Friday, June 14, 2013 at 11:28 
2012 was a significant year of consolidation and growth for NLA media access and the publishers it represents. Read our Annual Review to get an insight into what we do and why we do it, including statements from the publishers we represent and details of our activities in wider industry initiatives.
David Pugh
Managing Director, NLA media access
Follow the NLA on Twitter - @NLA_ltd
Friday, June 14, 2013 at 11:22 
NLA is pleased to announce our new company name - NLA media access.
The name change reflects the evolution of the company from a licensor of press clippings to its current role as a supplier of content and services to the publishing, media monitoring and corporate markets.
Over a decade and a half ago the NLA created a publisher owned licensing business. In 2006 it pioneered the development of a database of content. That database now includes content from over 500 newspapers and websites and is the source of news alerts for many businesses across the UK.
Our new name unifies our growing portfolio of services, it's a simple expression of what we deliver today and a reflection of the growing portfolio of news content (which on behalf of the publishers we represent) we give you access to.
You'll find more information on this revamped website. Here you will also find our first annual report and a short video explaining our heritage, what we currently deliver and our future plans.
With a new name and a new identity we look forward to working with you all, content owners, media monitors, business, charity, PR agencies and everyone else who values news media in 2013 and beyond.
David Pugh
Managing Director, NLA media access
Follow the NLA on Twitter - @NLA_ltd
Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 9:25 
Remember reading about that inspiring charity fundraiser, trophy for the local football team, or the latest tax/bus/library/bin collection scandal? The chances are you saw it first in the local newspaper.
Such material is the bread and butter for many of the 1,100 local newspapers. They bind together communities by providing a highly trusted and relevant source of news. The Newspaper Society is doing a great job of highlighting the value of regional news brands this week by organising Local Newspaper Week.
No-one would deny times have been tough for newspapers of all shapes and sizes. But it is worth remembering that 31 million people read a local paper every week and 62 million visit their websites each month. 6 in 10 members of the adult population read a local newspaper and HoldTheFrontPage reported soaring online readership rates for regional publishers in the final months of last year. So it would seem reports of the industry’s demise are greatly exaggerated.
PR professionals do their bit of course – by paying NLA licence fees to monitor regional news content. In 2012 we paid a total of £8.3 million in licence income to regional publishers - enough to support the jobs of several hundred local journalists.
If you value this source of news - don’t forget to buy the local paper this week!
David Pugh
Managing Director, NLA
Follow the NLA on Twitter - @NLA_ltd
Monday, April 22, 2013 at 9:05 
An interesting analysis of last week’s Supreme Court judgment in NLA's case with Meltwater has just been published by Simon Clark and Toby Headdon, our legal team at Berwin Leighton Paisner. They observe that “the Supreme Court’s view does raise some difficult issues which the ECJ will no doubt need to consider carefully. On its view, from a copyright perspective, viewing pirated copies of content online becomes fair game with no disincentive for web users to use legitimate sources. The copyright owner will be left to pursue the source of the pirated material, no doubt located offshore, or seek a blocking injunction against ISPs, which are often circumvented. The decision could be viewed by many as something of an online pirate’s charter”.
No doubt content owners in the music and video areas will be paying the judgment serious attention.
BLP go on to suggest that this could be one more nudge in the direction of pay-walls for news publishers – which will make the media monitoring aspects of the judgment increasingly irrelevant by the time the ECJ rules.
To read more: http://www.blplaw.com/intellectual-property/copyright-designs?view=know-how
David Pugh
Managing Director, NLA
Follow the NLA on Twitter - @NLA_ltd
Wednesday, April 17, 2013 at 9:01 The Supreme Court today referred to the European Courts of Justice (ECJ) the NLA and Meltwater legal case relating to 'temporary copying'.
The European Courts of Justice will now consider whether an alerts service delivered as a web link would be covered by the temporary copies exception. The UK Supreme Court favoured the appeal but has sought confirmation from the ECJ before issuing any final ruling on this issue.
The Supreme Court considered whether a Meltwater service in which the end user opened articles on a publisher site might fall within the temporary copying exception. The case followed an appeal on one narrow technical aspect of the ‘Meltwater’ legal case Court of Appeal judgment in 2011 (all other issues decided in the NLA’s favour remain unaffected).
There is no immediate impact on the NLA web licences. Newspaper headlines and text extracts
continue to attract copyright, Media Monitoring Organisations (MMO’s) will continue to require licences for the content they distribute, and end users will continue to require a licence for the content they receive by e-mail. The ECJ is expected to take many months to reach a conclusion so it could be two or three years before any final order is made.
David Pugh, Managing Director of the NLA said:
“We will now await the ECJ’s judgement on this matter –which may take some time regardless of the final outcome, we welcome the fact that core NLA principles have been upheld by the Supreme Court – paid-for web monitoring services using publishers’ content require copyright licences and therefore remuneration for publishers.”
“We are also pleased to see that the Supreme Court acknowledged that if an end user of an alert service delivered as a web link (rather than by e-mail) were not required to pay a licence fee, then Meltwater’s licence fee would very likely be substantially higher – a view that the NLA expressed before the Copyright Tribunal last year.”
Notes to Editors
This Supreme Court referral to the ECJ relates to a narrow technical legal matter in the Meltwater legal case, following the resolution of earlier High and Appeal court proceedings and the Copyright Tribunal.
Meltwater continues to be licenced by the NLA for newspaper publishers online content.