for the record – I am slow

[Bill Davis]

What I’d describe the last few years as is “spurty” – as in when the work comes, it comes in spurts. And when it does – like the term implies, it’s a minor version of a small FLOOD. Schedules are crunched. Deadlines are nuts. Then it’s quiet again for a bit. The issue here is nothing much is sustained or dependable. Clients think nothing of getting a bid, then I don’t hear anything for months – then suddenly the dam breaks and they want to shoot Monday and have a final Thursday.

What I’ve seen in the big picture is a big response to the bifurcation of the market. The Big Players are still playing BIG – particularly when they can invest in buying an early slot in the new digital economy. The Middle sized players have been crunched almost out of existence. And the small shops are lucky if they’ve picked up the clients that used to hang with the middle players who started downsizing vendors when the screws tightened.

That vanishing middle class thing isn’t just about consumer households. It’s harder than ever to get a business from small to medium without selling off a chunk (or everything) to someone else. I’ve seen so many agencies and creative boutiques around here that I used to vend to folded into bigger, richer businesses – and of course, when that happens, one or two folks at the top do really well – while everyone else gets worried about the calls for “more efficiency” so they don’t ask for a raise for the next 5 years.

It’s the ugly part of capitalism.

It pissed me off me off last week to see on the news that nine of the top ten performing economies in the world are currently some form of democratic socialism rather than capitalism. I suppose the consolidation trend is cool if you work for one of the SIX media giants that now kinda own everything media related. But not so cool if you’re NOT a vendor to one or more of them. Oh well.

My 2 cents.

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[Mark Rozitis]

Hi,

Noticed similar slowness in stock footage starting this spring and in the forums on a couple of sites just about everyone was complaining that sales simply stopped, many still are, started about mid-April for many and mid-May for me, like falling off a cliff basically. Jives with what you are saying, if producers are slow there is less need for stock footage. What I don’t know is why this is happening, the economy, shift in trends, what? people simply doing with less or without? cutting costs?.

In the forums everyone was blaming Google algorithm changes, blaming the stock agencies, you name it but very few asked about the customer? as if the customer was taken for granted.

If I work in building maintenance and we decide to switch to LED lighting, do I still keep ordering boxes on incandescent light bulbs like I have in the past? Probably not.

Something’s up that’s for sure.

M
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