iStock is not an independent company with any kind of authority to make any real decisions, therefore a CEO is not required. It`s an empty shell of its former self with no soul that has been taken over and gutted, they just didn`t remove the iStock banner because it used to have value. In the good old days it was a fair place and it used to be fun to hang around in their forums. Fast forward to today, its turned into a place that charges onerous commissions to their own demise and the forum is a place you go to to get censorship, insults and verbal abuse.

I find it amusing that they have the hubris to raise already inflated prices during a recession.

The problem iStock is having is similar to the problem governments have when they want to increase their revenue. The simple answer is �raise taxes�. The unfortunate result is that people find ways to avoid paying more taxes by moving away or not starting businesses etc. And in end the laws of diminishing returns take hold. In other words, the more a government raises taxes, the less revenue they get. iStock IMO is faced with a similar problem now. Short sighted profitability objectives resulted in higher commissions (To the point of ridiculousness) and contributors started migrating elsewhere. Customers followed (Some contributors are also customers, so double whammy in certain cases). These trends are not easily reversed. iStock has enjoyed a market leadership position and instead of nurturing it, it has abused it and the inevitable downward trend has now been placed into motion. It will take a huge effort on their part to reverse this but I don`t get the sense that anyone there has smelled the coffee yet.

Since free speech is not something that is encouraged on the iStock forum, I thought it might be a good idea to have a parallel monthly sales thread here.

There seems to be a particularly high level of contributors with falling sales.

I am reposting here what was removed on iStock forum:

http://siteanalytics.compete.com/istockphoto.com/   (Re-posted Noodles`s link - picture is worth a thousand words)

The first step to fixing a problem is admittting that you have one (see above link). iStock needs to acknowledge that they have made mistakes when they screwed everyone over with commission cuts, then make things right by keeping their original promise of grandfathering canister level commissions and not reducing commissions on V/A. Although untold damage has already been inflicted, I don`t think that its too late yet to turn the boat around. The effects of their short sighted policies are just now becoming self evident.

I will be staying.  I am not at all happy about the heavy-handedness of this new ASA, but I have been expecting something like this for months.  Can't afford to give up more than 1/3 of my income.

I hear you. Ironically, if all independents decided to cancel their portfolio on iStock on the same day, iStock would sink in an instant and everyone would benefit by getting getting charged less commissions elsewhere. In todays connected world, stranger things have happened, you never know.  (Not holding my breath though).