First Journalism Diversity Fund recipients of 2014 announced

I’m pleased to report that the first group of young journalists to benefit from the Journalism Diversity Fund will shortly receive their bursaries.  Seven were picked in this year’s first cohort of bursary recipients, with round two recipients to be announced shortly.

The Journalism Diversity Fund is a charitable cause close to our hearts and NLA media access has been supporting the foundation financially since its launch in 2005.  It was set up to help journalists from ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds with bursaries for training.  Last year it also began offering paid internships to help promising students with additional placements.

Past recipients, who otherwise might not have been able to start a career in journalism, have benefited from the scheme and gone on to start careers at national and regional publishers.  One of last year’s recipients Khaleda Rahman, now a trainee reporter for the MailOnline, wrote about her experience for NLA media access last year, pointing out that; “many young people from ethnic backgrounds shy away from pursuing a career in the media – but that’s slowly but surely changing thanks to the fund.”

We wish the best of luck to the latest group of trainees.

No copyright on a good idea

There is no copyright on a good idea. In addition to its work licensing content, NLA media access acts as a forum for sharing ideas between publishers. Following the recommendation of the PPA Executive last year NLA now represents over 2361 magazines and websites.

As part of its work with PPA NLA is now running a series of seminars for magazine publishers – at which both PPA members and non-members are welcome. These aim to share ideas and best practice between publishers in the areas most relevant to secondary licensing. The topics include rights management, how database applications support content exploitation, and tools for managing copyright infringement. Speakers include Head of Rights and Content Acquisition, The Guardian, Sophie Hanbury, Content Partnerships Director, Daily Telegraph, , Fergus McKenna, Head of Syndication & Licensing, Trinity Mirror. Details of the events and registration details are now live at http://www.ppa.co.uk/events/ 

Mixed messages on copyright reform

The end of last month saw the celebration of World Intellectual Property Day.  Admittedly it is not a high profile event in most calendars but nevertheless, it is well worth celebrating a mechanism that allows creators to derive a livelihood from the works they produce; written, spoken, built or otherwise.

The Publishers Association chief executive Richard Mollet used the opportunity to critique the UK’s ongoing efforts to alter copyright law in UK and the latest controversy over copyright exceptions, a topic the NLA has covered before on this blog. 

A number of bodies have pointed out problems relating to text and data mining and the contract override provision.  One concern relating to the contract override is that it can contradict existing law and make it unclear which rule relating to the copying and use of a particular piece of content has supremacy over the other.  As Richard notes government changes have a “glaring ambiguity in a law which simultaneously appears to both allow and disallow the restriction of the act of copying.”

The new rules are being hurried through with limited scrutiny by parliamentarians a mechanism called a statutory instrument. As a side note for the politically uninitiated these have a chequered use by Government to push through controversial laws in a hurry (see Henry Porter circa 2009).

Whilst not directly affected by the issues immediately to hand, we certainly have sympathy with the Publishers Association and others in the music industry. 

We hope the Government will consider the concerns raised by the UK’s creative community.  It should ensure that new powers to introduce legislation by statutory instrument do not fall into the old trap of hurrying on legislation in a way that might undermine what, according to independent observers, is presently one of Europes’ best functioning IP and copyright regimes.

NLA media access 2013 company report

Today I am pleased to announce the publication of the NLA’s 2013/14 annual review.  News Value gives an update on another successful year for the team at NLA media access. 

We have been busy delivering licensing and database solutions, whilst also embarking on a major expansion into the magazine publishing sector.  The report also details work with industry and government on the Copyright Hub, and how our charitable donations help young journalists kick-start their careers.

We are pleased to report that publisher revenue grew 7.3% this year, to £25.9 million.  This allowed us to support the equivalent of 1,100 jobs in journalism – an addition of sixty six jobs on the previous year.

Ours is a small but important part of the £10bn publishing industry contribution to the creative economy.  But the wider importance of NLA media access and other collective management organisations’ role in enabling commercial use of copyrighted content  should not be underestimated.  

Thanks go to the guest contributors featured in this year’s report; Andrew Horton of IPC media, Brian McCarthy of Archant, Khaleda Rahman of Mail Online and Sandra Chastanet, from CFC our partners in France.

Please read on.

A convention of spiritualists

According to Tom Stoppard ‘the media’ sounds like a ‘convention of spiritualists’.  In that a positive piece of media coverage can be reincarnated, used for promotional purposes and provide value, long after its first publication date, the statement has some truth, don’t you think?

If you are the company who has received the positive press in targeted publications, be they magazines, newspapers or on-line, only you will know the true value to your company or client. In your consideration and enthusiasm to post a scanned clip or text extract from a hard won publication, remember that the piece belongs to someone. In this case, it’s the magazine or newspaper publisher.

If like many others, you want to use the positive press piece as promotional collateral and extend its lifespan, by posting it on your website, Facebook page, Twitter and other social media you’ll need to acknowledge the publisher. 

You can do this by either:

-          asking explicit permission from each individual publisher.

-          or purchasing a licence from a collective licensing organisation like ourselves, giving you advance permission to post articles from multiple publications – prices start @ £158.00 per licence.

Recently NLA has had some Twitter comments from PR agencies surprised that NLA has contacted their clients, advising them of a licence requirement for re-use of published content. Whilst we appreciate that some companies are surprised, our role is to advise them of their obligations and offer solutions.  We will continue to make those calls and provide that advice. You can also refer your clients to our blog and website for further information on what we do, and how to get in touch with directly with publishers.

(You might also find this article, on simply linking to news stories of (commercial) interest as it provides guidance on what is (generally) permissible without the need for a licence or publisher permission.