Who gave you permission?

In October 2013 NLA media access increased the range and number of magazine titles we license, giving organisations permission to copy and share content from a wealth of business to business and business to consumer titles.  This year alone, over 3000 clients have benefited from this additional cover - all wrapped up in one comprehensive licence. 

For those clients renewing their NLA licence during the period October-December 2014, you will benefit from an expanded portfolio of over 2000 titles – including those you value and monitor.   You can also search and filter titles relevant to your business sector and select those from which you need internal copying and external re-publishing permission (e.g why not post a positive piece to your corporate Facebook page). By way of example, if you operate in the Music industry we can grant you permission to copy and share articles from everything including BBC Music, to Guitarist to Uncut. 

We are delighted to be able to offer you this additional cover in one licence. For your convenience, the extra cover can be added, simply and efficiently on the anniversary of your existing NLA licence.   My licensing team is on hand to assist you in the selection and assessment of the right level of cover for your organisation.  Please do get in touch to discuss your individual needs.

Finally, I often get asked by clients ‘what happens to the licence fees I pay’?  you will find details in our infographic.  In short, your licence fees support UK journalism and the investment publishers make in generating the content you rely on and value. 

Journalism Diversity Fund student wins place on BBC scheme

One of the speakers at the Journalism Diversity Fund lunch last week was Megan Bramall. Her story demonstrates the difference that the Fund and its media supporters can make to someone who has the determination to break in to journalism.

Here is the speech that she gave:

I’m Megan, I’m 23 and I’ve lived in quite an unlovable little town up north called Wigan since birth.

It’s a working class town through and through and there certainly aren’t many opportunities. The closest I got to journalism growing up was when my mum worked in the canteen at The Wigan Evening Post.

My parents brought my up to be a hard worker and constantly reminded me that I could be anything I wanted to be – there was a whole world out there away from little old Wigan.

What I wanted to be was a journalist, so although the odds were against me I wasn’t about to admit defeat.

After taking all the work experience I could get in between working on my gap year and hitting a brick wall without an NCJT despite a first class degree I decided to apply for a Journalism diversity fund bursary.

After a long and terrifying interview I was awarded the funding.

The fund made a career in journalism a possibility for me and I’m guessing for some of you too. Without it I couldn’t have trained and I wouldn’t be where I am now.

Last year I was standing where you’re standing. I had just started my NCTJ training like you and this week I’m coming to the end of my 4^th week of training on the BBC Journalism Trainee Scheme – which is a year- long paid training scheme allowing trainees to spend time in different newsrooms across The BBC. This year I’ll be spending time at BBC Breakfast, 5 Live and UK online. It really is a precious and completely unique experience.

My whole life changed last year at this lunch when I met someone from the BBC. She’s here today – Cheryl Varley. She handed out her email address and told all of the bursary recipients to email her, so I did, the same day. I wrote about where I come from – the high pregnancy and unemployment rates, how I’d been working non-stop from the age of 14 and became the first in my family to go to university. Cheryl has since told me that it was this quick response, keeping in touch with her and responding quickly when she needed me that impressed her and kept her informing me of opportunities.

All of you here have the opportunity to meet Cheryl today and apply for the BBC Journalism Trainee Scheme next year.

Wherever you go my advice to you will be not to hide your diversity. Big news organisations like the BBC aren’t looking to fill their newsrooms with the same people. Being funded by the Journalism Diversity Fund it is now your responsibility to represent that diversity wherever you go.

You need to speak on behalf of the communities you come from and tell the stories that matter to them. Ensure that journalism represents everyone from the UK.

Finally I’d like to thank both The Journalism Diversity Fund and the BBC for the amazing opportunities presented to me over the past year.

Journalism Diversity Fund Update

We reported yesterday on the Journalism Diversity Fund lunch, hosted by the BBC. NLA media access made a donation of £100,000 to continue the great work that the Fund is doing to promote diversity in newsrooms; bringing our total contribution to date to just under £1m (David Pugh is pictured presenting the sponsorship cheque to Kim Fletcher (left), Chairman of the JDF).

One of the speakers at the celebratory lunch was Layth Yousif, now a reporter at the Bedford Times and Citizen. He spoke eloquently about his background as a son of immigrants to the UK, the struggle that he had to get into journalism – and the support that the JDF provided to make it possible.

You can read a full account of Layth’s story in this article from Hold the Front Page.

NLA media access continues significant donations to Journalism Diversity Fund

NLA media access today donated £100,000 to the Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF), bringing its total support for the bursary scheme to nearly £1m.

The Journalism Diversity Fund (JDF) was set up by the newspaper industry in 2005 to support the training of journalists from ethnically and socially diverse backgrounds.  NLA media access is the JDF’s biggest supporter, and has been donating to it since its launch.

In the 2013-14 academic year the scheme supported 23 students from diverse backgrounds who would not otherwise have had the financial means to support themselves on a NCTJ-accredited course.  Since its creation the JDF has provided bursaries for over 150 aspiring journalists who have gone on to work across the industry, from the national and local press to BBC and Sky News.

Managing Director David Pugh said:

“NLA media access contributes to a vibrant UK media market by providing database and licensing solutions to UK businesses on behalf of news publishers.  As part of our commitment to the newspaper industry, we are keen to do what we can to promote diversity in journalism and support students looking for a career in media.  The Journalism Diversity Fund does an excellent job achieving just this.”

Joanne Butcher, chief executive of the National Council for the Training of Journalists, said:

“We are very grateful for the NLA’s consistent support over the years.   This generous contribution to the fund has given so many talented students who are passionate about journalism the financial support they needed to start their careers.”

ENDS

Notes to editors:

For more information, spokespeople or case studies including Khaleda Raham on page 10 of the NLA Annual Review, please contact Tom Denney on Tom.Denney@theopen-road.com or 0207 645 3593

About NLA media access

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 1,400 national, regional and foreign newspapers, over 1300 magazines and over 2000 newspaper and magazine websites.

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 2013 NLA media access revenues equated to the salaries of 1100 journalists.

www.nla.co.uk  

European court ruling on browsing the web – an update

It is now three months since the Court of Justice of the European Union announced its ‘temporary copying’ decision in the long running web licensing case between NLA and Meltwater.

The cries of ‘won’ and ‘lost’ over the narrow point of ‘temporary copying’ are confusing – and a number of our clients have asked for clarification about NLA licensing of web publications.  The key point, which was not under review by the CJEU, is that web published content continues to have copyright protection and commercial use must be paid for.  As decided by the High Court and upheld in the Court of Appeal, headlines and snippets of text can attract copyright protection and their use for commercial purposes requires a licence. As a result, publishers and journalists get a fair return for the content they create if it is used by others in paid-for monitoring services.   

So what was the case about? There is a concise (and independent) summary on the Lexology web site.

From the perspective of NLA licence-holders: what has changed – and what has not? 

Starting with what has not changed, the decision only applies to browsing of web sites; it does not legitimise printing out or downloading works without the permission of copyright owners.  The 2012 Court of Appeal ruling on these points was not challenged, so organisations still require a licence for commercially exploiting web published content in these ways. 

Secondly, as stated, headlines and snippets, (integral to paid-for media monitoring services) continue to attract copyright protection. So any paid-for monitoring service sending e-mail summaries of media coverage also need a licence to provide the service to their clients.

This means that there is no change to the licensing of current services received by clients of media monitoring agencies.  NLA media access customers who have a Web End User Licence will need to retain one.

Turning to what could change, there may be new services developing that will not require an end-user licence, but those are for monitoring agencies to define. NLA media access is ready to create appropriate licences for them, depending on what use of publishers’ content they might propose. We have indicated to service providers and relevant representative bodies that we are open to dialogue on any new services that might take advantage of the CJEU ruling, when they are ready to discuss them.