NLA helps magazine publishers reclaim their royalties with dedicated microsite and content masterclass

NLA media access, one of the UK’s media licensing agencies, is launching an awareness campaign to help UK magazine publishers claim historic and future royalties for use of their content.

The microsite will host a series of blog posts published as part of a ‘Content Masterclass’ over the first quarter of 2014, on topics from copyright and copying to royalties and rights management.

Drawing on expertise from veteran journalists and publishers including Elisabeth Ribbans and Brian MacArthur, the masterclass aims to:

•         demystify the legal frameworks around copying;
•         explain how to safeguard content; and
•         clarify publishers’ and authors’ rights.

The NLA, which began life managing content licensing and data feeds for newspapers, paid out around £25m in royalties to newspapers in 2013. Last year, it was asked by the Professional Publishers Association (PPA) to take on responsibility for royalty collection for magazine publishers. Following the PPA’s recommendation of the NLA to its members, over 150 publishers – over 40% of the market by value – have signed up with the NLA over the past nine months.

However, there are still hundreds of smaller magazine publishers who are not signed up to receive royalties from companies copying their content.

David Pugh, Managing Director of NLA media access, comments,

“Many smaller publishers are focusing on creating great content for their readers, and are often not even aware that they could be generating an additional revenue stream from royalties. Every time a publisher’s content is used, republished on the internet, or supplied as a PDF clip to a PR company they are owed publishing royalties. 

“It's difficult for smaller independent publishers to collect this money on their own. That is why organisations like NLA media access and the Publishers Licensing Society exist to help complete the process quickly and efficiently.”

To help magazine publishers understand how royalty collection and payments work, the NLA have set up a dedicated microsite at nla.co.uk/royalties, where a brief video shows how royalties are generated, FAQs should answer common queries, and there’s a contact form direct to the royalties team.

To learn more, get in touch with the NLA, or to sign up for the masterclass posts, visit nla.co.uk/royalties.

Key facts about signing up with the NLA

•        Content is licensed for re-use to over 200,000 UK organisations, maximising royalties
•        Content is registered with the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS), and publishers are set up to claim historic
         and future royalties
•        Publishers can work with the NLA to identify new licensing opportunities.

About NLA media access

Originally called the Newspaper Licensing Agency, NLA media access was set up by eight national newspaper companies to protect the industry's copyright through collective licensing.  It now represents the rights of over 200 publishers.

NLA media access gives permission for organisations to copy from an extensive range of newspapers, magazines and websites and provides database services to both media monitoring agencies and publishers. In 2013 more than 200,000 organisations relied upon NLA media access annual licences.

Eighty per cent of the company’s revenues are returned to the publishers to be invested back into the industry. In 2012 NLA media access revenues equated to the salaries of 1100 journalists.

Contact: Andrew May andrew.may@theopen-road.com / 0203 542 1119

Technology to help picture agencies - Photochecker

NLA media access believes technology should help copyright owners. We invest in technology to make content easier to use, to create transparency, and to make it easier for content owners to get paid properly. One example of this is that we are now providing photo libraries with a service that helps them track where their pictures have been published. Photochecker provides online access to a library of major UK titles, including time and geographic editions, and an archive. The aim is to reduce the time spent reconciling supply, use and payment. Early adopters have included Getty and PA, but smaller agencies are also benefitting from the service.

Martin Stephens, Managing Director of Press Association Images, commented that “monitoring use of images in both printed newspapers and particularly on their fast-changing websites is a challenging task. Having access to a database with all editions of printed titles and every image that appears online is a very useful tool.”

The development of Photochecker reflects newspaper interest in working with agencies to ensure transparency on where and how content is used. NLA media access is happy to help the two groups to work together.

For further information, please contact Rita Miscioscia RMiscioscia@nla.co.uk

The PPA Independent Publisher Conference and Awards 2013

In the oft repeated narrative of industry decline and economic hardship it is easy to forget that many niche, specialist and independent publishers are thriving, growing businesses. 

Nowhere is this more apparent than the PPA independent publisher conference held last week, which saw hundreds of publishers, journalists, suppliers and industry experts descend on Central London last week to share innovation, ideas and expertise.   Highlights for me were talks by Jim Bilton of Wessenden Marketing on top tips for publishers moving to the digital world and Sigaria CEO Alex Martinez who explained their transition from publishing house to membership led community.

This was also a time for recognising excellence and the PPA Independent Publisher Awards 2013 saw the publishers of The Drum, Wanderlust and Student Farmer amongst the winners.  Publishers Carnyx (Media Brand of the Year and Editor of the Year, The Drum), Think and (Team of the Year, Publishing Company of the Year and Customer Magazine of the Year) were particularly successful.

Meanwhile I had a productive time explaining to publisher delegates how NLA media access could help them deliver efficiency and growth in copyright licensing revenue, following its recommendation as a supplier by the PPA.  

All in all an excellent event - and one that makes us feel optimistic for the future of the industry and NLA’s expanding role in it.

If you are a publisher and want to find out more about how NLA media access can help you collect licensing revenues, you can email me on pangell@nla.co.uk

Patrick Angell

Celebrating 100 years of the Professional Publishers Association

Last night I was delighted to attend the PPA’s centenary dinner, celebrating its long history representing the media publishing business.

Part of the post dinner entertainment was the announcement of the PPA cover of the century; picked from a short list of member titles.  A tough decision with so many iconic designs to choose from. Time Out and the Beano came close, but the Radio Times with a Dalek cover was the clear winner from the public vote.

I feel sure the cover splash will retain central importance for many publishers, but the next hundred years will of course see a very different publishing landscape evolve.  Today’s publishing businesses – or media brands – are increasingly focused on digital subscriptions, SEO, tablet apps and video channels as they work hard to replace the decline in print revenues.

NLA media access is excited to have a role delivering one of those alternative sources of revenues.  We have recently been recommended as a partner by the PPA for the secondary licensing of magazine content, deploying years of expertise gained licensing the newspaper industry.  Demand has been high, with 77 PPA publisher members switching to NLA media access in the first wave in October 2013 - and a further 78 joining early next year. 

We admit, extended collective licensing is somewhat less glamorous than producing cover art!  But it generates an increasingly important revenue stream and we are pleased to extend our services to magazine publishers, in addition to our newspaper clients.

David Pugh

Licences for Europe

Over the past year NLA media access and the Newspaper Publishers Association have been contributing to an initiative called Licences For Europe, the European Commission's review of the state of copyright, licensing, business models and developments in the digital world.

We welcomed the chance to be involved with this initiative – particularly on improving cross border licensing.  NLA media access itself does a lot of work in this area and we already have direct deals in place with 1600 ex UK organisations, ensuring UK publisher content can be readily and legally accessed abroad, as well as cross licensing agreements with 14 countries, which we are extending to include digital rights.

A great deal of time, effort and thought goes into these initiatives from NLA media access, UK publishers and our international representatives at IFFRO and PDLN.   As the copyright consultation carousel turns once more it is worth bearing in mind that Licences for Europe, as with UK consultations on the Hargreaves and Hooper reports, arrived at the not very surprising conclusion that optimising copyright law via a licensing model works for the vast majority of stakeholders. 

And that just might be because, according to the Global Intellectual Property Index, the UK and other EU states have some of the best copyright regimes around.