"David Giambruno, CIO of stock photography company Shutterstock, has left the company after just over a year"

http://www.ciodive.com/news/shutterstock-cio-departs-after-short-tenure/503145/

When you consider the big stories being told when he joined SS - plus the fact that he has no job lined up yet - you have to wonder what went wrong that he left so soon. SS filed notice with the SEC of this departure July 12th. Another article talked expansively about plans for a software defined data center.

Marty Brodbeck, the Chief Technology Officer, joined SS in January 2017 and is still there - might that mean there was some sort of clash and Brodbeck won?

For at least the second time in August, the site had problems where downloads weren't working - buyers on deadlines were not happy...

https://twitter.com/Shutterstock/status/900107766983000064

In the Q2 earnings call, Oringer seemed to be saying the new platform was essentially done. At one point he says "Now that we are on our new platform..." but elsewhere he says "...we believe we are making significant progress against our objective of moving from a content marketplace to a creative platform..." so some things are still not finished.

Platform or marketplace, making sure customers can download content seems like stock agency 101, so they need to fix the basics they broke.

Any other ideas as to what, if anything, this latest software departure means for SS's future?

His predecessor left pdq too. Lots of techno/management speak in their last two conference calls. They need to get back to basics and stop listening to their own BS I think.

Which new platform are you talking about? I'm receiving x10 copies of status report from SS every time they approve my batch of images, instead of just one. Happening for some time already, contacted them with no response so far. This is not a technology company, but some amateur-run startup which accidentally happened to have the biggest portfolio.

P.S. Thanks for keeping us up-to-date with news about SS.

What a mess. 

Is SS going to follow iStock in its footsteps as the next big stock business slowly sinking under the weight of its own size and mismanagement? I'd like to think SS is fundamentally different from iStock/Getty, but maybe it's the same kind of corporate/technical mess after all.

IStock compounded incompetence with unique pressure on finances thanks to their role as a debt vehicle for financiers. This led them to continually squeeze contributors to the degree that many people left or stopped uploading. Shutterstock aren't there yet, fingers crossed they aren't about to cut our royalties, that would be the indicator that they are stuck in the downward spiral.

Quote from: Noedelhap on August 26, 2017, 09:05

Is SS going to follow iStock in its footsteps as the next big stock business slowly sinking under the weight of its own size and mismanagement? I'd like to think SS is fundamentally different from iStock/Getty, but maybe it's the same kind of corporate/technical mess after all.

IStock compounded incompetence with unique pressure on finances thanks to their role as a debt vehicle for financiers. This led them to continually squeeze contributors to the degree that many people left or stopped uploading. Shutterstock aren't there yet, fingers crossed they aren't about to cut our royalties, that would be the indicator that they are stuck in the downward spiral.

In some way they have done it about one year ago (sneakily): less and less Enhanced and Single & Other sales

More than a year and I still see:
1- Missing keywords, title, it don't fetch the metadata properly
2- Few files upload correctly but they don't show up in the submission list
3- Get 2-3 emails of same batch approval
4- New approved files don't show up in newest first list and magically appears after 1-2 days
5- Bad UI design on stats page with lot more clicks

Can I be CIO for a year? I doubt I could screw things up any faster, and I'd make almost a million bucks. http://www1.salary.com/David-Giambruno-Salary-Bonus-Stock-Options-for-SHUTTERSTOCK-INC.html

Quote from: Noedelhap on August 26, 2017, 09:05

Is SS going to follow iStock in its footsteps as the next big stock business slowly sinking under the weight of its own size and mismanagement? I'd like to think SS is fundamentally different from iStock/Getty, but maybe it's the same kind of corporate/technical mess after all.

Makes you wonder if smaller players will show up and just start poaching talent out from under these companies.

Puzzle find the talent.

Quote from: ShadySue on August 26, 2017, 13:15

Puzzle find the talent.

LOL. I suppose that's always true. But, I guess even the non-factories that are making $3k a month are really probably selling over $100k worth of images a year. That's at some garbage prices, paying a reviewer and doesn't even delve into all the other markets that artist might or could be selling in (logos, freelance, POD, etc.). Seems kind of untapped, but I guess if it was easy then everybody would be doing it. Some of these companies have dipped their toe in the automated full-service agency, but it would be interesting to see it go the other way (non-automated).

Oops, reading again, I see that I totally misread/misinterpreted your earlier post to have 'the talent' referring to the managers and coders, whereas you clearly meant the content producers.
It was the managers and coders that I was doubting were 'talent'.