Collectors salivate as Chicago Tribune opens up photo vault

The Chicago Tribune, one of the nation's leading daily newspapers, has begun digitally archiving their extensive photo library, which includes historic photos and negatives dating back to the nineteenth century, and making the original vintage archive photos available to collectors once re-archived in digital form. The Tribune has selected industry leaders Image Fortress Corporation and Masterpiece Marketing Group, who are partnered on this major multi-year initiative, to provide the online digital archiving of these photographs, integration with the paper's editorial and business systems and to market the original photographs upon their digitization.

"The Tribune's photo library is filled with amazing photographs, most never published or even seen by the public, covering every topic and historic event of the past one hundred and thirty years you can imagine," according to Bob Pokress and Eric Amundson, the presidents of Image Fortress Corp. and Masterpiece Marketing Group. "It's a thrill for us to work with this magnificent photojournalism collection that spans the entire range of US and world historical events and personalities from all walks of life. We are electronically preserving the photographs in this library, bringing these photos to life for the Chicago Tribune and Tribune Company, and making them accessible to the public for the first time," according to Pokress.

"We are delighted to have leaders in the field of digital image archiving and vintage photo sales working with our newspaper to make all of this possible," notes Randall Weissman, News Administration Editor of the Chicago Tribune. "Having the entirety of our vast photo library in an online digital archive that is integrated with our editorial and online systems provides a variety of new editorial, licensing and other business opportunities that will now be able to access and utilize these valuable image assets," according to Weissman. "Once digitally archived, the original vintage photos are being sold to collectors and individuals worldwide who are interested in owning these unique, authenticated, historical collectibles to generate the revenue that supports this extensive program."

"We're very excited to expose this photojournalism collection to the public and are thrilled with the initial response to the TribunePhotos.com website and our associated eBay offerings. This photo collection is truly unique in the marketplace," according to Amundson. Masterpiece Marketing Group began selling the vintage photos from the Chicago Tribune in April. "We're introducing thousands of new pictures every week covering topics like Hollywood stars, musicians, singers, politics, space, places such as Chicago and New York, sports topics like football, baseball and basketball, Transportation such as aviation, railroad and automobiles and military to name a few," notes Amundson. Photographs are currently being sold at TribunePhotos.com and on eBay. The photographs are shipped in a custom presentation folderpresentation folderpresentation folder with a numbered Chicago Tribune Certificate of Authenticity for each original archive photograph.

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