DR Marketplace . . .

Stock Asylum Staff Report
Jan. 13, 2007

Digital Railroad moved a step closer to offering an "aggregated photo marketplace" this week with the hiring of Mark Ippolito, a stock photography industry veteran with much experience selling images worldwide.

Ippolito, who has held executive positions Getty Images, Corbis, PhotoDisc, Comstock, OnRequest Images, and other companies, will serve as vice president of Marketplace image services at Digital Railroad.

His appointment marks a significant milestone in the company's effort to launch a single search engine for many of the photographers and distributors using Digital Railroad services. Currently, image buyers must search each image collection separately.

Evan Nisselson, Digital Railroad's founder and CEO, said the new aggregated search engine is being tested by a group of large editorial and commercial image buyers. He said the new search will be released soon, but would offer no specific launch date.

"We're making sure that everything is right, Nisselson said. We're not going to release this until it is right."

He said the company is keeping details about Marketplace private until the launch. He noted that various Digital Railroad photographers offer their images as right-managed, royalty-free and through subscriptions.

"We're not mandating how people sell their images," Nisselson said.

Digital Railroad is technically not an image distributor. Instead, it sells software, asset management and image distribution services to members who pay a monthly fee.

Some 700 photographers and 35 stock distributors already use Digital Railroad services, including Blend Images, Mira, NBC Universal Photo Bank, NCAA Photos, Ed Kashi, Jack Reznicki, Carol Simons Huddleston and others.

Digital Railroad participants use the system in a variety of ways. Some clients distribute images to other image sellers. Many licence images directly from the platform. Each participant will decide separately about participation in Marketplace, Nisselson said.

Ippolito comes to Digital Railroad from Zango, Inc, an online media company providing free entertainment content to more than 20 million consumers. He was vice president of worldwide sales at Zango.

At Digital Railroad, he will be responsible for marketing the Marketplace system and helping members license their images.

"We are very excited," said Nisselson. "I've know Mark for a long time. He has a lot of experience selling images worldwide."

The Digital Railroad web site is at: http://www.digitalrailroad.net.