NLA are pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Kopiosto allowing Kopiosto licensed Finnish users to copy most UK newspapers and news websites. The agreement will also allow NLA to license copying of some Finnish content in UK. The agreement does not at this stage cover media monitoring service suppliers. We hope to expand the remit to MMOs in future.

The agreement reflects NLA’s ambition to make it simpler for international business users to use UK news content in the context of local licenses and services. NLA has concluded similar agreements with many international licensing businesses – see here. NLA also licenses direct rights to over 2,000 international business through its IMMO programme. NLA has added Swedish and other rights in 2016 expects to further expand international availability of UK content rights further in the coming months.

NLA media access is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Austrian licensing body Literar-Mechana allowing them to license Austrian users to copy most UK newspapers and news websites. The agreement does not at this stage cover media monitoring service suppliers. We hope to expand the remit to MMOs in future.

The agreement is a further step forward towards realising NLA’s ambition to make it simpler for international business users to use UK news content in the context of local licenses and services. NLA has concluded similar agreements with many international licensing businesses – see here. NLA also licenses direct rights to over 2,000 international businesses through its IMMO programme. NLA has added French, Finnish and Swedish agreements in 2016 and expects to further expand international availability of UK content rights.

In 2006, The Economist Group made the decision to switch from the Copyright Licensing Agency to  NLA media access. They were attracted by NLA’s focus on licensing of the media monitoring sector and its corporate clients.

Joanna Alexandre, Syndication and Licensing Director at The Economist said: “The NLA is a publisher owned business with a great track record of delivering growth for its members. It has particular strength in the media monitoring market where The Economist content is actively copied by businesses, both in the UK and worldwide. This business model is very effective; if The Economist’s content is clipped and supplied to an organisation by a media monitoring organisation (MMO), NLA is advised and licenses the MMO and client supplied accordingly. This means that our share of royalties reflects the actual usage of our content. Our decision to switch to NLA in 2006 remains a good one to this day’.

The NLA has grown the revenues paid to The Economist steadily over the last 10 years, with over a  20% increase in the last 3 years’

NLA remains steadfast in its commitment to providing efficient and effective licensing and database solutions. These services support publishers in providing access to their content. The Economist is one of 256 publishers signed up with NLA.

Tindle Newspapers is one of the largest privately owned, independent family newspapers groups in the United Kingdom, which today owns 200 titles and three radio stations. The group’s success is a result of its local and community focus.

NLA media access has contributed to that success, delivering a 65% growth in royalties paid to Tindle newspapers in the last two years alone.
 
In mid-2012, Tindle increased the number of titles registered with the NLA for copyright licensing and this was the spark to improving this increasingly valuable revenue stream. Although individually small, NLA’s convenient licensing structure enables Tindle’s titles, which feature in a client’s monitoring brief, to be part of a collective licence, along with 3600 other titles.
 
As Sir Ray Tindle confirms, ‘The NLA team look after us very well. They ensure we make the most of the services they offer and do this in a streamlined, painless way. The NLA income provides an increasingly valuable source of revenue for Tindle and one we do not have the in-house resource or expertise to manage independently. We are delighted with the royalties received from the NLA to date.’

In November 2015, NLA added a flat fee PR Client Service Licence to its range of licences for PR agencies.

The new licence is an efficient and economical means of securing advanced copyright permission for PR agencies and their clients’ use.  

The licence was developed by the NLA with advice from the Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Coast Communications. It was a direct response to clients’ requests and provides budget certainty and simplicity for agencies.

In return for a flat fee of £197.00 per client user, the PR agency is granted rights to supply articles from the entire NLA repertoire, in whatever format the client requires it to be delivered.

•    In April and May 2016, 96% of PR agencies that renewed their licence opted for the new
•    For eight out of ten clients, the new licence is proving more comprehensive and cost effective than their old licence.
•    50% of smaller PR agencies (five or fewer staff) do not require any other form of copyright licence, keeping administration and cost to a minimum.
•    Since its launch over 420 NLA clients have chosen the licence – that’s 71% of all licensed agencies.*

You’ll find a selection of customer comments in the supporting notes.

*During the period November 2015-May 2016 607 PR agencies have renewed their NLA licence of which 429 (71%) have chosen the PR Client Service licence.

Supporting Notes - NLA client comments:
Very happy with the new licence – finally NLA is more straightforward.
Simplifies licensing.
Provides cost certainty.
Administratively it will save time for all parties.
From a compliance viewpoint, the new licence is not as restrictive as the current PR Licence and will encourage clients to access more content from a greater range of publications.

On the licence renewal process:
Oh groan. Is it that time of the year again already?
Oh wow! The £197.00 flat rate per client sounds fab. Makes my life so much simpler.
Thanks so much – never has an NLA renewal been so easy.

There is a long tradition of politicians working as (quasi)-journalists – and although more rarely – journalists turning full time politician.  Boris Johnson, whose appointment as Foreign Secretary brought to an end, at least temporarily, his Telegraph column, is just the most recent example.

Boris may yet join a more exclusive club – that of journalists who become prime minister. History provides several examples, the most recent of whom is Gordon Brown, who worked as a journalist for Scottish Television, later serving as current affairs editor until his election to Parliament in 1983. Despite his media background, however, his premiership was renowned for its sometimes troubled relations with the press.

Brown’s illustrious predecessor Sir Winston Churchill was both before and during his political career a more prolific journalist than any other occupant of 10 Downing Street. Before his election to parliament he worked as a war correspondent for both The Pioneer and The Daily Telegraph, reporting on the Siege of Malakand in British India, the Mahdist War in Sudan and the Second Boer War in South Africa.  His writing enhanced his political career considerably.

Although his star waned in the Thirties as his condemnation of Nazi aggression was widely regarded as alarmist, he kept his views in front of the British public via his newspaper articles until events proved him right. His speeches and histories give him a claim to be the finest writer ever to have been PM, and he was well aware of the power of words, epitomised in his quip: “History will be kind for me for I intend to write it.”

Although party leader and never prime minister, another very talented journalist and writer was Michael Foot, whose study of Hazlitt is still well worth a read, while Disraeli was a published novelist.

More obscurely, Ted Heath was news editor of the Church Times; and Harold MacMillan demonstrated a different kind of connection between politics and writing: his family owned the eponymous publishing company, and he worked in the firm while the Conservative Party was in opposition from 1945 to 1951.

The increasingly permeable boundaries between the media and politics mean that these are unlikely to be the last examples of prime ministers who started in broadcasting or newspapers. Of the current crop Ruth Davidson - a former BBC Radio Scotland journalist, presenter and reporter – is tipped for great things on one side of the border or the other. And one should never say never about politics: Michael Gove made his name as a newspaper columnist before entering parliament. It would be ironic, in view of recent events, if he were to beat Boris to the top of the heap.

Rights to copy overseas content keep getting easier. Following the conclusion of agreements with licensing bodies in France, Spain, Austria, Australia, Sweden and Finland over the past 12 months, NLA media access is pleased to announce that it has reached an agreement with Portuguese licensing body Visapress (www.visapress.pt). The new partnership will allow NLA and Visapress to license local users to copy newspaper and news website content from the other organisation.

This agreement is another step towards realising NLA’s ambition of making it even simpler for business users to access and re-use international news content legally. International news forms a small but growing proportion of media coverage for business, with the NLA directly licensing over 2,000 international businesses through its IMMO programme.

Looking to the future, NLA will continue to work through the PDLN and IFRRO licensing associations to simplify rights for UK and international business to receive and use content, encouraging the development of business friendly licensing solutions across the globe.

Andrew Hughes, International Director, NLA

CEDRO, the Spanish national copyright agency and NLA media access, the UK service, have completed a platform sharing agreement which will make Spanish and UK content available to media monitoring businesses across Europe and beyond. NLA will process leading Spanish content through its online database eClips for inclusion in CEDRO and NLA licensed services. The agreement follows a similar arrangement between NLA and French agency CFC.

Both parties expect the proven, simple, timely and consistent delivery of publisher content to MMO services to allow monitoring agencies to focus more attention on client services and less on content procurement. In the UK and France, applications to increase the quality and timeliness of content delivery has already helped market development. By creating a direct, high quality connection between publisher systems to users of media monitoring services, eClips underlines the common interests of publishers and MMOs in serving the needs of PR professionals.

The agreement will also allow consistent delivery and licensing of Spanish and UK content in UK and throughout NLA’s international services, which are used by media firms in many other countries.

Magdelena Vinent, CEO of CEDRO said: “CEDRO is committed to working with publishers, MMOs and service users to simplify licensing and access to news content. This new agreement extends that effort. We look forward to further developing our progressive relationship with the industry”

Andrew Hughes, International Director, NLA said “NLA and CEDRO both want to improve services for users. Licensing bodies like ours connect publishers, MMOs and their users, and build on their common interests of all parties in providing high quality services and clear legal rights. We have proved in France that our eClips platform works outside UK. We are delighted that our relationship with CEDRO has reached this new milestone”.

The NLA team is delighted to announce that we have reached an agreement to work with PA (the Press Association), the national news agency for the UK and Ireland. This valuable new partnership, which launched on 1st October, ensures content published by PA newswires and used by media monitoring organisations and end users is all covered within the NLA’s licensing frameworks. From now on, when PA content is copied by MMOs and sent to end-users their activities will be covered by an NLA licence.
 
When taken alongside agreements with both Reuters and Alliance News, signing up PA to the NLA roster is a demonstration of the reach we now have across newswires. While newspapers remain the core of our business, we are striving hard to extend our offering to all branches of the media - including newswires, new magazine publishers, born digital and broadcast. This comes at the same time Andrew Hughes and team continue to expand our international coverage, recently agreeing digital rights agreements in Portugal and Finland.
 
We’re delighted to be working with PA, one of the most recognised UK media brands, continuing our work to provide a comprehensive, simple and fair licensing regime for providers and users alike.

NLA media access is pleased to announce that it has reached a new partnership agreement with the Luxembourg licensing body LUXORR (www.luxorr.lu). The agreement will allow LUXORR to license local media monitoring businesses and users - including major European institutions - to copy UK newspaper and news website content, including Guardian, Economist, Telegraph, Times and other titles. Luxembourg has long been an important territory for multinational businesses and organisations - these will now be able to cover valuable UK content simply and easily through their LUXORR licence.

NLA’s international director, Andrew Hughes, said:

“We are delighted to have been able to reach this new agreement with LUXORR. With the conclusion of similar negotiations with licensing bodies in Portugal, Spain and Austria over the last six months, the NLA’s drive to make it even simpler for business users to access and re-use international news content legally continues apace”.

By making it even simpler for business users to access and re-use international news content legally, the NLA creates simple user solutions. Revenue generated through licensing goes directly to publishers to support high quality journalism.

In addition to rights exchange agreements, NLA also directly licenses over 2,000 international businesses through its IMMO programme. You can find out more about IMMO here.

NLA is delighted to announce that from 1st January 2017 Media Monitoring Organisations (MMOs) and UK businesses with an NLA licence will be covered to copy from leading websites Huffingtonpost.co.uk and engadget.com.
 
The Huffington Post is a Pulitzer Prize-winning source of breaking news, video, features, and entertainment, as well as a highly engaged global community for opinion and conversation. The UK edition averages 12 million unique visitors per month (comScore).

Engadget is a leading consumer technology publication. Its web, mobile, and Flipboard presence has grown to reach over 27 million unique visitors per month (comScore). Engadget is also the official partner of the Best of CES Awards and has been the Official Online News Source for the world's largest tradeshow for consumer electronics since 2009.

This completes a year in which the NLA has added Bloomberg.com, Press Association, Newsweek and others to its portfolio of the most important news sources from newspapers, magazines, newswires and websites. It is now easier than ever for MMOs and licensed organisations to access content legally, while reimbursing publishers for use of their content.

NLA media access has significantly extended its agreement with German publisher-owned media service PMG Presse-Monitor GmbH. For the first time German media monitoring organisations and their clients will be able to receive, scan and deliver UK print and web content under their agreements with PMG. NLA and PMG expect this simplification of licensing agreements will benefit users and increase revenue to rights holders.

Prior to the new agreement, which starts in January 2017, NLA offered direct licences to German MMOs. NLA also supplied UK newspaper text to PMG. Now MMOs can get the content and rights from PMG, PMG users can receive content in rich PDF format, and web scraping can be licensed. PMG can also incorporate NLA material in its media evaluation services. The current NLA offering remains in place so German MMOs can choose what best suits their clients.

NLA hopes to extend its direct licensing of German language content for UK users: Süddeutsche Zeitung and Neue Zürcher Zeitung have completed agreements with NLA and other agreements are under development.
Dr Oliver Grassy, MD, PMG said: “We welcome the addition of valuable UK content to our MMO and direct services. PMG is committed to working with the MMO market to create simple solutions for users.”

Andrew Hughes, International Director, NLA media access said: “Germany should be the biggest overseas market for UK content in Europe. Extending our partnership with PMG is the best way to simplify the often complex rules for accessing international content. We know that simplicity is crucial to encourage use, and – following similar agreements in France, Spain and elsewhere - this agreement is a big step forward.”

Regular readers of this blog will know that 2016 marked the twentieth year of NLA media access.  We didn’t make a great deal of the anniversary, however along with the turn of the year, we did reflect on time gone by and how the industry continues to evolve.

Most importantly, if 2016 taught us anything, it was that news – proper news, written or presented by professionals – has an irreplaceable value. And since our organisation is founded on exactly that proposition, it was good to hear so many others say the same.

That is not to denigrate the extraordinary contribution that user-generated content – or citizen journalism, call it what you will – can make to news. Digital devices and fast broadband make reporters of us all. But the controversy over fake news is a reminder that the costly process of editing and checking is worth paying for.

Money matters more than ever in journalism, and we try to help. In 2016 the NLA returned another record year of revenue to publishers from our licensing operations and database services; taking our cumulative contribution over two decades to £340m.  Annually, this contribution to publishers is the equivalent to the cost of employing 1,500 journalists.

2016 saw other trends which will continue into 2017. There was a steady drumbeat of international partnerships in the year – France, Sweden, Austria and others; we continue to expand and improve our eClips and ClipShare services; and we added significantly to our repertoire of content, growing our database to an impressive 95 million articles.

Social responsibility matters to us as well: our £100k donation in 2016 took our support for the Journalism Diversity Fund past the £1 million mark since we started in 2005.

In the year ahead we will continue to innovate, improve services to MMOs, PR agencies and our other commercial partners, whilst upholding the NLA’s core purpose: supporting journalism, a cause that matters more than ever.

NLA has concluded an agreement with Greek licensing body OSDEL which will allow OSDEL to include UK newspaper content in its current and future licences, including planned media monitoring agreements. The agreement takes effect in February 2017 and covers over 2,300 UK newspapers, websites and magazines.

George-Andrew Zannos, General Manager, OSDEL said “We welcome this endorsement of our drive to create a central clearing house for Greek business  to access and re-use news content legally. NLA represents some of the biggest brands in UK and  international news and these will add significant value to OSDEL services”.

Andrew Hughes, NLA International Director said “This is a further step forwards in our program to simplify UK content rights administration for corporate users and media monitoring organisations outside the UK. Greek MMOs and their clients will now have seamless access to powerful UK newspaper content set within the OSDEL licences. It is also a vote of confidence in OSDEL’s 2017 licensing plans”.

Tim Brooks has been reappointed Chairman of NLA media access by the Board.

The NLA has significantly expanded since Tim became Chairman in 2014: we now represent the intellectual property rights of over 3,600 newspaper and magazine titles, and over 2,100 web titles. Our eClips database holds more than 95 million individual articles, and over the last 12 months, 92% of PR companies have adopted our PR Client Service Licence.

The company has also broadened its reach under Tim’s leadership, signing new partnerships with the Press Association and Huffington Post, as well as international agreements with companies in France, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Luxemburg.

The guidance that Tim provides to me and to the company, shaped by his impressive track record in publishing, has been vital to this success. He launched his first magazine, Media Week, in 1985, and subsequently rose to serve on the boards of IPC Media, Time Inc South Pacific, and Guardian Media Group. He also sits on the UK Cabinet Office Digital Advisory Board and is an Advisory Council Member of the British Library. The wealth of knowledge he has gathered during this time remains a crucial asset.

As the newspaper industry undergoes rapid changes, combined with the rise of untrustworthy sources and continuing threats to intellectual property, the work of NLA media access has never been more important. I look forward to working under Tim’s leadership as we expand our range of content and adapt to exciting developments in publishing and PR.

The controversy over fake news is generating plenty of real news too. The phenomenon of made-up stories for political or financial gain – which became an issue during the US presidential election – has now sparked interest among U.K. politicians. The Culture Media and Sport Committee last month announced an inquiry into the issue, as has the Labour Party.

But politicians might be struggling to keep up with readers, who already show signs of turning away from fake news to trusted and verified sources. The New York Times, for example, added a record 267,000 subscribers in Q4 2016, while in the UK recent ABC figures revealed paid-for sales of The Observer and The Times rose by 1.5% and 3.8% respectively in January 2017, and the Guardian saw subscriptions jump from 15,000 to 200,000 during 2016. With the spectre of (allegedly Russian) misinformation hanging over the French and German elections, we might expect this trend to continue elsewhere in Europe.

Publishers share the spirit of optimism: a study conducted by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute found that 70% of publishers believe public trust in mainstream media outlets will be strengthened by the threat of fake news, compared to just 17% who thought it would be weakened.

One should not get carried away. The newspaper industry faces many challenges, and a revolt against fake news can have difficult implications for freedom of speech too, as the current situation in the States indicates. But it is good to be reminded that, in a competitive market, readers can and will vote with their wallets, and choose to pay for something of enduring value – something that NLA media access was itself created to support: independent, high-quality journalism.

Today sees the publication of NLA’s 2017 Annual Report, which charts a year of strong performance and record returns to publishers – and also one of substantial change for the organisation.

2016 saw long-standing members of NLA’s leadership team depart: David Pugh retired as Managing Director after seven years of success, including driving revenue growth of over 50% since 2011. Our longstanding Sales Director Susan Dowley also stepped down after an impressive 11 years with the company. We wish them both well.

The year also saw significant change outside the organisation. Several new players entered the UK MMO market, and online news outlets continued to experiment with different forms of subscription alongside the conventional advertising-funded model. The Independent becoming a digital-only newspaper was a dramatic example of how news and publishing is evolving in the digital age – a change that NLA is navigating while maintaining our service to customers.

In this context we are delighted with NLA’s record results and continued domestic and international growth. We posted revenues of £42 million, growing overall royalties for publishers by more than 4%. This was especially significant for magazine and regional publishers, who enjoyed an increase in royalties by 13% and 8% respectively. Our successful investment in the eClips and ClipShare services took the total number of articles included to over 95 million. We signed six new national agreements with companies in France, Sweden, Germany, Austria and Luxembourg.

As we look forward to 2017 and the new financial year, I am pleased that Tim Brooks will give us his guidance for three more years as the Chairman of NLA. His strong leadership has been invaluable during this period of exciting but important change for the business, and will ensure we continue to focus on our core purpose: delivering high-quality content quickly and efficiently to those who value it, while protecting the intellectual property of those who produce it.

Henry Jones,

Managing Director, NLA media access

Today is World Intellectual Property (IP) Day. OK, it might not lead to people dancing in the streets. But intellectual property – the idea that creators have rights over what they create – is so fundamental to the work of NLA media access that we can’t let the day pass unmarked.

Established in 2000 by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), this year’s theme is the role that intellectual property rights play in encouraging innovation and creativity through attracting investment, fairly rewarding creators, and providing them with space to develop ideas.

That is also NLA thinking. IP rights are central to journalism and underpin the news we read every day. Without them, investment in quality journalism would simply not be feasible.

Our work has delivered significant results and provided direct support to publishers and their journalism. In 2016, by upholding publishers’ IP, we delivered them £35m in royalties. This marked a 4% increase over the previous year. 

We’ve done this by keeping up with technology, step by step. Wonderful though the internet and the digital economy undoubtedly are, they have made it a lot easier to copy and share content that someone else has invested time and money in producing. That is simply wrong. It might seem to be a free lunch for some, but it comes at a cost – less of the reliable journalism which democratic debate requires.

So our IP services are responsive to the challenges of digital media, such as deriving value from online content and limiting the use of material on the internet without permission or payment. Our online copyright infringement service OATS works to tackle serious copyright offenders. In 2016, we contacted over 800 websites, leading to the removal of almost 80% of the infringing content.

IP protection will always be NLA’s central purpose: not just on World Intellectual Property Day but every day of the year.

You can learn more about World IP Day, support or participate in the event by using the #WorldIPDay hashtag. 

On 1^st August, NLA media access announced the first of many titles to be made available on our new eClips Web Specialist product; www.thegrocer.co.uk. 

eClips Web Specialist will give clients access to unique premium content that is not available using traditional scraping methods or seen in print editions. In keeping with all of our eClips products, these will be supplied directly from the publisher, including content from behind the paywall.

We will be making a number of other titles available in the coming weeks and months including websites such as www.spectator.co.uk, www.energyvoice.co.uk, www.mca-insight.com and www.utilityweek.co.uk.

If you would like more information about these sites and the eClips Web Specialist service, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Bob Johns

Client Services Manager

e: bjohns@nla.co.uk

dl:0207 3329355

Our friends at the Intellectual Property Office have produced their annual blockbuster report into IP crime and enforcement. Weighing in at a hefty 117 pages, it covers both physical counterfeiting of goods and online IP infringement, and contains many encouraging examples of action being taken to tackle what is theft by any other name. Take a look at it here.

NLA media access is supportive of the efforts being made by the IPO and its partners in copyright enforcement for the very simple reason that we believe that creativity has value, and that value has to be protected. That applies to journalists and publishers just as much as it does to the many other areas of IP in the report. All of us in the creative industries – whether in publishing, music, film, TV, photography or design – have a common interest here.

In our case protecting IP is not only a matter of rhetoric. Our work translates into money that is reinvested into journalism - £35m to publishers in 2016, for example. That is a return which we have worked to increase, year by year, since the NLA was established.

Our commitment to boosting publisher revenues is a constant. But how we do that has changed – and the IPO report makes clear that change is essential, simply because IP infringement has itself become more sophisticated and digital technology has made copying and distributing content very simple for the unscrupulous.

We take action wherever we can. We ensure that the use of copyright material produced by newspaper and magazine publishers is paid for; we’ve moved from licensing physical copying to online distribution; and we pursue offenders including via our online copyright infringement service OATS. We are committed to innovation in copyright protection and licensing – and that includes making the licensing system simpler and more affordable to encourage compliance.

As Jo Johnson, the minister responsible for the IPO observes in the report: ‘without [IP] innovators do not get paid, legitimate business cannot thrive, consumers suffer and…criminals prosper’. In that spirit NLA is going to continue to work to ensure that newspapers and magazines get a fair return and infringement is minimised.