Where does the money go?

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.