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Author Topic: Layoffs at istock  (Read 135940 times)

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« Reply #450 on: January 20, 2012, 21:56 »
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Well done James and well said.


« Reply #451 on: January 20, 2012, 21:57 »
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The hand-wringing *is* silly. Because any reasonable person knew, deep-down, in her heart-of-hearts, that this day was coming, the day Bruce said goodbye. I was honestly shocked that day and felt as though I had lost a trusted and inspiring leader, as well as probably witnessing the end of iStock.

In spite of the many assurances to the contrary, I had not just fallen off the turnip truck and I knew how these acquisitions go. Maybe those who are so effusively wailing about the movings on of JJRD and Kelly are just much better at convincing themselves of what they *want* to happen (versus what they *know* will happen) than I am. I mourned iStock years ago. This news, though titillating, scarcely matters.

« Reply #452 on: January 20, 2012, 22:35 »
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post from tab not workin right  :(
« Last Edit: January 20, 2012, 22:45 by cclapper »

« Reply #453 on: January 20, 2012, 22:36 »
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HA!  Sean keepin' it real as always.

Quote
Geez, I thought he got hit by a bus or something, with all this.


http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=339825&messageid=6587575

« Reply #454 on: January 20, 2012, 22:50 »
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The hand-wringing *is* silly. Because any reasonable person knew, deep-down, in her heart-of-hearts, that this day was coming, the day Bruce said goodbye. I was honestly shocked that day and felt as though I had lost a trusted and inspiring leader, as well as probably witnessing the end of iStock.

In spite of the many assurances to the contrary, I had not just fallen off the turnip truck and I knew how these acquisitions go. Maybe those who are so effusively wailing about the movings on of JJRD and Kelly are just much better at convincing themselves of what they *want* to happen (versus what they *know* will happen) than I am. I mourned iStock years ago. This news, though titillating, scarcely matters.

ditto. i could care less about hearing answers to jameses questions. they would just be platitudes again anyways.

« Reply #455 on: January 20, 2012, 23:47 »
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"You were the wind beneath my wings" .... BLEEEAAARRRRHHH



OMG, someone really said that?

Sadly they did __ and worse. Really it is too embarrassing and distressing to discuss any further. I'm quite literally sick of the nausea such posts generate when I view them.

Masochistic drama-queen.

« Reply #456 on: January 21, 2012, 00:50 »
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"You were the wind beneath my wings" .... BLEEEAAARRRRHHH



OMG, someone really said that?

Sadly they did __ and worse. Really it is too embarrassing and distressing to discuss any further. I'm quite literally sick of the nausea such posts generate when I view them.

Masochistic drama-queen.

Nah, hilarious and acerbic British wit.

lagereek

« Reply #457 on: January 21, 2012, 02:01 »
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Big party at IS,

« Reply #458 on: January 21, 2012, 02:54 »
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Nah, hilarious and acerbic British wit.

I think this could be a case of words changing their meaning as they cross the Atlantic, but please don't mix up the British characteristics of wittyness and chippyness, they ate very different things.

« Reply #459 on: January 21, 2012, 04:16 »
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Jokes apart, isnt it ironic?  yesterday at IS, I had the best day for ages. Weird!
Me too which is unusual for a Friday.

« Reply #460 on: January 21, 2012, 04:24 »
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Jokes apart, isnt it ironic?  yesterday at IS, I had the best day for ages. Weird!
Me too which is unusual for a Friday.
It's still dire for me.  Sold 3 photos yesterday, used to be over 20 a day most weekdays days at one time.  The prices have gone up but my sales volume and overall earnings have crashed and show no signs of recovery.

rubyroo

« Reply #461 on: January 21, 2012, 05:00 »
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I can understand why people feel emotional about it.  I imagine that for people who were there from the start, and who actually felt they 'knew' the people involved, and felt that they had single-handedly changed their lives for the better by enabling them to walk away from jobs they hated and become self-sustaining creatives, it must feel like a bereavement of sorts... in that they felt this person was there for them, and instrumental to all that, and they won't be any more.  The 'coziness' they felt has been eroding for some time, as iStock has progressively shifted from a matrix model to a hierarchichal one, and JJ was perhaps the major connection they still had to 'how things were'.  I think he also helped some to feel more protected in the face of changes, with his assurances that he was the one who would' go out to bat' for them.  It sounded sometimes as though he saw himself as 'David' to Getty's 'Goliath', and he seemed to want iStocker's to know that.  

I think for those of us who are indies and were never really a part of that familial feeling are obviously going to feel differently, as we have our work and working relationships in numerous different agencies with different structures and cultures.  We don't have that sense of 'envelopment' that some iStock exclusives do.  We also haven't been on the receiving end of the same sort of warmth and encouragement that some exclusives have felt.

I would have thought he would have known this was on the horizon.  Those of us who are a bit longer in the tooth have seen this scenario play out in our own working lives previously, so perhaps it's more of a shock for younger people and those who've never been employed in a take-over situation.  The long-standing expectation of such things tends to dilute the impact somewhat when they happen.

But anyway,  JJ sounds positive and as though he's looking forward to the new change, so he sounds fine.  

I'm as grateful as anyone for the advent of microstock and the way it has changed my life.  Of course, my main gratitude goes to Jon Oringer, because his agency has been steady and strong and has provided me with the greatest reward for my efforts.  If it weren't for Shutterstock, this would not have become a feasible endeavour for me.  So yes, I do have a certain fondness for him.  I get that.  If he walked away, I'd continue to be grateful to him for what he'd enabled me to achieve up to that point, but I'd also be very worried about the future.  Probably too worried about that to be emotional about it.

« Reply #462 on: January 21, 2012, 05:55 »
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Contrary to the general opinion, I think the official statement was informative (even if it was only confirmation of what we already pretty much knew).

They state clearly that iS is no longer an independent business, Calgary is a branch of Getty. They tell us that the inspection systems are being merged to give consistency across the group (will that mean tougher or weaker inspection standards? Is iStock content going to have to live up to Flickr standards, or vice-versa?).  And they admit that the strategy of the last year or two has failed and they are being outcompeted by other agencies (the "opportunity" they refer to is quite obviously winning back the market share that they shouldn't have lost in the first place).

Those seem like pretty big admissions to me.

lagereek

« Reply #463 on: January 21, 2012, 06:15 »
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Yep, its the same old story, companies becomes too big for their shoes, complaicant and arrogant, treating everybody including staff like dirt, they become blind and before you know it,  competitors are moving past, gets bigger and more powerful.
When they finally wake up, its all too late.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #464 on: January 21, 2012, 06:39 »
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ditto. i could care less about hearing answers to jameses questions. they would just be platitudes again anyways.
I guess you mean you couldn't care less?

I'm perfectly sure James didn't want platitudes but was asking, hypothetically, for Truth.
I for one would certainly be interested in hearing the true answers to his questions.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #465 on: January 21, 2012, 06:56 »
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I think there's probably a cultural difference to take account of.
Even if we allow that many people in that thread are actually saying as they found, the flowery language and emotions expressed are way OTT for my sensitivities. I wouldn't even outpour like that to my nearest and dearest.
But once I happened on some TV programme showing clips from an American phenomenon called a 'Mother and Daughter pageant', a kitschy, saccharine affair. At the end, the eponymous mothers and daughters had to recite their words of love to each other and that to most Brit ears was just hysterical (and if supposed to be taken seriously, nauseous). That programme was the talk of the steamie for weeks.

JJ seems to have had a great effect on many, but not all, people who met him. I never met the man, I never understood his waffles on the forum, even allowing for ESL; and the one exchange I had with him was not positive.
It was at a time when Vetta was fairly new, and the keywording on many Vetta files was truly awful: particularly from one Vetta inspector, whose port (at the time: after a long war of attrition he cleaned up his act) was full of almost the worst keywording I'd seen. Every single file I looked at had at least five irrelevant keywords, often over ten.
Without naming that person or even directly alluding to him on the forum, I posted "Could Vetta files have their keywords double-checked, in respect for the buyers and to those of us who are trying to keep our keywords clean?" and within ten minutes JJ jumped in and said simply, "That will not be happening". No expansion or explanation.
So, while I don't wish the man any harm, and there are certainly others who should have lost their job before him, there will be no eulogies, emotional or otherwise, from me. Even if I could post on the forum.  ;D
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 08:53 by ShadySue »

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #466 on: January 21, 2012, 07:01 »
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But anyway,  JJ sounds positive and as though he's looking forward to the new change, so he sounds fine.  
While you are looking for new opportunities, it's best not to express publically what you really think.

« Reply #467 on: January 21, 2012, 07:12 »
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Not sure if this has already been posted yesterday but they also lost someone from the video department:

http://www.istockphoto.com/forum_messages.php?threadid=339881&page=1

Which will probably mean even longer inspection times are coming. Currently non-exclusives have roughly a 2.5 month wait.

« Reply #468 on: January 21, 2012, 07:27 »
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ditto. i could care less about hearing answers to jameses questions. they would just be platitudes again anyways.
I guess you mean you couldn't care less?


 ;)

I'm perfectly sure James didn't want platitudes but was asking, hypothetically, for Truth.
I for one would certainly be interested in hearing the true answers to his questions.
[/quote]

I'm perfectly sure James didn't want platitudes either. I'm perfectly sure that all contributors have been looking for the Truth since the day Getty bought the place. Based on past performance, I think you have heard all the Truth you are going to hear from Lobo's post. And who knows if that is even the Truth? The Truth to you means something entirely different than the Truth to Getty.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #469 on: January 21, 2012, 07:44 »
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I'm perfectly sure that all contributors have been looking for the Truth since the day Getty bought the place. Based on past performance, I think you have heard all the Truth you are going to hear from Lobo's post. And who knows if that is even the Truth? The Truth to you means something entirely different than the Truth to Getty.
I guess that's the New Kind of Truth, like the new kind of trust JJ was never able to explain or bring about, unless 'new kind of trust' means 'don't trust anything'.

rubyroo

« Reply #470 on: January 21, 2012, 08:34 »
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@ Sue.  Yes the cultural difference probably does have a lot to do with it.  Brits come from a far more pee-taking culture I think.   There's been a lot of americanisation of our culture, but I hope we never lose that (most especially the ease with which we can take the pee out of ourselves).

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #471 on: January 21, 2012, 08:55 »
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@ Sue.  Yes the cultural difference probably does have a lot to do with it.  Brits come from a far more pee-taking culture I think.   There's been a lot of americanisation of our culture, but I hope we never lose that (most especially the ease with which we can take the pee out of ourselves).

I'm sure as long as we have such delightful treasures as HIGNFY and Mock the Week, that won't happen.  :D

« Reply #472 on: January 21, 2012, 09:09 »
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From the IStock Reorg discussion: "I'm impressed with the way Lobo has responded to some very relevant concerns; if he's being honest (and there's no reason to believe he isn't), then I don;t think we've got too much to panic about."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Does someone really think that Lobo is part of the strategic team, that he makes decisions, that he dictates the rule of law?  So he is nice in a couple of "forum moderator posts" and this guy equates that to "everything will be okay"?  Really, this is an unbelievable perspective, somebody who is grasping at straws and totally doesn't get that Lobo's role has NOTHING to do with business development, and everything to do with locking posts, demeaning posters who mean well, and laughing every time he gets a paycheck.

ShadySue

  • There is a crack in everything
« Reply #473 on: January 21, 2012, 09:51 »
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From the IStock Reorg discussion: "I'm impressed with the way Lobo has responded to some very relevant concerns; if he's being honest (and there's no reason to believe he isn't), then I don;t think we've got too much to panic about."

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Does someone really think that Lobo is part of the strategic team, that he makes decisions, that he dictates the rule of law?  
Lobo himself knows his place, in this respect. As I said on p16:
"He's admitting his posts have no real currency, by prefacing them with "From what I understand ..." and "At this point I don't suspect ..." and "the answer, as I understand it"."
Bearing in mind that it wasn't that long after he locked a thread with an adamant "we have no plans to introduce editorial" that they ... introduced editorial.  ;)
« Last Edit: January 21, 2012, 09:54 by ShadySue »

« Reply #474 on: January 21, 2012, 09:59 »
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I'm perfectly sure that all contributors have been looking for the Truth since the day Getty bought the place. Based on past performance, I think you have heard all the Truth you are going to hear from Lobo's post. And who knows if that is even the Truth? The Truth to you means something entirely different than the Truth to Getty.
I guess that's the New Kind of Truth, like the new kind of trust JJ was never able to explain or bring about, unless 'new kind of trust' means 'don't trust anything'.

Right, this is the weird effect that istock had on people.  It was an online community when people traded files but changed when $.10 commissions were introduced.  Then, it became a business with a left over "fake" community feel.  Because "on-line" anything is not real to the extent of being tangible personal relationships.  Then, getty bought and the community thing was flung further away for the thing istock became after money was introduced.   A cutthroat, competitive business that was whitewashed by being online in stead of in person.  The last email from istock I received was titled " blah blah community blah blah ....."  I deleted it without reading and tried to not throw-up.  The left over community BS always was used to soften the blows of decisions like when the best match was massaged to get Lise back to #1 in daily sales when she had dropped to 5th by a truer organic best match back in august 2008.  Many of these types of manipulations were evident with even the original owners at the helm.  They were just more acceptable because of that fake "community" feel.


 

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