RitzBitz

·    How does Camera Action Camera House, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, continue to thrive being located in Melbourne’s “Blood Alley?” Why did they open another cutting edge location just four blocks away? In this week’s DIMAcast, you’ll hear the secrets and successes of Paul and Sina Clayton as they share with Bill McCurry what they’ve learned over the last decade as they have reinvented Camera Action to be even more responsive to the needs of their customers.

·    PhotoChannel Networks Inc., Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, reports that the unexpected symbol change to PNWIE resulted from an error in the filing of the company’s Form 20F for the year ended Sept. 30, 2007 by its filing agent. The Form 20F was originally filed as a Form 6K on Feb. 7, 2008. PhotoChannel has re-filed the document as a Form 20F. PhotoChannel has created and manages the open standard PhotoChannel Network environment currently utilized by major photofinishing retailers and wireless carriers to provide their consumers with online image printing and picture messaging services. There are more than 8,000 retail locations worldwide accepting print orders from the PhotoChannel system.

·    Motorola Inc., Schaumburg, Ill., said it is laying off another 2,600 workers, bringing the company’s total employee cuts to more than 10,000 since last year, reports The Associated Press. Motorola will take a pretax charge of about $104 million in the first quarter for severance costs from the new layoffs, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Motorola said it would eliminate 3,500 jobs in January 2007 as part of a two-year cost-cutting plan to save $400 million. The company announced cuts of another 4,000 jobs in May 2007 with hopes of improving its sagging financial and operational results. The world’s No. 2 handset maker has eliminated more than 10 percent of its work force since the start of 2007, says the AP.

·    Eastman Kodak Co., Rochester, N.Y., completed its previously announced acquisition of Design2Launch (D2L), a developer of collaborative end to end digital workflow solutions for marketers, brand owners, and creative teams. D2L provides turnkey solutions for graphic lifecycle management to the pharmaceutical, food and beverage, automotive, and consumer package marketplaces, says the company. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. As a wholly owned subsidiary of Kodak, D2L will be a part of the company’s Enterprise Solutions Group. D2L’s founding managers, the brother and sister team of Ron Malloy and Alison Malloy, will continue to lead the D2L subsidiary. Alison Malloy will be general manager, Corporate Solutions, GCG and Ron Malloy will be vice president, Sales and Strategy, Corporate Solutions. D2L offices will remain in Stamford! , Conn.

·    DayMen Photo Marketing, Markham, Ontario, Canada, has been appointed by Tokina Co. Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, as the exclusive distributor in Canada for the complete line of Tokina lenses for DSLRs. Tokina lenses will be available April 15 from DayMen’s distribution and warehouse facility in Markham.

·    Dreamstime.com, Brentwood, Tenn., a global community-based stock photography distributor, entered into an exclusive partnership with the Korean agency ImageClick to make professional quality photo images readily available to the Korean market. ImageClick will launch its own exclusive brand exhibiting the entire Dreamstime library through a newly established website at www.i22.com. Designed specifically to make Dreamstime images and services available to its users in Korea, www.i22.com visitors will be able to navigate and search Dreamstime content, for the first time, in their native language.

·    Pentax Imaging Co., Golden, Colo., announces the Pentax Student Photography Program to support young photographers and photography educators with camera bodies, lenses, and flashes at significant savings. The Pentax Student Photography discounts are offered exclusively to full-time students at accredited institutions — high schools, colleges and universities — as well as full-time photography educators. Students and educators must purchase the Pentax equipment from an authorized dealer between April 1 and June 30, complete a Pentax Student Program form; students must provide photography class enrollment certification (class schedule or copy of registration) and a copy of a valid student identification; and educators must submit a copy of course curriculum for thei! r photography class and a copy of a valid faculty identification.

·    Syntax-Brillian Corp. President and CEO James Li announced he will reduce his annual base salary to $1, effective April 1, in support of the company’s turnaround plan, reports the Phoenix Business Journal. For the fiscal year ended June 30, 2007, Li’s base salary was $261,635, according to the journal article. At that time he was president and chief operating officer. He was named CEO on Sept. 30, 2007. Tempe, Ariz.-based Syntax-Brillian makes LCD high-definition TVs, digital cameras, and other consumer electronics products.

·    Fujifilm U.S.A. Inc., Valhalla, N.Y., announced the creation of a new company that simplifies and integrates all management, manufacturing, and service support for its recording media operations. The new company, Fujifilm Recording Media U.S.A. Inc. (FRMU), will maintain the sales and marketing headquarters in Valhalla with manufacturing and distribution operations continuing to be located in Bedford, Mass. FRMU will operate as an independent company within Fujifilm Holdings America Corp.

·    John Paul Caponigro and R. Mac Holbert, two of the pre-eminent leaders in digital photography and fine-art printing, are joining forces once again to conduct the Fine Art of Digital Printing workshop to provide one-on-one instruction with access to digital printing technology from Epson America Inc., Long Beach, Calif. The Fine Art of Digital Printing will be offered at the digital printing labs of Hallmark Institute of Photography in Turners Falls, Mass., July 20-25, and the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, Calif., Oct. 26-31.

·    ATP Electronics Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif., a manufacturer of DRAM and flash memory products, is launching a long term global promotional partnership program with Panoramio, a geotag-oriented photo sharing website. This partnership will be kicked off with a co-hosted worldwide photo contest which will focus on geotagged photos. Panoramio users can submit photos tagged with GPS location data in four categories — scenery, heritage, travel, and unusual location.

·    Olympus Corp. of the Americas, Center Valley, Pa., is sponsoring an exhibit showcasing the work of John Isaac at the Banana Factory , a nonprofit community art center and gallery, in Bethlehem, Pa., from April 26-June 29. Isaac has worked for 38 years as the chief photographer for the United Nations.

·    Freestyle Photographic Supplies and The Creative Center for Photography, Hollywood, Calif., announce the opening of an exclusive group show: emerging (I) 3. The images in this show represent the emerging vision of a talented new generation of photographers. The show opens with an artist reception April 24 and the exhibition runs through June 25. The images have been selected by members of the Freestyle Educational Steering Committee, a group of photographic educators committed to teaching darkroom skills to the photographers of tomorrow.

·    Giant Eagle Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa., a large grocery chain that features photo services, has received the Energy Star Sustained Excellence recognition. Key accomplishments include saving nearly 2 percent on energy bills across its large portfolio from 2006 to 2007, with total savings of 10 percent since 2003; as well as expanding its strategies and practices for improving the energy performance of its stores, including power monitoring through submetering, recommissioning, and constructing new stores with white roofing materials. Giant Eagle says it continues forming energy management teams, identifying an energy champion for each store, creating energy efficiency opportunity lists, and developing store-specific best practices.

·    Pakor Inc., Maple Grove, Minn., announces an exclusive distributorship with Southeastern Manufacturing Enterprises (SME), Franklin, Tenn., Inkjet Factory in the United States. SME manufactures an advanced inkjet cartridge refilling system. Coupling computer controlled automated functions and precision-machined components, the Inkjet Factory is an all-in-one platform for professional in-store inkjet refilling.