Corbis is expanding its footprint in the arena of photojournalism, announcing today that it has purchased photo newswire Demotix for an undisclosed priced. Corbis had previously invested in London-based Demotix, which boasts more than 30,000 freelance photographer contributors. Many of those are citizen journalists — armed with smartphones and the Demotix mobile app — can easily upload images and sell them through the marketplace.
Demotix, which boasts more than one million images in its archive, splits revenues with freelance contributors through a 50-50 arrangement. Photos from Demotix contributors have appeared in the pages of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian.
“Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to providing our media customers access to an exceptional selection of breaking news imagery — from premium news sources to alternative coverage outside of the scope of the mainstream newswires,” said Corbis CEO Gary Shenk in a statement. “Demotix helps build out Corbis’ unmatched portfolio of news and entertainment imagery that cannot be found anywhere else.”
