Author Topic: Co-founder and CEO Tom Bennett out of Pond5 (Read 15367 times)

videomaker · « **on:** January 19, 2016, 17:27 »

Wonder how this will affect the future for Pond5!
http://www.microstockdiaries.com/tom-bennett-out-of-pond5.html

Some strange things going on there, with change of upload rules for artists, massive rejections and clips review takes more than 2 months!
P5 used to be the most artist friendly in the industry, hope this will stay like this in the future too, but I´m not sure!

cobalt · « **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2016, 19:22 »

That doesn´t sound good. We all know what happened to istock after Bruce left.

I really like pond5. Would hate to have to avoid it or even take content down.

This gives a very negative edge to recent changes. I was optimistic at first, but now I am very worried.

Freedom · « **Reply #2 on:** January 19, 2016, 20:09 »

Not sure why the blog claims Bennett is not in control as he remains the Chairman who directs the company strategically if not always operationally.

However, it looks like Pond5 will be different in 2016. Recent slow reviews and introduction of subscription make me suspicious of their new direction.

PixelBytes · « **Reply #3 on:** January 20, 2016, 02:09 »

Great. They bought Pixmac, a decent earning site, eventually shut it down, and now P5 is circling the drain. They never could be bothered to xfer my port there, so that's a former good income source just gone.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2016, 03:55 »

Best of luck to Tom.
Well...investors obviously didn't like him. They wanted money (same as artists) and he didn't know how to organize company to make some.
Not everyone is born to be good CEO.

Anyways...P5 eternal vacation style is no more. You can't get millions, take them for granted and behave like kids in a circus.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #5 on:** April 13, 2016, 06:35 »

CTO and founder no 2 is gone too....WOW!
Anyone left there?

Mantis · « **Reply #6 on:** April 13, 2016, 07:45 »

Quote from: KnowYourOnions on April 13, 2016, 06:35

CTO and founder no 2 is gone too....WOW!
Anyone left there?

I am fearful that they are following the path of Fotolia and Canva....taking revenge on contributors who question their new model/methods. Ever since I had an email exchange (stern, factual but clean and legit) with them where I pointed out clear inspection shenanigans on their part, in fact showing them a search term from a set of my submissions, ZERO results come up on P5, so why were my videos in that batch fully rejected when there were no "oversupplied clips?" The response was too bad, all rejected. I responded back to them in a nice way stating that they are destroying a good model and that the value for P5 was really in good curation, keywords and pricing floors, not destroying a model that is working. Then I linked them to one of the P5 threads here, never heard back from them. But haven't had a sale since, either. That was about 5-6 weeks ago. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I have about 900 clips and 3,000 photos there.

Firewall · « **Reply #7 on:** April 13, 2016, 11:35 »

Quote from: KnowYourOnions on April 13, 2016, 06:35

CTO and founder no 2 is gone too....WOW!
Anyone left there?

We should leave as well.
Their rejections don't make any sense at all, it's like they are saying we want you to go away.
Besides Videoblocks, can anybody recommend another agency?

Hildegarde · « **Reply #8 on:** April 13, 2016, 12:38 »

I already left. Disappointing- had high hopes but the agency was a waste of time for me. Other agencies have sales, good sales, and even the rejections on those agencies mostly helped me sharpen my technical skills. Pond 5 was just a waste of time better spent photographing. Their curators are not very competent.

KnowYourOnions · « **Reply #9 on:** April 13, 2016, 17:37 »

Quote from: Mantis on April 13, 2016, 07:45

Quote from: KnowYourOnions on April 13, 2016, 06:35
CTO and founder no 2 is gone too....WOW!
Anyone left there?

I am fearful that they are following the path of Fotolia and Canva....taking revenge on contributors who question their new model/methods. Ever since I had an email exchange (stern, factual but clean and legit) with them where I pointed out clear inspection shenanigans on their part, in fact showing them a search term from a set of my submissions, ZERO results come up on P5, so why were my videos in that batch fully rejected when there were no "oversupplied clips?" The response was too bad, all rejected. I responded back to them in a nice way stating that they are destroying a good model and that the value for P5 was really in good curation, keywords and pricing floors, not destroying a model that is working. Then I linked them to one of the P5 threads here, never heard back from them. But haven't had a sale since, either. That was about 5-6 weeks ago. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not. I have about 900 clips and 3,000 photos there.

They hate MSG because here we fully call out their nonsense and PR bs.
But for sure they follow what's been said here.

cobalt · « **Reply #10 on:** April 13, 2016, 19:22 »

They have plenty of open and frank discussions on pond5. Artists are openly asking what alternatives there are etc...

But who is now in charge of pond5? Who makes the real decisions? And does he or she have a background in working online, transparently and internet community leadership?

As for conspiracy theories, I doubt they "punish" people for what they write anywhere, there are too many people reporting a drastic drop in sales on all the boards, including small, private facebook groups.

And some of those ports have thousands of files.

I think they just messed up the site completly with the redesign, when you go to an artist portfolio it is impossible to see what files they have etc...nobody is going to "click for more" several hundred times to get an overview of the content.

At least galleries are visible again on a page, they had hidden them completly before. Why would anyone do that? The pond5 gallery system is one of its major advantages. Something SS doesn´t have for footage.

I wonder where did all the customers go? Are they just waiting for pond5 to sort themselves out? Did they all buy into the membership program?

How can so many buyers disappear so suddenly?

Or are the sales not being recorded because of software problems?

Is there any visible leadership anywhere?

What are their goals? Or is encouraging us all to go elsewhere really the new plan?

Which agency is interested in becoming the next marketplace? Who will seize this opportunity and make it their moment?

A chance like that, you might not get it again for years. I don´t think anybody was expecting pond5 to give up their marketplace concept and go boutique and subscription at incredibly low prices at the same time.

Mantis · « **Reply #11 on:** April 14, 2016, 09:06 »

Quote from: cobalt on April 13, 2016, 19:22

They have plenty of open and frank discussions on pond5. Artists are openly asking what alternatives there are etc...

But who is now in charge of pond5? Who makes the real decisions? And does he or she have a background in working online, transparently and internet community leadership?

As for conspiracy theories, I doubt they "punish" people for what they write anywhere, there are too many people reporting a drastic drop in sales on all the boards, including small, private facebook groups.

And some of those ports have thousands of files.

I think they just messed up the site completly with the redesign, when you go to an artist portfolio it is impossible to see what files they have etc...nobody is going to "click for more" several hundred times to get an overview of the content.

At least galleries are visible again on a page, they had hidden them completly before. Why would anyone do that? The pond5 gallery system is one of its major advantages. Something SS doesn´t have for footage.

I wonder where did all the customers go? Are they just waiting for pond5 to sort themselves out? Did they all buy into the membership program?

How can so many buyers disappear so suddenly?

Or are the sales not being recorded because of software problems?

Is there any visible leadership anywhere?

What are their goals? Or is encouraging us all to go elsewhere really the new plan?

Which agency is interested in becoming the next marketplace? Who will seize this opportunity and make it their moment?

A chance like that, you might not get it again for years. I don´t think anybody was expecting pond5 to give up their marketplace concept and go boutique and subscription at incredibly low prices at the same time.

Really excellent points, Cobalt. Honestly, P5 has the appearance that they are falling apart at the seams. So much going on with Johathan's death, then the ousting of execs, new investors, changes in collection acceptance criteria, poor, rude communication with contributors, rude responses from inspectors, etc. The change is happening in such a short time that it is evolving before our eyes and does not have a positive tone to it at all. I am honestly bummed because I was making okay $$ with them once I hit 700 videos.

SquirrelPower · « **Reply #12 on:** April 14, 2016, 12:25 »

Does anyone know or have a list of sites that accept editorial? Pond5 was great as they accepted both editorial and commercial but it appears they have all but gone away on the sales side of things now and for over a month so it's time to get butts in gear and start uploading to other sites but what would be the options?.

Losing Pond5 is a big loss for some, myself included (video and photo), it's 3/4 of my income.

I believe one of the now departed founders was a coder, he probably wrote the code for the original site and they ran with it and maintained it with little effort for ten years and now the chickens have come home to roost under new management, know your onions can probably better advise as he hates pond5 with a passion (his video not sell there?) but he seems to be on the ball with the current changes right down to the new and smaller floor plans for their offices.

I'd have to ask, You think Pond5 is pivoting or on the verge of running out of runway and going out of business? It doesn't look good at the moment and it could be an absolute pressure cooker in there for all when know, if they haven't kept their technical skills relevant for ten years this could very well be BlackBerry all over again.

MicrostockGroup Sponsors

Author Topic: Co-founder and CEO Tom Bennett out of Pond5 (Read 15367 times)

videomaker

cobalt

Freedom

PixelBytes

KnowYourOnions

KnowYourOnions

Mantis

Firewall

Hildegarde

KnowYourOnions

cobalt

Mantis

SquirrelPower

Related Topics

Sponsors

Microstock Poll Results

Sponsors