Logo based around Anders font. 3 possible logo uses.
Photographic British
Industry
news
Published monthly by
ART EDITOR Michael O’Connell
ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES Please direct all advertising enquiries and sponsorship opportunities to gavin@bpinews.co.uk Publisher’s Office: 31 New Road, Richmond, Surrey TW10 7HZ. Legacy Media Ltd accept no ultimate responsibility for accurate reproduction of digital artwork created by third parties. Insurance and carriage of products submitted for inclusion in reports rests with the owner. News, data, prices, interviews and opinion are printed in good faith E&OE. Content including advertising artwork created by Legacy Media Ltd or its agents is ©2020 Legacy Media Ltd. ISSN: BPI News (Print) ..................................ISSN 2634-1344 BPI News (Online) ..............................ISSN 2634-1352
REQUEST THE BPI NEWS 2021 PRODUCTION PACK for crucial dates via info@bpinews.co.uk
JUST £30 PA TO CONTINUE RECEIVING YOUR ONLY INDUSTRY MAG! Help BPI News to update you with what your peers in the photo trade are up to & have a year’s worth of the mag delivered to your door for just £30 per annum including postage (UK mainland only). See opposite for how to pay via PayPal. Alternatively, please contact gavin@bpinews.co.uk for direct payment details.
ALL TOGETHER NOW W
EDITOR Gavin Stoker Tel: 020 8274 0578 Tel: 07990 974 367
EDITORIAL ENQUIRIES Please direct all editorial requests, news and press releases to info@bpinews.co.uk
Editorial | February / March 2021
Gavin Stoker, Editor gavin@bpinews.co.uk @GavinStoker
hen the load gets heavy, we all need to pull together. Not my words, but those of antique salvage dealers Mike and Frank, from cable TV show ‘American Pickers’. If you’ve not seen it, two guys travel the highways of the USA discovering gems amongst junk. Paul McCartney – Macca himself – is a fan. The show’s just one of the distractions keeping me sane during the third national lockdown… partly because it also works as a travelogue… and this issue we’ve introduced some levity by asking the trade what’s likewise getting them through. With the pandemic revealing the cracks in an already disrupted industry, I mention it because that opening quote struck a chord. I’ve long felt there is more – much more – we could collectively be doing as the photo trade to assist those who may be falling through the fissures at this time. How many currently shuttered specialist retailers will reopen this year, when allowed to? Taking a positive view, if consumer confidence does return (as hoped) when government restrictions are relaxed, there’s the possibility that pent-up household spending could be unleashed, helping the economy to ‘bounce back’ once again, as it did briefly between lockdowns last year. As we went to
press, the Bank of England was talking optimistically of the UK economy getting back to pre-pandemic levels by March 2022, thanks in part to the early success of the vaccine roll out. That optimism must however be tempered with the fact that there’ll eventually be a day of financial reckoning for us all, due to eye-wateringly high UK government borrowing and spending during this period. As has been the case this past year, and, well, for what seems like forever, the news from the photo industry itself is also mixed. Fujifilm UK is the latest to ‘consolidate’ its operation and, sadly, shed staff in the process. Olympus’ imaging division has new owners and a new name, and the future of the high street is looking grim, with online retailers picking up long-established brands yet discarding physical stores. The good news is that retailers operating a click and collect model tell us sales of video and audio equipment, telescopes and binoculars, have been flying out during lockdown, when we can’t, um, fly out ourselves. Demand for printing and scanning of old negatives and slides, as we’ve had more time to rummage in attics, has also increased, so there are silver linings to the proverbial cloud. We hope this issue provides the shot in the arm it’s intended to.
SUPPORT YOUR ONLY TRADE MAG! Subscribe annually for ONLY £30 or ‘BUY BPI NEWS A BREW’ & donate our £3 cover price to keep us afloat, via www.paypal.me/bpinews
NEVER MISS AN ISSUE! Read BPI News online at issuu.com/bpinewsonline
BPI News | February / March 2021 3