Inside Imaging is shutting down

We have made the difficult decision to wind down Inside Imaging, after 15 years delivering Australian photo industry news.

Keith and I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has come along with us for the ride. Especially the advertisers and donors, subscribers, readers, contributors and colleagues.

This has been on the cards for some time. Our satisfaction in the work, and affection for the photo industry, combined with our reluctance to shut down what we see as a valuable resource, has kept us at our desks for longer than anticipated. But the time has come.

The opportunity for Photo Counter came as a direct result of Yaffa Publishing ending a long-standing contract with Keith to produce the hard copy trade magazine and then online-only Photo Imaging News. This was at the beginning of the era of fierce price competition from Harvey Norman and Big W directed against photo specialists – generously supported by Fujifilm in particular. Photo specialists were getting smashed by 10- and 8-cent print promotions at the same time as margins for cameras collapsed with the introduction of digital cameras to consumer electronic stores.

Photo Counter, the predecessor to Inside Imaging, launched as a direct competitor to the incumbent, and within 12 months had prevailed, with Yaffa shutting down its comparably bland online publication.

It was launched in partnership with Photo Review Australia publisher David O’Sullivan in 2008. After several years under this arrangement, David decided to focus on his main job - the Photo Review enthusiast magazine, website and associated publications. He generously handed his stake in Photo Counter over to Keith.

‘The notion from the start was to produce original content which resonated with a small business/specialist photo retailer readership by reporting on real local and international photographic industry news, rather than relying on an endless stream of banal and increasingly hyperbolic new product releases flowing from the camera companies’ PR consultancies,’ Keith says.

Photo Counter was joined by Pro Counter, focused on professional photographers, in 2013 which saw me, fresh out of university with a degree in journalism, in the editor’s chair.

A few years later, Photo Counter and Pro Counter‘s website design began showing its age and developing expensive-to-fix bugs. I recall a friend of mine gently berating me about the terrible user experience on a mobile phone. Rather than continue hosting two websites, we resolved to merge them to create a new entity, Inside Imaging, bringing together two readerships: ‘the trade’ – comprising specialist retailers and their distributors; and professional photographers and their supply chain.

The combined editorial mix worked for this readership. Proof was the rich and consistent stream of feedback we received. Readers Comments are a measure of engagement with the audience, and our websites always bested the competition on this measure. The civility, intelligence and insights of our readers was always a source of pride.

Inside Imaging readers are among the most engaged and thoughtful individuals in the Australian photographic industry - and our subscriber list is a veritable Who’s Who of Australian photography. Even this week we are getting a steady stream of new subscribers. They are interested in all the issues which effected the success of their business and their customers’ business, from the fate of industry associations (when they existed); to changes to the Australian Consumer Law and GST-free sales from overseas, to distributors such as Canon competing with their customers, through to copyright law in the digital era, to bait-and-switch tactics from some pro studios. Then of course there was the steady stream of ‘photographers behaving badly’ stories, from the amusing to the downright appalling - a topic I thoroughly enjoyed covering.

At the same time, Inside Imaging was also across the bread and butter issues of the other photo websites – new product/marketing promotion press releases - but these were rarely lead stories on the website or newsletter. We always aimed to highlight unique content researched and written in-house. That was our strength. We’d often see our stories picked up by larger overseas websites such as Petapixel and DPReview, with significantly greater resources than our two-man team. (Sometimes they even credited us!)

So why are we shutting down? There are a few reasons…

Keith wants out!

Keith, the co-founder and my old man, has had his eyes on the exit for some time. For the last two years, he has spoken longingly about not having to fuss about yet another damned newsletter deadline. I’ve gradually taken on more duties to lessen his commitment, so the the treadmill is running a little slower. But it’s still a treadmill. And it wasn’t only my gentle persuasion keeping him around. Whenever he has broached retirement plans with our amazingly committed advertisers, he’d be flattered into keeping things going for a while longer.

I’m sure he also has a deep affection for this family-owned business and the connection it brings to the photo industry, as well as that satisfaction of breaking a strong story.

Having worked alongside Keith for a decade, starting out with a rudimentary set of skills, I can’t imagine doing the job without him. And now, at the other end of my career from Dad, I find myself with family responsibilities. It’s simply time to, if not get a haircut, then certainly to get a ‘real job’, to quote George Thorogood (and my late grandfather).

Good journalists, lousy sales reps

Inside Imaging has always been what you might call marginal in terms of generating revenue. While online publishing is a much different business to a photo studio, distributor, or specialist retailer, there are similarities that bring us together.

We are small family partnership navigating an ever-changing digital environment, and operating within a rather turbulent contracting industry. Our biggest challenge (and I imagine some professional photographer and photo specialist readers will relate to this), is that at our core we are good at our jobs, but have to ‘fess up to falling short when it comes to other somewhat critical in-house roles, such as marketing and sales.

Thankfully, we had loyal advertisers who supported us. Not only have they kept us afloat for over 15 years, but I don’t know of any occasions where they’ve intervened or even expressed discomfort with our sometimes robust editorial direction. We are grateful for the loyal support from, in particular, CR Kennedy, Independent Photographic Supplies (IPS), JA Davey, and Noritsu Australia. These businesses still have a sense of the industry as a community, and have in part supported Inside Imaging because it was arguably the last remaining community resource, following the demise of PMA, IDEA, the annual trade shows, the AIPP, the APPAs, ACMP and other representative groups.

We were heartened in knowing that these businesses make their own advertising decisions rather than palming off the role to some faceless media buyer in North Sydney. Talking of which, it has proven near impossible to attract the support of Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fujifilm or the other big brands. (Even though their PR consultancies rely almost entirely on the editorial support of Inside Imaging and the other specialist publications.) Despite our insanely affordable ad rates none ever found room in their considerable advertising budgets to support us in providing an information service to the industry. Given their media spend is increasingly directed towards social media and ‘brand ambassadors’, that doesn’t seem likely to change in the immediate future.

So while the website audience has grown at a steady pace, we plateaued in our ability to generate more revenue. Last year we called on readers to donate, with long-time advertiser CR Kennedy offering a great incentive prize, and that proved a moderate success. But it was one hit of revenue, and we’d have to sustain these donations on a bi-annual basis for it to provide the capital to maintain the business. While I was blown away by the generosity, I’m as bad a salesperson as Keith, and disliked hassling readers to donate.

So we’ve been blessed over the journey with supportive advertisers (though, as mentioned, a few more would have been welcome) and a loyal readership. Thank you.

Thanks also to the incomparable Margaret Brown. We introduced her short and to-the-point camera and lens reviews to the Inside Imaging line-up a few years ago and they were invariably well supported by the readers.

A satisfying business model

As previously mentioned, from the outset our goal has been to publish unique, relevant news for the Australian photo industry. We never attempted to generate the maximum levels of website traffic through clickbait, SEO content, or pushing a deadline schedule based on pumping out quantity rather than quality. Sometimes a lead story takes days to get right, with researching, interviews, transcribing, editing, chasing up pictures, formatting, and so on.

We wouldn’t have had it any other way. From a professional standpoint, keeping the content original and a good read is deeply satisfying. We broke many exclusive stories. When there was a a widely-reported topic, we always endeavoured to find a unique angle focused on our small business audience.

We have never been required to publish a correction, and the only threats of legal action have been from one or two bullies with something to hide.

The unfortunate reality is that most online media business models do rely on maximising traffic to generate revenue through Google Ads and affiliate links. There is an art to striking the right balance between writing for the algorithm and audience, and I commend some of our fellow photo media outlets at finding that balance. But sometimes on my daily commute to their homepages, I’m left feeling the talent is wasted on operating a content farm, as skilled writers aim to win the SEO game.

The few times I used a Google Ads revenue estimator to find out how much we could generate, I was offended by the pittance we’d be paid. Sacrificing the reader experience for pocket money doesn’t seem worth it.

What will happen to the archive

The unswerving mission was to be the ‘publication of record of the Australian photo industry’. As such, the history of the Australian photo industry over the past 15 years is on our website. Exclusively. You could even say our archives are the history of the industry over the last 15 years. Keith and I both feel it presents some ongoing value.

If someone wants to read anything about, say, the fate of the Australia’s photo associations, the direction of Eastman Kodak and Kodak Alaris, Fujifilm or Canon, obituaries of photo industry legends, or whether they can trust a certain award-winning photographer to shoot their wedding, the information is here.
We plan on keeping the website active in the short term, but it’s not something we can afford to continue into the future. We’re open to suggestions, or if anyone is interested in picking up the baton, please give Keith or me a call. I can be contacted on 0430 872 056, or [email protected]. Keith is 0409174279 or email [email protected].

All the best to our advertisers past and present, and all our readers. Not to mention our invaluable off-the-record story sources. (You know who you are!)