Getty Images will be manage and represent the Lonely Planet Images collection from mid July.
Lonely Planet Images state in a letter to it’s customers titled ‘Change to Lonely Planet Images and how it affects you’ seen by PAN this morning:
‘Our agreement with Getty Images means that we will terminate all contracts with any partner libraries who also license our images, and that you may currently be licensing our image content from….’
‘While any special contractual relationships with direct customers will be terminated, of course all existing image licenses and licenses issued before July will still be valid for the assigned period. The transition to Getty Images will occur over several months and we’ll be working to minimise any disruption or impact that this change may have on any of your current projects.’
The letter goes on…’Why change?‘
Getty Images is the world’s leading image library and is much better placed than Lonely Planet to continue to be successful representing photographers and licensing images, as photography is not Lonely Planet’s core business.
The ‘world of images’ has shifted dramatically since Lonely Planet Images was established in 1998. We are now at a point where it is no longer commercially viable for us to continue to represent photographers and the collection.
We have considered this decision very carefully and are confident that we have reached a good arrangement with Getty Images for Lonely Planet, the Lonely Planet Images collection and our photographers. We hope that by informing you of this change now you will have the opportunity to finalise licensing images from us for any projects you are currently working on.
The letter signs off:
From the entire team we would like to thank you for supporting Lonely Planet Images over the years.
Kind regards,
Samantha Spruce, Rachael Nusbaum, Callum McLennan and Barbara Di Castro’