A festive exchange between the NLA and PRCA

Readers of CorpComms magazine will have received a guide to copyright law in their latest issue,  sponsored by the Newspaper Licensing Agency and designed to help PRs navigate the ins and outs of the licensing requirements for newspaper content. 

Here at the NLA we genuinely appreciate the PR industry’s support for newspaper publishers and the journalists they employ.  Our licences for press clippings, database access and other NLA services are a source of income much needed by newspaper publishers.

As our Infographic shows, NLA licence fees contribute the equivalent of 800 jobs in the newspaper industry, some in hard pressed regional and local titles. These journalists then in turn create the written content which provides the publicity the PR industry thrives on.
We were therefore disappointed  to see the latest comments from the industry trade body PRCA.  It seems not everyone is wishing the newspaper industry a happy Christmas. 
As the PRCA has decided to take a less than constructive approach to our copyright guide - we wanted to make some points on their blog post:

• Following the Copyright Tribunal decision on web licensing, earlier this year, a joint statement was issued by the NLA, UKMMA, Meltwater and PRCA explaining the agreed pricing structure for clients.  Since then we have worked positively with Meltwater and their customers to implement web licensing, which we had delayed until the Tribunal's decision.  We hope that the PRCA will soon be able to join the rest of the PR industry in moving on and working constructively together - which would be of greater benefit to its members.
• The PRCA blog post references a corporate web licence which the NLA has recently introduced.  This provides a cost-effective licensing solution for those companies wanting to republish content from multiple publishers on their web sites (referencing positive product reviews etc). It is worth bearing in mind however that like all NLA licenses it is non-exclusive.  Companies can still approach publishers individually and negotiate a fee to use their content, if they prefer.
• When quoting for new licences, the NLA is committed to providing a fair quote based on the information provided to us by a licensee once they have explained what they want or need to do with newspaper content.  If the client decides to change the level of cover required, naturally their quote will change to reflect this.

We take customer satisfaction seriously and will shortly update our annual report with 2012 results of our monthly survey.  So if you do have a question, concern or lack of clarity around your license, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thanks – and have a Merry Christmas!

The NLA team