At an awards ceremony hosted by Associated Newspapers last night (3 November) NLA media access celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) by presenting a cheque for £100,000 to continue promoting diversity in newsrooms across the UK. The donation brings the NLA’s total support for JDF to over £1million.

The JDF was set up by the newspaper industry in 2005 and supports the training of journalists from ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds by meeting the financial cost of completing a National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ)-accredited course.  

Since its creation the JDF has provided bursaries for nearly 200 aspiring journalists who have gone on to work across the industry, from the Daily Mail to Sky News. Two young journalists who have just graduated from the scheme spoke of their experiences and how they have benefited from Diversity Fund support. Amber Haque, now a trainee at BBC news and Rehema Figueiredo, training with Associated Newspapers both described how the Journalism Diversity Fund has enabled them to overcome barriers to a career in journalism.

The launch of the new Thomas Read bursary, awarded to help aspiring journalists with a disability was announced at the event. The bursary has been established in memory of Thomas Read, a journalist who passed away suddenly in early 2015, and is funded by donations from friends and family. In spite of his cerebral palsy, Thomas had worked as a sports journalist at Sky and enjoyed a successful career in journalism. The first recipient is Gemma Louise Hodgson, who is currently studying at St Mary’s University.

Managing Director of NLA media access David Pugh said:
“Supporting journalists from disadvantaged backgrounds is vital if the media is to retain a voice that is as diverse as the issues it reports on. We are committed to the supporting the success of the newspaper industry and young people who want to forge a career in journalism. The JDF is fantastic at providing opportunities to applicants whose careers could otherwise be disadvantaged by their circumstance.”

Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, said:
“It’s been a pleasure to manage the JDF over the past 10 years. NLA media access has been a source of constant support and, together with other sponsors of the fund, have provided almost 200 exceptional journalists with the financial means to secure the training they need. Both sponsors and supporters of the fund have worked hard to improve the make-up of their newsrooms and ensure they reflect the communities they serve. We hope the next decade sees more socially and ethnically diverse reporters take their place at UK publishers and broadcasters.”

Photocredit: David Parker

Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the  the NCTJ, had some encouraging words to say about the impact of the Journalism Diversity Fund at the 10 year anniversary reception held this week.

'(The JDF) has been a massive success. Nearly 200 young people have had their training paid for by the Journalism Diversity Fund, thanks to our sponsors -and it has helped young people start their careers in Journalism, which they wouldn't have been able to do without funding. It has made a difference to young people’s careers and it has made a difference to our newsrooms, which was obviously the intention in the first place, to change the face of our newsrooms. It is great to see so many recipients of the fund here tonight finding jobs in journalism - the fund is making a big difference. The NLA were instrumental in setting up the fund in the first place, and without the support of the national newspapers that support the NLA we wouldn’t have been able to set up the fund. It is thanks to their support that the fund has achieved what it has'.
 
We also spoke to Amber Haque, trainee journalist at the BBC, about the impact the JDF has had on her career:

Amber's speech, along with advice for aspiring young journalists, can be viewed here.

We have today announced the introduction of a simple copyright licence for PR agencies supplying news clips to clients.  It is a direct response to our clients request for a comprehensive flat rate licence that provides 1) budget certainty and simple administration for the agency and 2) advance copyright permission for delivery of news articles to clients.

The new licence is an efficient and economical means of securing advanced copyright permission by a PR agency for its client use.  In return for a flat fee of £194.00 per client (email address) the PR agency is granted rights to supply articles to clients from the entire NLA repertoire, in whatever format the client would like it delivered.

The licence has been designed with involvement, direction and advice from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Coast Communications. We are very grateful to both for their guidance and insight.  You will find the official press release here. In addition, the CIPR has created a helpful Q&A document for agencies requiring full details, which you can find here.

If you are an existing client of NLA, you will have the option to remain on your existing licence or transfer to the new licence when your current licence expires. As always, my team are available to answer any queries and will advise on the most appropriate licence for your needs.

NLA is often asked by clients ‘where do the licence fees we pay go?’    

The answer is – back to the publishers who employ the journalists creating the content. NLA revenues support journalism.

In 2014 NLA media access collected and distributed over £31m in royalty payments to publishers - the equivalent of employing 1,300 journalists. This figure  has grown year on year as commercial use of published content has increased.

Over 84% of NLA revenues are returned directly to publishers and 16% is spent on NLA costs and development of publisher and database services. In addition, NLA supports the Journalism Diversity Fund on behalf of the national newspapers with an annual contribution that has now reached over £1M.

Licence fees are paid by thousands of organisations seeking to copy and re-use published content for their own commercial purposes. This includes both media monitoring agencies and their clients.

A licence from NLA gives PR agencies, Government departments and in house PR teams access to and the right to copy from, 2800 newspapers and magazines and over 2000 web titles.

NLA’s formula of investment in news services and efficient and regular royalty payments to publishers means an effective service for all; it also ensures the vast majority of the money collected goes back to the content creators - newspaper and magazine publishers.

NLA media access has today announced that Henry Jones, currently area director (UK and Ireland) of leading media intelligence provider Meltwater, is to replace David Pugh as Managing Director on his retirement in spring 2016.

Commenting on the appointment, Tim Brooks, Chairman of NLA media access said:

"'In appointing Henry Jones as our Managing Director from a very strong field of candidates, we have made the best choice to enable NLA media access to build on the great success it has enjoyed under David Pugh's leadership. David has stressed innovation, service and partnership as key drivers of growth. Henry's experience, expertise and vision are exactly right to take us to the next level.”

Henry Jones said:

“When the opportunity came up to lead NLA media access I knew it was one I had to take. I have had a brilliant few years at Meltwater and have been proud to play a part in its growth and success. Now, I am looking forward to working with Tim, the board, and the management team in what I know is a creative and dynamic business.”

Henry is expected to join the company during the first quarter of 2016.

The NLA has had a close connection with India for many years now. Since 2006, our partnership with Ninestars Information Technologies Ltd., has enhanced the supply of press cuttings to UK media monitoring organisations via the eClips database. It is always distressing to see friends in trouble, as we look from afar at the news stories concerning the worst flooding for over 100 years across parts of Southern India following a cyclone that developed in the Bay of Bengal.

Two of the NLA’s outsourced production centres – Chennai, and further down the east coast at Pondicherry - are directly affected. Ninestars have been managing the situation over the last few days, the first priority being to ensure the safety & security of all staff. They have arranged transport for staff and changed shift patterns at short notice – and are still hitting the processing deadlines we set to service UK media monitoring organisations. This is a great testament to their professionalism, something we have seen time and again over the years of our partnership.

NLA publishers’ content is processed at 3 geographically separate and inter-changeable centres – Chennai, Tirupathi and Pondicherry – so that production can be switched at any time to safeguard services to publishers and monitoring clients. So far that has not been necessary, due to Ninestars’ detailed planning and management skills.

Let’s spare a thought for our friends at Ninestars as they battle very real dangers in supporting the eClips service over the coming days. It makes our commuting delays over ‘leaves on the line’ seem very trivial indeed.

The recent diesel emissions scandal was, and continues to be, a major reputation challenge to the automotive sector. Volkswagen, the highest profile casualty of the scandal, has seen its share price decimated, its CEO removed and its reputation damaged.

Although communications professionals do not have the power to reduce CO2 and NO2 emissions or go back in time, they aim increasingly to anticipate the impact of a particular story and advise on what response, if any, is necessary. This is where the NLA’s Article Impact Measurement (AIM) software comes in.

AIM offers PR and communications professionals access to previously unavailable audience data on the coverage generated on major UK national newspaper websites.  Data captured by AIM includes:
•    The total number of views of an article, provided by 10 national newspaper publisher websites
•    The number of times an article is republished, and on which third party websites

The Diesel Emissions Scandal

The insight this data provides can be demonstrated by analysing the reach of the media’s coverage of the emissions scandal. On 18 September, two major national papers reported the story (point A), generating around 12,500 page views between them. By 19 September, the number of page views rose considerably to around 75,000 before interest in the story dropped through to 20 September (point C). Between 21 and 22 September, other national news outlets broke the story; perhaps unexpectedly, this provided a boost to the number of page views for outlet four that broke the scandal (point D). It was not until 23/24 September that the first tranche of stories on the scandal began to fade from the public eye (point E).

So, what does this information reveal to a communications professional?

The AIM data provides a number of valuable insights for communications professionals seeking to prepare for crises or sell ins. Firstly, it shows the value that breaking a story first can have in achieving maximum coverage. It also shows that not all newspaper audiences are the same: despite breaking the story on the same day, outlet four achieved significantly more page views than outlet three.

Second, it shows that just because a story’s online reach falls after it has stopped being breaking news, it does not necessarily decline forever. Although page views on outlet four’s reporting of the scandal dropped after point B, it rose again as other outlets took up the story following point C. This demonstrates that it would be foolish to assume that a temporary drop in page views mean that public interest in the article will not recover at a later date.

Thirdly, it shows the inter-relationship between different outlets’ coverage of the same story. When other outlets first published the story on 22 September (at point D), page views were lifted for outlet four and outlet two. In this instance, while breaking the story first produced the most page views, new articles galvanised the page views of existing web content.

AIM also allows the user to view the relative ‘shelf life’ of news stories. The graph below is a representation of the same outlets breaking of the same story arranged by the number of page views each article received up to seven days after its first publication.

The statistics suggest that although articles may attract large amounts of page views for short periods, it is rare that a single article will sustain the public’s attention over the mid to long term. This is a vital insight for the communications professional when too often the instinct is to respond immediately. In absence of other articles, AIM data suggests that on occasion it can be better to avoid commenting on coverage if you have been the subject of critical media. Conversely, if pitching a story to media, taking a staggered approach over a number of days can generate a larger overall audience than a simultaneous one day sell in.

In conclusion

An empirical tool such as AIM cannot hope to replicate the skills, experience and knowhow of experienced communicators in demystifying appropriate responses to crises. It can, however, provide the industry with a new insight into the dynamics of the news-cycle and the ability to place clear values on the reach of newspaper coverage audience.  In the hands of skilled communicators, AIM is the key to spot trends, help communication professionals target their work and demonstrate their value internally.

News reaches the NLA that two former Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) recipients have recently won NCTJ Awards for Excellence. The awards recognise and reward the best journalism students completing NCTJ accredited courses with less than two years in employment.

George Gigney, now at Boxing News magazine, was named as Student Journalist of the Year having achieved the best exam results for the 2014/15 academic year. George completed his NCTJ Diploma in Journalism this year. He said:

“Simply put, without the JDF I wouldn’t have done the NTCJ diploma and my career aspirations would have been seriously hampered. The JDF putting their faith in me was a huge compliment … Winning the NCTJ student journalist of the year award seems the right way of paying the JDF back and I’m hugely proud of it.”

Sophie Mei Lan Slack, a JDF alumnus from 2012, won Multimedia Campaign of the Year for her campaign ThankYouNHS. BBC trainee Sophie’s campaign was highly commended by the judges for its use of social media, video, images and even poetry. This is the second time that Sophie has won an award following her Scoop of the Year award at the 2013 NCTJ Awards. She said:

“I wouldn’t have got into journalism properly if it hadn’t been for the Journalism Diversity Fund. I love journalism … but it’s hard to get very far without an NCTJ diploma behind you. The JDF gave me the chance to have the support and the money to get my diploma and MA at University of Salford.”

The success of George and Sophie highlights the important work of the JDF in encouraging the next generation of journalists to the profession. This year, NLA media access celebrated the 10th anniversary of supporting the JDF and continues to be a proud sponsor of the graduates of the fund. The NLA has donated over £1 million since 2005 helping those without the financial means to attend NCTJ-accredited journalism courses and kick start their careers.

Read more about the NCTJ Awards of Excellence here.

This week the total number of bursaries awarded by the Journalism Diversity Fund reached 200 as four up-and-coming journalists get ready to begin their training in 2016.

NLA media access and the Centre Français d’Exploitation du droit de Copies - CFC – have completed an agreement allowing them to license their respective publisher repertoire to media monitoring organisations - MMOs -  and business users in both countries. As a result, Les Echos, Le Monde, Figaro and other leading French titles can now be delivered as part of UK digital press cuttings services, and major UK titles like the Telegraph, Guardian and Independent can be delivered through licensed French MMOs.

NLA and CFC have also made access available to newspaper and magazine content through the eClips and CFC distre-presse databases to users in UK and France, and will co-operate in offering French and UK content to media monitoring companies in other territories. This additional content will be automatically included in current CFC and NLA end user licenses at local prices, so no additional agreement is required by users or MMOs. The agreement also replaces the special licences needed by French media monitoring suppliers and users accessing NLAs eClips service.  

NLA and CFC have come together in response to user requests to make it easier to use international content. Both are members of international organisations PDLN and IFRRO, who have provided model contracts to assist in reaching the new agreement. 

NLA media access international director Andrew Hughes said: “CFC are close and valued partners. Like NLA, they have created a comprehensive licensing structure for French agencies and clients which both respects publishers’ rights and supports legal use of high quality press material by agencies and their clients. We also co-operate on technical services. NLA is pleased to extend and support this alliance. We know UK agencies and users will welcome rights to use French content.”

Philippe Masseron, CFC’s General Manager, said: “We welcome the opportunity to offer seamless access to English language content to the French market and to have NLA media access act for us in the UK. Working together we can create better solutions for users and publishers. Working through PDLN and IFRRO we hope to extend these agreements to users in other countries. We aim to show that voluntary licensing is the best way to address market needs.”
                                                   

................................................................................

CFC is the French Reproduction Rights Organisation representing rightsholder of books, newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. For more than 12 years, CFC has been developing voluntary licensing schemes to permit digital uses of protected works in the business sector and particularly for the media monitoring organisations. CFC thus collects in field over 18M€ per year on behalf of press publishers and journalists. 
                                                  

Contact: Andrew Hughes International Director NLA - 020 7332 9359 ahughes@nla.co.uk

NLA media access is pleased to announce that a new three year contract has been agreed with Ninestars Information Technologies Ltd, extending our near ten-year partnership.  

Having undertaken an assessment of alternative outsourced production facilities, we have decided to renew the relationship with our current provider. Ninestars continue to demonstrate the clear understanding and importance of high quality press clippings, and the speed in which they need to be processed, in order to aid the NLA in supplying the UK and international media monitoring market through our eClips service.

As we enter February 2016, Ninestars currently clip around 200,000 PDF pages per month (supplied direct from publisher content management systems) for the NLA, to varying processing deadlines. The searchable press clippings generated from publisher PDFs are accessible to around half a million working professionals every day.

With such reliance on the NLA’s eClips technology comes the need for effective disaster recovery. eClips content is generated across three sites in the Tamil Nadu region of southern India:

-       Chennai

-       Pondicherry

-       Tirupati

With production spread across three sites, supported by staff 24/7, this arrangement means that the Ninestars team are able to divert content from one facility to another should there ever be a need.

The presence of a Ninestars facility in Pondicherry is particularly key for the NLA to support its growing partnership with the French reproduction rights organisation - Centre Français d'exploitation de droit de Copie (CFC). Since 2012 the NLA has (via Ninestars) processed French newspaper and magazine content for the french media monitoring market.

Working alongside Ninestars we expect another successful three years and see both continued growth in our eClips database and client satisfaction in early and high quality press coverage.

The NLA's eClips team processing content at the Chennai facility.

Eashwar, Vice President of Operations, proudly displaying photos of the changing NLA eClips teams across the 10 year partnership

The newest Ninestars production facility, at Tirupati

Last July, NLA media access launched an upgrade to ClipShare, the editorial database for newspaper journalists, with exciting new features including web content, a more dynamic search function, and a fresh design. For more detail on the changes that took place, please take look at our website www.nlamediaaccess.com/clipshare.

Since then, the NLA ClipShare team has been busy listening to users who have provided valuable feedback on the new ClipShare. As a result, we can announce the development of several further improvements including:

•    Users can now see their search terms highlighted within the article they are viewing
•    Making it easier for users to run searches across all national newspaper titles, without needing to click on each one individually
•    Making it easier for users to move between pages of results using the page numbers at the bottom of the search results page
•    For those users who have access to first editions, we have made it clearer which publication date is being viewed on the first editions home page
•    When viewing search results, it is now clearer which articles and pages appeared in which edition of the paper
These changes were prioritised thanks to dialogue with our users, who rely on the database to search through news content daily.

We will continue to improve ClipShare in future, working hard to make it as easy to use and intuitive as possible. In the meantime, if you experience any hitches please take a look at the ClipShare user guide for helpful tips and guidance. Alternatively, you can always contact us by email publisherservices@nla.co.uk or tweet us at @NLA_Ltd

 In November 2015, NLA introduced a simplified copyright licence for PR agencies supplying news clips to clients.  The licence was a result of work with Coast Communications and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

The CIPR challenged NLA to deliver a simplified and cost effective licence for PR agencies that would ease the burden on agencies and be a step forward in the fight against copyright complexity. 

 What’s the feedback so far?  Well, in just over two months, 100 agencies have subscribed to the new licence (that’s 43% of all licensed agencies*). It’s an early but very positive indicator of the attractiveness of the licence and its suitability for the market.  All clients have been pleasantly surprised by; (1) the simplified administration, (2) the cost certainty for themselves and their clients and (3) what’s more, for 8 out of 10 clients, the new licence is proving more cost effective. See below for some verbatim customer comments.

*Mid November 2015-January 2016

By working with the PR industry NLA is proving it can deliver a system that not only acknowledges its requirements but also reflects how the current market is delivering and consuming news.

NLA are pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Bonus Copyright Access  http://en.bonuscopyright.se/ allowing UK users to copy many Swedish newspapers. The agreement will also allow Bonus Copyright Access  to license copying of UK content in Sweden. The agreement includes both digital and paper rights but does not at this stage cover media monitoring service suppliers.

The agreement reflects NLA’s ambition to make it simpler for UK users to use international news content. NLA has concluded similar agreements with Irish, French, Spanish, Australian and Russian licensing bodies, as well as direct publisher agreements with leading global newspapers. NLA expects to expand this coverage further in the coming months.    

This year NLA media access celebrates 20 years of supporting journalism. To mark the occasion we’ll be launching a range of initiatives and hosting a series of events throughout 2016.

Since our launch in 1996 we have grown to become a leading provider of content and services for publishers and media monitoring organisations. By ensuring publishers receive a fair return when their content is used for commercial purposes, we support the equivalent of 1,300 jobs in journalism.

So much has changed in our first 20 years, especially with the growth of digital communications. When we started, ‘clippings’ were press packs distributed daily or weekly on paper, clipped and copied from printed editions. Now, newspaper and magazine content may come from web or tablet editions and are nearly always delivered to screens. NLA media access contributed to that monitoring revolution with the development of the eClips database, which takes print and web content directly from publishers and supplies media monitoring agencies and their clients.  Tens of thousands of business users now have access to eClips content every day.

Although the media landscape has changed dramatically, there are some things the NLA has stood for throughout. We pride ourselves on delivering efficient service to all our customers, and we never, ever, stand still. As we enter our 20^th year, we are now working with more publishers and content users than ever before, serving 256 publishers, 5,000 print and digital publications and nearly 10,000 corporate licensing clients.

Trends in globalisation have driven innovation too. Our leading role as members of the Press Database Licensing Network and IFRRO– networks which encourage sharing of content and copying rights – has brought real benefits, allowing users access to thousands of international news sources by brokering direct agreements between publishers, media monitoring organisations (MMOs) and users across the globe. Today, we have 22 rights exchange agreements covering 19 countries and supply 31 international media monitoring agencies, giving UK licence holders rights to copy many thousands of overseas newspapers including major titles such as Le Monde, the International New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

NLA media access has always ensured that supporting journalism is at the heart of our work. The money we return to publishers helps fund quality journalism. But we also go further, by encouraging entry to the profession. Over the last ten years, the NLA has supported the work of the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) with sponsorship exceeding £1m to create a route for aspiring journalists from diverse backgrounds make newsrooms representative of the communities they report on. Over 200 journalists have received JDF support to go on and work across the industry, from the Daily Mail to Sky News. We look forward to continuing our work together in the future, and supporting the next generation of journalists break the defining stories of the future.

During my 8-year tenure as Managing Director, I have enjoyed the unfailing support and guidance of the NLA board and staff. Together, we have increased the number of publishers and clients that we serve, used the skills of our dedicated licensing team to develop new client solutions and invested in the eClips database to launch innovative services for monitoring clients and publishers. As I hand over to Henry Jones later this month, I am confident that the NLA will continue to expand and offer services in new areas, providing ever more opportunities for publishers to realise the value of their content in the media monitoring market.

For more information about the NLA’s 20^th anniversary, including special features and photos, visit www.nlamediaaccess.com or follow #NLA20 @nla_ltd.

2016 is a landmark year for NLA media access as we celebrate 20 years of supporting UK journalism and today, I am delighted to announce the release of our latest annual report covering the 2015 financial year.

In 1996, as BSE and the Euro dominated the headlines, the NLA recovered just shy of £1 million in royalties for publishers. While the Eurozone still commands newspapers’ attention in 2016 - some things never change - I am pleased to announce that the NLA has generated £40 million in total licensing and database servicing revenue.

This result is a fantastic achievement and testament to the hard work of colleagues and the health of UK publishing. Royalties paid to publishers grew 8.5% and, despite investment in new staff and database development, plus an office move in Tunbridge Wells, efficiencies enabled NLA to return 84% of revenue collected directly to publishers. As case studies contained in the annual report from the The Economist, Tindle Newspapers and The Guardian all recognise, the NLA provides an increasingly valuable source of income for UK publishers.

In 2015 the NLA also donated a further £100,000 to the Journalism Diversity Fund, taking our contributions to this important cause to over £1 million since its launch in 2005.

While we celebrate our 20^th anniversary year, we continue to be mindful of changes in the media landscape and our customers’ changing needs. This is not a new challenge for the NLA. ClipShare, an NLA innovation used by over 7,000 journalists, has quickly become an indispensable tool for those in the industry. In a similar vein, 2015 saw the release of the new PR Client Service Licence to simplify copyright compliance for PR agencies. The licence was initiated and developed as a result of customer feedback, and further shaped by constructive input from the CIPR. Since its launch in November, over 160 PR agencies have opted to transfer across to the new licence.

2015 saw the NLA continue to increase the number of publishers and clients we serve, using our expertise to support the business development of monitoring clients and publishers alike. I have no doubt that this progress will continue in 2016 and beyond.

In addition to the release of the annual report today, we have published supplementary details on the cost of NLA licensing in both the public and private sector which demonstrate the excellent value that our licences offer in enabling clients to keep abreast of media reporting. As the figures show, the c. 8,000 NLA organisations in the private sector pay just £2.08 per employee per year for copyright clearance; in the public sector, covering central and local government and NGOs, the average cost of an NLA licence is reduced to just £1.62 per employee per year. These figures embody our core value of balancing value for money for all our clients with returning essential income direct to the creators and publishers of content

NLA publishers benefited from a record £34m in royalty payments in 2015, an increase of 12% on the previous year. Licensing is an increasingly important source of revenue for publishers in our digitised world. Royalty payments made by NLA to publishers are equivalent to supporting the employment of 1,500 journalists.

In addition to royalty collection and payment to publishers NLA invested 7% of the licence fees it collected in the maintenance and development of database services which serve the media monitoring market.

The company ended 2015 with a strong customer base, an increased portfolio of publishers to represent and clearly defined plans to develop revenues for all publishers. That continues.

As we celebrate our 20th anniversary year, we hope to build on these successes for the next two decades and continue our work in supporting journalism.

Today is World Intellectual Property Day, an annual event aimed at raising awareness of the issues surrounding IP. This year WIPO looks at how culture is created, accessed and financed and how a balanced and flexible intellectual property system helps ensure that those working in the creative sector, are properly paid for their work, so they can keep creating.

NLA media access is constantly working hard to protect publishers’ IP, so we can grow the royalties we return to publishers and support journalism. One such example of how we do this is our Online Article Tracking Services. (OATS).
 
In the modern world, as publishers’ content is increasingly digitised, OATS plays a vital role in helping us protect publishers IP. OATS identifies and manages the removal of infringing content republished on commercial and non-commercial sites. Once identified through OATS, we educate infringing domain owners on what can or cannot be copied. We also help infringing domains to seek the relevant permissions and give advice as to how to correctly credit the copyright owner.

In 2015, NLA media access contacted over 750 domains leading to the removal of infringing content from 86% of them. Although there is always more to do, we are proud that we are helping to raise awareness of copyright and IP.

You can learn more about our OATS service here and find out what others are doing to celebrate World IP Day using #WorldIPDay.

Do Publishers Really Exist? It’s an odd question to ask, but currently in European law, (which is focused on author’s rights) they don’t have any formal status. This has led to some rather odd legal outcomes,  so publishers have persuaded the European Commission to consult on correcting the anomaly.

This subject was debated at a seminar in Amsterdam last Saturday. The event, which was hosted by CIVR and run by Cambridge University, also considered how copyright law interacts with newspaper publishing.

The audience and speakers were predominantly academic lawyers, but the discussion was less technical than might be expected. To the extent that any consensus emerged it was that;

-          The challenges for news publishing are much bigger than copyright law;
-          Tightening copyright law and enforcement would help, marginally;
-          If the publisher anomaly needs to be addressed a less sweeping amendment would be preferred by most.

A hot topic was the initial failures in Spain and Germany of attempts to use a local publishers’ right (also called ancillary or neighbourhood rights) to force Google and others to pay for the content they use.  Some publishers see this as progress, and some users as a threat. One thing is for certain, when debating this issue, the emotion is larger than the revenue.

Matt Rogerson, Head of Public Policy at the Guardian, explained the huge pressure publishers face as digital revenue evaporates in the face of over-supply and ad blocking.  The recent closure of the print edition of the Independent helped some present focus on the reality, as did the  Enders Analysis slide (below) showing the decline in newspapers' advertising income.

As is sometimes the case, the lawyers’ opinions wavered and havered (the comment if you pose four copyright lawyers a question you get five opinions rang true).  The economist demonstrated lawyers don’t have a monopoly on sophistry; check the logic behind “users like Google News so we should legislate to ensure it continues “.  Another long day in the copyright law forest but progress was made.

As our recently published annual report clearly demonstrated, 2015, the NLA’s 20th year representing publishers, was another success story. If you like numbers they are here.

Alongside growing the royalties we return to publishers, we continued to invest in providing content and services for publishers and media monitoring organisations. Magazine publishers added their content to eClips during the year, bringing the number of professional users with access to the service to half a million.

As for services used by journalists, the ClipShare service was upgraded to both increase access speeds and deliver search results on the breadth of content dating back to 2007. Continuing to develop the service is today more important than ever, with over 7,000 journalists now relying on it for their daily work.

2015 also saw a landmark in our support for the next generation of journalism, with NLA contributions to the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) passing £1m.

With a packed calendar and lots of exciting initiatives on the horizon, I look forward to seeing the next chapter of our organisation unfold in its 20th year.