What Future for Newspapers?

For more than a decade now the newspaper industry has been portrayed as a diminishing light, its once-powerful voice muted by the social and new-media economy. The current environment was thrown into relief last week as stark new figures published in Press Gazette suggest that nearly 300 newspaper titles have closed in 10 years. There are now only 6,500 employed journalists compared to double that in 2005.

Despite this news, the report also contained a small ray of light for journalists, editors, and publishers large and small. 100 new titles were launched in that same time period and overall, 1,100 local newspapers are still published in the UK, according to News Media Association. This year, for instance, Newsquest has launched four new newspapers or newspaper editions, and Tindle has launched five titles in London.
 
While we don’t claim responsibility for these nascent publications, the revenue NLA media access collects on behalf of publishers through licensing equates to the employment of around 1,100 journalists in the UK. A small but not insignificant contribution to the industry that supports our licensees, helping them to get their messages heard by 46 million people per year .

We strive to support journalism in everything we do and look forward to continuing to support the newspaper industry as it continues to deliver an invaluable service in the digital world.

Reuters and NLA partner to provide seamless PR rights

A one stop shop is probably never going to emerge for content rights, but NLA is working hard to simplify licensing for UK media monitoring agencies and users by getting more content in one place and covered by one licence. In the last two years this approach has served us well. We have recruited over 200 magazine publishers, added most of the few UK newspapers we hadn’t already recruited, and significantly expanded our international coverage, adding digital rights for Spain, Switzerland, Russia and other countries.

In continued recognition of the broadening appeal of our licensing, we can also now add to that list  global news organisation Reuters. In what we hope will be the first of many digital content brands to sign agreements with the NLA, from December 1st copies of content published by Reuters and widely used by many MMOs and end users in the UK will be covered by the relevant licences. Reuters is one of the biggest brands in media, and NLA are very pleased to be working with them to streamline the rights clearance for providers and users of media monitoring services.

This new agreement is, in our view, the beginning of continued growth for the NLA. We see significant need and opportunity in international coverage, and in the diversity of new media. Born digital, broadcast and overseas material and rights are all potential additions to the umbrella. Ensuring the proposition works for users and publishers so the industry can expand its horizons without running into copyright issues is what we do. We call ourselves NLA media access and – while newspapers remain at the core of our content coverage – the Reuters agreement shows we now have a broader view of where we sit in the media landscape.

NLA hits 200 – with Faversham House

We are pleased to report that Faversham House has chosen to switch their licensing to NLA media access, bringing the total of magazine publishers covered by the NLA licence to 200.  Since NLA first started licensing magazine content in October 2013, following the PPA recommendation to members, publishers have been deciding on an individual basis  whether or not to use the NLA service. The fact so many have decided to transfer to NLA in such as short space of time shows the growing industry confidence in our ability to deliver, underpinned by the positive experience of those who transferred from the start. Some of the comments from leading brands include:  

‘We are delighted with the monthly royalties we have been receiving from PLS since NLA media access started licensing our content less than a year ago.’ Paul Hunt, Deputy Finance Director, Euromoney Institutional Investor

‘As a small publisher we value all our revenue streams, so I was surprised and delighted to receive a significant rise in secondary licensing revenues following our switch to NLA’ Rob Chambers, Managing Director, Total Telecom

‘For Time Inc, the switching decision was straightforward and our royalties have grown over the last year as a result.’ Andrew Horton, Director, Content & Brand Licensing, Time Inc. (UK) Ltd.

In 2014 NLA generated over £3m for magazines, and the expectation for 2015 is over £4m, and as we continue to add more publishers, revenue will continue to grow. 

Copyright Infringement - a Wider View

Last week NLA media access hosted an industry roundtable looking at how the creative industries are fighting the rising tide of online copyright infringement. Following that, we felt it would be useful to share our experiences in a bit more detail.

What’s the scale of the problem for newspaper publishers?

In a typical week, over 13,000 articles from 5 major UK newspapers are cut and copied into other sites. These are often professionally-run sites supported by advertising and ecommerce services. One site alone took 488 articles in one week.

Who copies newspaper content?

NLA has established that the majority of sites infringing copyright were news and sport sites. Specialist sector, travel and tourism, academic, entertainment, blog/forum, independent/non-commercial sites were also infringing although at a lower volume.

We have also found that focusing on one nominally located domain type (e.g. ‘.uk’) fails to capture the whole problem. Of the 100 sites we recently reviewed that were infringing UK content, only 16 % were ‘.UK’ domains, 67% ‘.com’ and the remaining 17% other types (e.g. ‘.org’, ‘.net’ etc.).

What protections do publishers currently have?

In addition to brokering a deal in infringement between ISPs and the film industry, the UK government has funded a police unit (PICPU) to track and enforce copyright. The EC is also looking to provide support for anti-piracy initiatives. The creative industries have direct initiatives including the Publishers Association Copyright Infringement Portal and the long established PAFCT programme amongst many others.

Our response – OATS

NLA has developed a copyright infringement management service for publishers, which we call OATS (Online Article Tracking System). OATS uses web search technology to identify where newspaper articles are republished online, wrapped in a managed service where NLA also acts to enforce publisher rights on behalf of newspapers.

At the first stage sites identified as re-using content from the publishers are encouraged to link legitimately or to seek a licence from the content owner. If there is no response to the initial approach cease and desist letters are sent where appropriate.

More information on OATS can be read here

Why publishers invest in OATS

Direct returns from copyright infringement monitoring may be limited but publishers who invest in content realise compliance is necessary to protect their business. There is also a ‘hygiene’ benefit, letting the market know the owner is watching their activity and encouraging legitimate use.

At a wider level simply knowing what is happening to content on the web creates insights that allow publishers to better target compliance efforts.

Our success to date

A year on from the launch of OATS, it is already proving a valuable resource. Five national newspaper publishers are now paying NLA to identify and manage communication with infringing websites on their behalf, saving both time and resource.

To date, NLA has contacted in excess of 500 domains with a 75% success rate of removal of infringed content.

Industry response

Sophie Hanbury – Content Partnership Director, The Telegraph

“Working with OATS reiterates The Telegraph's commitment to protecting the copyright of our valuable news content whilst reinforcing a consistent strategic approach to our metered digital products and paid services. OATS has been highly effective in the drive to police large-scale systematic infringements and works in tandem with our Legal and Syndication teams to reassure our commercial partners that the contracted products and services they pay for are valuable, of a high quality and worth protecting.”

Helen Wilson – Content Sales Manager, Syndication, The Guardian

“Using OATS has enabled Guardian News & Media Ltd to contact a much higher number of sites who are currently misusing our content online. The weekly report provides rich metadata as to the type of site misusing content, the type of content which they are taking, in addition to the frequency of the misuse. Being a member of OATS has significantly reduced the time spent by the Sales team contacting copyright infringers, enabling them to focus their energies on new sources of revenue generation.”

More information

For more information on NLAs work with OATS, please contact George Shepherd at gshepherd@nla.co.uk or 0207 332 9367

Tackling online copyright infringement

Yesterday NLA media access co-hosted an industry roundtable event looking at what more publishers and organisations representing rights holders can do to tackle the threat of online copyright infringement.

The event brought together representatives from across the creative industries covering music, book, film, TV, magazine and newspaper publishers, with the industry regulator (the IPO) and PIPCU, the City of London Police’s dedicated copyright enforcement team. The roundtable was expertly chaired by Mike Weatherley MP, author of three reports on copyright in this parliament and until earlier this year the Prime Minister’s adviser on intellectual property.

It also provided us with an opportunity to share our own experiences with the wider creative industry, and also learn from the experiences of others. News content abuse is rife online - from a typical sample of five newspapers over a 7 day period, over 13,000 articles were copied across c. 800 domains.  

At the event we exhibited NLA’s Online Article Tracking System (OATS), launched in 2013 to support publishers in tracking and finding pirated content. A year on from its launch, OATS is already proving a valuable resource to publishers. Five national newspaper publishers have contracted us directly to identify and manage communication with the infringing websites on the publisher’s behalf, saving the publisher both time and resource. To date, we have contacted over 500 domains with a 75% success rate of removal of infringed content.

We know that the challenge is huge – most abuse online is by organisations with either no money, no understanding of copyright, no respect for copyright or a combination of all three. But regardless of how great the challenge is, we believe in our responsibility to do what we can to support publishers online. Not only that, our continued work demonstrates to anyone thinking about pirating online content that we will respond to misuse, and that copyright matters.

If you are interested to find out more about our work with OATS, please contact George Shepherd, Publisher Relations Manager at gshepherd@nla.co.uk.