The site, targeted at consumers, is launching March 31 with 7 million professional images presented in eye-catching galleries. In development for about six months, the site is launching at a risky time for media ventures; growth in online advertising has slowed to a crawl.
LIFE.com, which the site's managers previewed to the media last week, is designed mainly to draw traffic. The team worked with Google to make sure LIFE images are easily to find in the popular Google Images search engine. The site will not get favorable placement in the Google search order, but the LIFE archive has a coveted place on the Google Images home page. Photos found through the search engine will direct visitors to LIFE.com. Also, by presenting photos from Getty's wire service in a consumer-friendly format, the site hopes to draw some of the 14 million monthly unique visitors who now visit various Getty Images sites, which are aimed at business users.
The site’s revenue will come from advertising (its first sponsor is Rolex) and print-on-demand services such as photo books. Initial printing vendors include HP, Xerox and Kodak.
LIFE.com encourages free sharing of photos for “personal, non-commercial use,” such as e-mails, blogs and social networking sites. Some photos will offer a link for professional licensing that will direct potential customers to Gettyimages.com.
Visitors will be able to pool their favorite images into personalized galleries with themes such as the years of their life. Users will also be able to upload their own images, but personal shots will be presented separately from the professional photo galleries, which are meant to be the site’s big draw.
“We have 1,000 galleries, and we’re adding more every day,” says LIFE.com editor Bill Shapiro, who previously worked as managing editor of the defunct LIFE newspaper insert. “The goal is to get you lost in the site.”
Other key staff are LIFE president and LIFE.com CEO Andrew Blau (with Time Interactive) and LIFE.com chief financial officer Catherine Gluckstein (a vice president for consumer with Getty).
Editors at Time Inc. in New York oversee the site's content, the Time.com sales force will sell ads, and Getty is handling the technology.
Time Inc. has been working since January 2007 to digitize the vast LIFE magazine photo archive, most of which has never been published. Prints, negatives, slides and transparencies were trucked to a facility in Frederick, Maryland, where workers scanned or re-photographed the images. The process is ongoing but Time Inc. expects it to be complete by the end of 2009.
LIFE ran as a weekly magazine from 1936 to 1972, then as a monthly magazine from 1978 to 2000, and later as a weekly newspaper insert from 2004 to 2007. The brand is still used on books and special issues.
Related stories
Nov. 18, 2008: LIFE Posts Archive On Google; Says Blogger Infringement A Low Priority
Sept. 23, 2008: Time and Getty Plan To Resurrect LIFE Brand Online
