Submitted many photos to Shutterstock as editorial on January 9th that are just sitting there.
They've never taken this long.  Have they cut staff or what?

the same for me

They are probably working on their Editorial collection. Another post mentions the suspension of an account for manipulated photos:

Quote from: Stocker2015 on January 21, 2026, 21:05
I'm a photographer and I received an email today. I mostly take commercial photos. I have also editorial photos. Here is the summary:

Your Shutterstock account has been disabled until your perform a portfolio clean up, removing every asset which you have added or removed a logo, person, object, or otherwise manipulated, that has been approved for Editorial Use Only. Your uploading has been disabled until you acknowledge your understanding of the policy and confirm you have removed all altered editorial content in your portfolio by writing to [email protected]. This is your first and only warning.

I deleted more than hundred images and sent an e-mail to them. What should i do more?

This makes sense, as they know they need to offer a clean editorial collection because there is a market for it, and customers are going to become demanding given the explosion of AI-generated fake realities.
Adobe offers a much smaller editorial collection that does not meet the same criteria, so Shutterstock maybe surely wants gain the upper hand in this sector. Well, there is also Getty, I know 

Quote from: DiscreetDuck on January 22, 2026, 08:35
They are probably working on their Editorial collection. Another post mentions the suspension of an account for manipulated photos:

Quote from: Stocker2015 on January 21, 2026, 21:05
I'm a photographer and I received an email today. I mostly take commercial photos. I have also editorial photos. Here is the summary:

Your Shutterstock account has been disabled until your perform a portfolio clean up, removing every asset which you have added or removed a logo, person, object, or otherwise manipulated, that has been approved for Editorial Use Only. Your uploading has been disabled until you acknowledge your understanding of the policy and confirm you have removed all altered editorial content in your portfolio by writing to [email protected]. This is your first and only warning.

I deleted more than hundred images and sent an e-mail to them. What should i do more?

This makes sense, as they know they need to offer a clean editorial collection because there is a market for it, and customers are going to become demanding given the explosion of AI-generated fake realities.
Adobe offers a much smaller editorial collection that does not meet the same criteria, so Shutterstock maybe surely wants gain the upper hand in this sector. Well, there is also Getty, I know 

I think you're right and pre-merger things? They seem to be digging into the past. I had a couple that were from 2009 that were removed for rights violations. Not that I can't find the same images, in some other portfolio, but I had asked about a rejection and apparently that set off someone to inspecting my collection. Two non-sellers, but really?

Changes to content in your portfolio

Please be advised that one or more of your images or clips have been removed due to an existing policy restriction. Content containing subject matter that potentially infringes on intellectual property rights is unacceptable for commercial use. Acceptable for editorial use on a case by case basis. For more information, please see Shutterstock's "Content Publishing Standards: Intellectual Property" support center article as well as our list of Known Image Restrictions: https://support.submit.shutterstock.com/s/article/Content-Publishing-Standards-Intellectual-Property https://www.shutterstock.com/contributorsupport/articles/kbat02/Known-Image-Restrictions .

List of Item ID's Impacted by This Change:

A fish or a bird? 

Didn't they ask us to remove signs from buildings for Editorial, because they were protected. Now they want to ding people for removing those same signs? Something changed, somewhere up top.

Quote from: elliottcowand on January 21, 2026, 20:52
Submitted many photos to Shutterstock as editorial on January 9th that are just sitting there.
They've never taken this long.  Have they cut staff or what?

I think Pond 5 is worst,  I have waiting editorial from December 27 snow storm, and other one is coming, Maybe will be great seller in July slow time Scary how people are lazy or maybe just ,,busy,, ?

Quote from: fotoroad on January 22, 2026, 21:54

Quote from: elliottcowand on January 21, 2026, 20:52
Submitted many photos to Shutterstock as editorial on January 9th that are just sitting there.
They've never taken this long.  Have they cut staff or what?

I think Pond 5 is worst,  I have waiting editorial from December 27 snow storm, and other one is coming, Maybe will be great seller in July slow time Scary how people are lazy or maybe just ,,busy,, ?

Maybe there aren't no people at all for reviewing the files.

Same situation here. Editorial files are sitting for weeks, while before they moved much faster. It doesn't feel like neglect, more like much stricter checks, especially around edits, logos, and even older content. From what we see, Shutterstock is actively cleaning up editorial and even re‑reviewing portfolios retroactively. With the flood of AI content, having a "clean" editorial collection clearly matters to them now, so reviews are slower and more cautious. Painful for timing, but understandable.
Curious how it looks on your side: are your January editorial uploads stuck as well? And has anyone already faced warnings or large editorial clean‑ups?

Quote from: fotoroad on January 22, 2026, 21:54

Quote from: elliottcowand on January 21, 2026, 20:52
Submitted many photos to Shutterstock as editorial on January 9th that are just sitting there.
They've never taken this long.  Have they cut staff or what?

I think Pond 5 is worst,  I have waiting editorial from December 27 snow storm, and other one is coming, Maybe will be great seller in July slow time Scary how people are lazy or maybe just ,,busy,, ?

Same here. It's taking over a month to get videos approved now