Getty Images Partners with Prestigious Bridgeman Art Library to Bring Art Imagery to Vertical Portal
PR Newswire, Thursday, October 14, 1999 at 09:49
Alliance with leading fine art library advances Getty Images online strategy
SEATTLE, Oct. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Getty Images, Inc. (NASDAQ:GETY), the
leading e-commerce provider of imagery, today announced it has entered into a
marketing alliance with The Bridgeman Art Library, the leading source of fine
art images. Under the terms of the agreement thousands of exceptional fine
art images will be available to creative professional customers through Getty
Images' vertical portal site, expected to launch in the fourth quarter of this
year.
Getty Images continues to revolutionize how creative professionals,
editorial and press businesses, business users and consumers access, select
and purchase visual content. The partnership with Bridgeman significantly
advances Getty Images' strategy of creating an online, vertical portal site
for its largest customer segment: creative professionals. This portal will
enable creative professionals to select and purchase images and other relevant
tools from a wide range of sources without having to move from site to site.
Additional vertical portals, tailored for Getty Images' other key market
segments-editorial and press businesses, business users and consumers-are
planned.
"The Bridgeman Art Library has unmatched depth in fine art imagery, and
having this category well represented on our creative professional portal was
very important to us," said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and Chief Executive
Officer of Getty Images. "The goal of our first portal site is to offer
creative professional customers an online environment where they will find a
wide variety of products and services they need everyday. Bridgeman's
outstanding collections complement the product lines that Getty Images'
offers, making them an ideal partner for us."
The Bridgeman Art Library is the most respected source for fine art
imagery, with an international collection representing works from more than
800 museums, galleries and contemporary artists from around the world. Its
collection of over 130,000 photographs covers every theme, subject and style,
from cave paintings to the latest work from contemporary artists. Collections
represented include such renowned names as The British Library, the National
Galleries of Scotland, Sweden and South Africa, the national collections of
France and Italy and many others, including amazingly rich private collections
hitherto unexposed to the public.
"We are delighted to have been invited to participate in Getty Images' new
portal site," said Harriet Bridgeman, founder and Director of The Bridgeman
Art Library. "Getty Images strategy of creating high value by offering a
portal site tailored for this specific market segment underscores the
Company's leadership in meeting the needs of the creative professional
customer. This partnership is a wonderful opportunity for us to offer the
Library's unmatched art imagery to an even wider online audience."
About Getty Images
Getty Images, Inc., with over 30 million photographs and more than
15,000 hours of film, is the leading international provider of visual content
to both professional and consumer markets. The company's four divisions
provide high-quality, branded imagery, meeting the distinctly different needs
of customers in the following market segments:
-- Creative Professional - advertising, design agencies, web designers and
corporate marketing
-- Press and Editorial - magazines, newspapers, book publishers and web
publishers
-- Business User - business communications and small-office, home-office
(SOHO).
-- Consumer - framed and unframed art and related products.
The company uses its extensive web-technology expertise to create e-
commerce-enabled sites that allow customers to access and purchase images
quickly and easily. Headquartered in Seattle, the company has approximately
1,600 employees worldwide, and had revenues of $55 million in the second
quarter of 1999. The company's 1998 revenues were approximately $185 million.
In September of 1999, Getty Images announced an agreement to acquire The
Image Bank, one of the best known companies in the visual content industry,
with significant contemporary and archival photography and film footage
assets. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 1999.
Getty Images' own market leading visual content brands are:
Creative Professional:
Tony Stone Images tonystone.com
Energy Film Library digital-energy.com
PhotoDisc photodisc.com
EyeWire eyewire.com
Editorial and Press:
Hulton Getty hultongetty.com
Allsport allsport.com
Liaison Agency liaisonphoto.com
Online USA onlineusa.com
Business User:
EyeWire eyewire.com
PowerPics powerpics.com
Consumer:
Art.com art.com
For more information on Getty Images and its market-leading brands please
visit the company's website at getty-images.com.
About Bridgeman Art Library
The Bridgeman Art Library is the world's most comprehensive source of fine
art images for reproduction, in partnership with over 800 museums, galleries,
artists and private collections. Founded in 1972 by Harriet Bridgeman, it has
expanded into an outstanding archive of over 130,000 images covering every
subject, style and concept from the world's greatest masterpieces to
previously unpublished treasures. Fine art is just one of the sources of
images; design, antiquities, maps, architecture, furniture, glass, ceramics,
anthropological artefacts and many others also feature in the collection. The
Library also handles copyright for a growing number of artists and artist's
estates. Based in London, the company has offices in both New York and Paris.
Further information can be found on the Library's website at
bridgeman.co.uk.
SOURCE Getty Images, Inc.
-0- 10/14/1999
/CONTACT: Mary Waters-Sayer, Vice President, Investor and Public
Relations, 44-171-544-2973, mary.waters.sayer@getty-images.com, or Laurie
McEachron, Public Relations Director, 206-269-1769,
laurie.mceachron@seattle.getty-images.com, both of Getty Images; or Media -
Mark Fox of Hill & Knowlton, 212-885-0642, mfox@hillandknowlton.com, for Getty
Images; or Vivien Wheeler, Marketing Manager of Bridgeman Art Library,
44-207-727-4065, vivien@bridgeman.co.uk/
/Web site: bridgeman.co.uk
/Web site: getty-images.com |
