The new contracts, which are being imposed on all of Getty's editorial contributors, will see the multimedia stock agency pay only 35% of all sales to their photographers. Currently, some of Getty's photographers receive up to 50% in royalties.

The cut, first revealed by Photo District News, is expected to affect "several thousand of individual contributors, including creative, editorial and footage," Adrian Murrell, senior vice president of editorial, tells BJP.

Getty Images says that the new contract, which the agency is labelling as "an opportunity", will allow "us to better meet current and future customers needs, through modifying content use across more and new license models, products, services and selling environments, including subscriptions, high-volume customer deals and new or emerging pricing, licensing and payment models," says Murrell. "Royalty rates for editorial uses changed in March of 2010, from in/out of territory differences, to a simple global rate of 35%, so we are expanding to unify the rate for our editorial contributors. We continue to innovate in making content more accessible to more customers everywhere and we are investing in our technology at every level to continue to be a leader in the content licensing industry."

The changes will also affect photojournalists that form part of the Reportage by Getty Images division, which includes Eugene Richards, Tom Stoddart and Brent Stirton among many others.

"Nearly all of our active creative photographers have already signed the new agreements and are moving forward with us under the terms of the new agreements," claims Murrell, who adds that the agency is "keen to ensure our contributors' content can be leverage and licenses across channels such as mobile."