Copyright Hub CEO appointed

There will be, I’m sure, a general welcome among people who value copyright and the support that licensing gives to the creative industries at the news that Dominic Young is taking on the job of CEO of the Copyright Hub at the beginning of December.

But the welcome is particularly warm here as Dominic is a former chairman of NLA media access; and has been both a staunch champion of the newspaper licensing system, and one of the most innovative and interesting thinkers about the future of copyright in the digital age - as his contributions both to our blog and his own reveal.

Dominic is taking over at the Copyright Hub at a really important time. Ros Lynch did a great job in getting the organisation up and moving forward.  The next year and beyond is the time when the organisation has to become wholly embedded in the creative sector and accepted and understood by content users.

I can’t think of anyone who has a better chance of achieving that demanding task than Dominic. He can certainly count on our support.

David Pugh

Managing Director, NLA media access

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Paywalls - World Publishers

The World Publishers expo in Berlin last week gave the industry a valuable opportunity to discuss strategies to meet the challenge of growing revenue in the digital age.

 

Affiliate links strategies, branded content partnerships and events based marketing were all on show last week.  Much like the music industry, newspaper and magazine publishers are rising to the challenge and finding ever more creative ways to plug the hole left by falling physical sales.

 

However, for many UK publishers whether or not to implement a paywall, how porous to make it, and what to price subscription at remains a crucial strategic decision.  Reports in the Press Gazette that The Times titles have hit 350,000 combined print and online subscribers, despite the increased subscription price, is another indicator that a paywall provides a successful solution for some.

 

Whilst we wouldn’t presume to offer any individual publisher advice on their strategy, NLA media access has a natural bias to support these changes.  As we have said before any move by publishers to make the value of content clearer tends to get our vote.

Andrew Hughes

Commercial Director, NLA media access

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NLA media access announces BMJ CEO Tim Brooks as new chairman

NLA media access, the company responsible for collective licensing of newspaper and magazine publishers’ content, has named Tim Brooks as its new Chairman. Tim will take over from Richard Withey, Chairman for the past 3 years, in January 2014.

Tim joins NLA media access with an impressive track-record spanning journalism and publishing that is highly relevant to the future development of the business.  Launching his first magazine, Media Week, with two friends in 1985, he subsequently served on the boards of Emap Business Communications, IPC Media, Time Inc South Pacific, and Guardian Media Group, before joining BMJ as CEO in October 2012.  Tim was Chairman of the Newspaper Publishers Association, 2007-09; Visiting Fellow in Strategy at London Business School, 2011-12; serves on the UK Cabinet Office Digital Advisory Board; and is a director of the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

He joins NLA media access at a period of growth for the company, which saw income generated from licensing rise 15% in 2012 and £24 million paid back to publishers, funding the equivalent of 950 jobs in journalism and the extension of licensing and database services to include magazine and web titles.

David Pugh, NLA media access managing director said;
“Tim’s combination of senior press and magazine experience, together with his broad view of business will be a great asset.”  
“I look forward to working with him as we develop NLA media access to serve a wider group of publishers and continue to innovate to make licensing simpler for users of copyrighted content.”

Tim Brooks commented: ‘NLA media access works behind the scenes to provide a vital service for publishers. Having been an admirer both of the company’s strategy, and its ability to execute on that strategy, I am greatly looking forward to assisting in its continued development.’

David Pugh

Managing Director, NLA media access

IP and the creative industries: risk and rewards

 “We are blessed in the UK with extraordinary creativity which is backed up by superb training in technical skills and a supportive tax regime.  All this will be put at risk if creators cannot rely on a strong framework of intellectual property rights which are robustly enforced.”

Not our words – but those John Whittingdale, chair of the Culture, Media and Sport committee.  The influential body of MPs this week released a report reminding UK legislators of the huge contribution the creative industries make to the UK economy, and making recommendations as to how the industry can continue to thrive.  A few points jumped out at me:

Creative industry’s contribution to the UK economy.

 Quantifying the exact value of such a rapidly evolving industry is always a tall order, but I suspect the £36.3 billion figure the committee quotes may be a low estimate. Past calculations by Nesta put the value as high as £50bn.  The best estimate for copyright’s contribution is c.£5bn (IPO / Imperial College)

1.5 million people are employed in the creative industries or in creative roles in other industries. 

 This is remarkable – 1.5 million jobs is over 5% of total UK employment.  200,000 of these jobs are in publishing, many of them the newspaper and magazine titles which NLA revenues support.

The industry needs a central champion of Intellectual Property (IP) in Government.

 It does feel that the Government has a somewhat schizophrenic approach to the creative industries. It helps with one hand (part funding the copyright hub) and hinders with the other (unexpected and unwarranted proposals to weaken the copyright regime).  A clearer remit for an individual or group to champion IP rather than challenge it would be helpful.

As the report says, much more evidence and scrutiny is required before any exceptions to copyright such as those proposed in the Hargreaves review are applied.

David Pugh

Licensing for the digital age: The Copyright Hub one year on

NLA media access is a keen supporter of the Copyright Hub, an industry initiative aimed at providing solutions to the questions posed by Richard Hooper’s excellent ‘Copyright Works’ report.  The Copyright Licensing Steering group today releases a report detailing achievements over the last year and ambitions for the next 12 months. 
 
The report illustrates the real progress made implementing some of Richard Hooper and Ros Lynch’s recommendations. All parts of the creative industries are now working collaboratively to come up with solutions to the challenges of modernising copyright licensing.
 
One highlight for NLA media access amongst the six work streams covered is simplifying copyright for educational establishments. Our recently announced partnership with the CLA ensures the administrative burden will be reduced for many schools and universities seeking licences for newspaper and magazine content.
 
We heard encouraging words today from both the IP minister, Viscount Leskie of Younger and the IPO for the work so far.  At NLA media access we feel collaborative licence based approaches are always the best option.  We hope it means we can move past some of the more divisive consultations, that sometimes come out of the blue, and instead concentrate on creating a cross border, cross repertoire resource that ensures copyright works efficiently for all.
 
On that vein, NLA media access and the other members of the Copyright Licencing Steering Group have committed to another 12 months’ work, as well as meeting funding required for the Copyright Hub.
 
I am sure the second year can be an equally fruitful one – and we will regularly update readers of this blog on progress.
 
David Pugh

Managing Director, NLA media access

Follow the NLA on Twitter - @NLA_ltd