Digital Railroad Delivers Aggregated Photo Marketplace in Response to Member Demand

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2005--
The Digital Railroad Marketplace Will Provide All Members with Worldwide Distribution Opportunities; Buyers Will Have More Resources in One Professional Marketplace than Ever Before

Digital Railroad, Inc. (http://www.digitalrailroad.net), the leading provider of Web-based application services for the professional photography industry, today announced plans for the Digital Railroad Marketplace. This initiative is another direct response by the company to address requests for additional features by its photographer, agency and photo buyer members around the world.

The Digital Railroad Marketplace will continue to allow members to maintain their personally branded archives, while giving them the most efficient method to simultaneously publish images through an aggregated marketplace. Digital Railroad's members include award-winning photographers and agencies in 40 countries, from Afghanistan to Italy, from the U.S. to Indonesia. A partial list of members can be viewed at the following directory: http://www.digitalrailroad.net/corpsite/directory.html.

The service provides photo buyers with the best of both worlds: archive owners who understand and control their own image collections and the convenience of a centralized search. Hundreds of new photo sources will be made available to buyers, who can manage their purchases in a single unified workspace using one membername and password.

"For more than 30 years, as Director of Photography for Newsweek, Sports Illustrated, Rolling Stone, Day in the Life Books and many others, it has been one of my challenges to find, on deadline, unique images and photographers from around the world that wouldn't be published in my competitors' publications," says Karen Mullarkey, Editorial Director of FilmLoop.com. "But with the arrival of Digital Railroad's Marketplace, my work will be thoroughly simplified with one location providing a greater number of unique, international, professional photo sources."

"As a photographer who has more than 40 years of experience working with magazine publishers, I am keenly aware of the importance of effectively controlling and marketing my archives," says Dirck Halstead, Award-Winning Photographer, Editor and Publisher of The Digital Journalist. "Digital Railroad's team has the most photo industry expertise of any Internet technology company. This deep understanding of our business is a critical element to simultaneously solving the challenges of photographers and buyers. Now, with the addition of the Marketplace, Digital Railroad will become an even greater asset to my marketing program."

"The upcoming launch of the Digital Railroad Marketplace is an enormous opportunity for us to continue selling images to customers through our branded online archive, while simultaneously allowing us to easily place our photographers' images in front of new buyers," says Marcel Saba of Redux Pictures, a Digital Railroad agency member. "Digital Railroad continues to develop unique features that we request, and I am certain that this new Marketplace feature will help its members around the world sell more images and do more business."

"Digital Railroad's Marketplace has arrived in response to requests by those professionals who demand a competitive, efficient and economical service with which to place images in full view of potential buyers around the world," says Graham Cross, Director, eyevine (UK). "This new feature adds to our marketing channels, giving eyevine and our photographers yet more visibility, and will enable clients to find the images they need. Together with sub-agencies also powered by Digital Railroad, we'll have more pulling power in one combined space, whilst at the same time maintaining our brand identity. Digital Railroad is unique in their knowledge and speed of reaction to what's important in our industry."

Digital Railroad has an exponentially growing membership of more than 10,000 top photo buyers around the world, who search member archives on a daily basis. The company will continue to meet with buyers to educate them on how Digital Railroad's services, members and features can help make their jobs easier.

"We continue to develop unique technology that gives more control to photographers and agencies, to enable them to minimize production costs and maximize sales around the world," says Evan Nisselson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Railroad. "Our company's management team is comprised of professional photographers and editors, and we've shaped Digital Railroad's services around the critical goal of freeing photographers and buyers from managing technology, enabling them to concentrate on what they love -- being creative."

About Digital Railroad

Digital Railroad is an application services company that is dedicated to solving the critical technical problems facing the creators and buyers of digital imagery. Members presently span 40 countries and across subject categories, including Sports, News, Commercial, Nature, and Stock. Digital Railroad's unique, comprehensive suite of online services transforms the way photographers and agencies manage, market, and sell images to photo buyers worldwide. For more information, visit: http://www.digitalrailroad.net.