Citing a recent decline in core business and poor second-quarter earnings, Getty Images announced the elimination of 100 jobs. This follows an earlier round of layoffs Getty ordered after it acquired MediaVast, which owns the stock agency WireImage.
Second-quarter declines for Getty were most obvious in its licensing sector, where volumes were down 11 percent in royalty-free imagery and 6 percent for rights-managed imagery, compared with the same period last year. A glitch in Getty's online footage search also resulted in a loss of about $1.5 million and may have added to the company's financial problems.
Getty's overall decline in business may be due to fewer customers licensing traditional stock images and choosing instead to shop for more cost-efficient images at Getty's micropayment site, iStockPhoto.com.