big plus because it enables us to better achieve that mission – and help others share in our understanding – while simultaneously adding depth to our senior management team and broadening our capabilities for brands, advertisers, studios and networks.”

Generate Insight’s network of 7,500 Insighters, comprised of tweens, teens, young adults and moms, is nurtured and sourced in real time through the high-touch relationships Janis has with the community, distinguishing it from those of other research firms. The majority of Insighters are hyper-connected tastemakers that are at the vanguard of what’s new and compelling. Generate Insight’s directly derived findings – both quantitative and qualitative – will be customized and focused on immediately actionable data points for clients across industries.

Gaudelli began work with this community of Millennials at Teen People, where she oversaw its Trendspotter network and grew it by 50 percent within a year. After the magazine folded, Janis maintained her close connections with the Trendspotter network as an independent youth culture and trends consultant to companies including Warner Bros, Reebok, Saatchi & Saatchi, General Mills and Lucky magazine. Her relationships are the foundation of the Generate Insight network. In addition to her research, Gaudelli is a mentor to teens, serving on numerous youth mentoring boards and assisting in the creation of progressive educational initiatives.

“Generate is the perfect place for me to bring together my passion for youth culture, longstanding relationships with influencers and significant research experience to inform both content and brands who are eager to engage Millennials,” said Gaudelli. “Keeping up with and truly listening to what this generation is saying and feeling is crucial to developing successful entertainment properties and marketing campaigns alike.”

Generate’s senior executive team has an established track record of understanding and creating content for Millennials; as former CEO of The WB, Levin was part of the founding executive team responsible for defining series that established the network’s distinctly youthful brand such as Dawson’s Creek, Gilmore Girls, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and 7th Heaven. During that time he worked with Gaudelli and the Teen People Trendspotter network. Generate’s recent Millennial-focused productions include political Web satire Republicrats for MSN and dark Web comedy Pink: The Series, which is a Webby nominee and a Streamy award winner.

Generate Insight will tap the Insighters community to produce a monthly “Pulse report” snapshot of trends and themes impacting the Millennial generation. The first Monthly Insighters report, to be released in time for Earth Day, will focus on how Millennials think about the environment and green issues, as well as how they respond to brands going green.