MD at Retna Pictures, Steve Hodgson, called PhotoArchiveNews.com to break the news and has allowed us to use this letter he sent to photographers.
Good Morning,
I am delighted to tell you that Retna Pictures has a new home. We have today been bought by Photoshot Holdings Limited who own and operate an extensive collection of photo agencies covering news, celebrity, sport, nature, travel, archival and creative imagery. Their website is www.photoshot.com
I am sure that this change of ownership will be great for us all. The market has been difficult for all agencies in the last few years, and becoming part of a bigger, more diverse group can only be positive for Retna and will enable us to compete more effectively in the future.
That said, Retna is going to remain a separate brand with its own distinct identity and website but we will have access to a greater pool of back office resources and a bigger sales network. In addition to its main office in Farringdon, Photoshot has sales offices in Berlin, New York and Los Angeles. We are going to move from Fulham to Farringdon and will shortly be inviting you to celebratory drinks at our new home.
From a day to day point of view, there will be little visible change: our staff are all moving over, your points of contact will remain the same, the submissions process will remain the same, as will invoicing and sales reports. The changes will be behind the scenes and in the greater distribution of your images.
I hope that you share my excitement about this development. I will keep you updated with the new developments and improvements as we move forwards. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.
Kind regards,
Steve.
Press Release from Photoshot 3rd March 2010
Further expansion at Photoshot – Photoshot Holdings Limited announces the purchase of Retna Pictures Limited, a long established source of music & celebrity imagery
Charles Taylor, managing director of Photoshot Holdings Limited, today announced that Photoshot Holdings has purchased Retna Pictures Limited, Photoshot’s 11th acquisition.
Charles said, “The addition of Retna Pictures Limited to our family of collections is another significant milestone in our plan to establish Photoshot as a quality based, full service, international, photo library group. Retna perfectly compliments our existing celebrity, music and portraiture collections, UPPA, Stay Still and Starstock.”
“We are extremely excited at becoming the new custodian of this wonderful collection and will do everything possible to build on the long tradition of service that Retna has provided for many years. “
“We have now bought a total of eleven complementary photo businesses since 2001,” Charles continued, “and service customers from wholly owned offices in New York, London, L.A. and Hamburg. With this growth, we are confident that we can supply a broad range of quality imagery to picture buyers, be that a live news picture, an archival record, an entertainment event or exclusive celebrity portrait, a travel shot or a wildlife image or a creative shoot. Photoshot is one of only a few agencies that can supply this mixture of live and stock imagery.”
Stephen Hodgson, Managing Director of Retna Pictures Limited says, “I am sure that this change of ownership will be great for Retna. The market has been difficult for all agencies in the last few years, and becoming part of a bigger, more diverse group will enable us to compete more effectively in the future. When looking for a company to build upon the existing strengths of Retna, the previous owners wanted to make sure that they were dealing with a picture business committed to photographers and great photography. Photoshot has admirably demonstrated that it shares this desire with their acquisition of several other leading libraries and the way those businesses have thrived under the Photoshot umbrella.”
Having such diverse collections under one roof also offers great opportunities to the group’s contributing photographers who no longer suffer from being pigeon-holed as being suppliers of specific type of image. Photoshot is keen to invite submissions from photographers across all its collections.
For further information and images, please contact Charles Taylor on +1 646 329 6242
Posted by Will Carleton