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Modern Postcard – Round Two

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What a difference a (business) day makes. As I wrote on Friday, Modern Postcard made a monumental error. Judging from e-mails I recieved alone (over 30) with photographers who sent e-mails to MP expressing their displeasure and cancellation of jobs in process, by yesterday, they had clearly heard the cacophony of voices. ASMP and APA members pummeled them on their listservs, photographers at Sportshooter and numerous places elsewhere, all were espousing other printer solutions. Organizational leadership also reached out to enter into a dialog.

(Continued after the Jump)

Now, the worm has turned. Intrepid reporter Daryl Lang over at PDNPulse confirmed that Modern Postcard has ended it’s relationship with iStockPhoto, with this entry, writing “Now Modern Postcard has gone one step further and ended its affiliate relationship with iStockphoto, PDN has confirmed…” on the PDNPulse blog (with Lang kind enough to link to this blog – thanks Daryl!). He states that he’ll have a full story on PDNOnline soon.

Modern Postcard took action, and should be applauded – and forgiven. They made a mistake, and yes, they should fire that marketing person still, however, they didn’t just say they were sorry, they severed their business dealings with a detriment to the professional photographic community. They did the right thing. Should they have not done it in the first place? Of course, however, forgiveness is the gracious thing to do.

DECISION? iStockPhoto KO’d.
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Originally published on Photo Business News & Forum on August 27, 2007. Comments are closed; this post is part of the archive.

8 thoughts on “Modern Postcard – Round Two”

  1. As one of the people who emailed them, I want to say kudos to Modern Postcard for doing the right thing and pulling out of the iStock deal. In the long run, this might have been a good thing in that it got a lot of publicity and helped spread the word about what a bad thing iStock and the like are for our industry.
  2. Monumental screwup with overtones of greed and arrogance “they’ll (photographers) never see this”, which is inexcusable but predictable these days.

    I applaud the step they took in discontinuing their relationship with an industry damaging business.

    I personally consider their alleigance clarified and will be proceeding with my pending job with them.
  3. I found out the guys name who approved that email. Blakes Millers at ext. 2030. Give him a call and ask him why he is so shallow that he could care less about the photographers that rely on mom-and-pop type business. You have to realize that the person who approved that email is not in the profession, he is a marketing puppet that is luered to the idea of big money no matter what the cost.

    So give Blakes Millers a call at 800-959-8365 ext. 2030 and say, “Hi, why are you taking food away from my family.”
  5. It would be nice, and possibly mean even more, if everyone who emailed or called MP and voiced opinions against their promo would now call or email and let them (MP) know how you feel about them severing the iStock relationship.
  6. Gary’s Suggestion is god, but that is what our trade groups are for. APA (Advertising Photographers of America) did just that, they spoke with MP management, agreed to work together in the future and joined a steering committee.

    What I like about APA is, they don’t get up in the rafters and shout about how great they are. They just get the work done. Constance, the National Director/CEO for APA send out an email, outlining the steps taken and what has been accomplished.

    Kudo’s go to photographers for expressing their concern, to Constance and APA for taking care of business and to MP senior management for doing the right thing – the public apology was important, severing the relationship with istockphoto was the key to making things right.

    Will I use MP again. Yes. Will I try out other printers. Yes. (just in case it is needed)

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