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MARK AUSTIN STARTED DIGITAL VISION IN LONDON 1996 WITH THE AMBITIOUS GOAL OF ESTABLISHING HIS NEW company as one of the three largest royalty-free distributors in the world. To date, the company has published more than 50 CD titles and has distributors in 35 countries. Austin recently opened a New York office to solicit and process submissions from U.S. photographers.
Austin brings 25 years of experience from the traditional stock photography business to his new venture. His father started Color Library International in 1959 with a collection of images acquired from a book publisher. Austin took over the company in 1979, renamed it the Photo Source, and made it part of a holding company that he created, called Visual Communications Group (VCG). He subsequently acquired the photo collection of the London Daily Telegraph, and changed the name of the Photo Source to Telegraph Color Library.
In 1994, Austin sold VCG to Express Newspaper Group in London for $40 million. In the period he ran VCG, the company grew from $800,000 in annual sales to about $20 million. Between 1994 and 1996, Austin served on the boards of several UK companies.
PDN: Why did you choose the royalty-free business for your new venture, rather than going back into the traditional stock photo business?
Austin: Royalty-free is a growing segment. And with the digital era coming from the computer industry, I saw big, big changes starting to happen. The way that traditional agencies are doing business is slightly out of date. I didn't want to go back into yesterday's technology. Why not start afresh with a clean slate, and take advantage of a new position?
PDN: You couldn't apply the new technology to the traditional business model?
Austin: I didn't relish the thought of trying to build a business with extremely high overheads and unnecessary strata of people. You've got to have people negotiating, people chasing in money-there are a lot of costs involved with traditional stock photography. I think the market will change, and I doubt they can sustain those costs.
PDN: What's Digital Vision's overall strategy in the royalty-free marketplace?
Austin: Our strategy is to grow DV as large as possible. With my experience in the traditional stock photo market, I saw an opening to...