UK: a report by Jeremy Thompson, Managing Director of Durrants
Print and web licences are negotiated with two bodies for almost all publications. These are the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) and the Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA). Only a handful of publishers remain outside the mandates of these two bodies.
Secondary users like Durrants require licences to copy. There is one licence with the CLA and three with the NLA. The three NLA licences cover hard/soft copy distribution, eClips and web sources. Negotiations are undertaken on behalf of most media monitors by the UK Media Monitoring Association (UKMMA).
In outline, media monitoring fees are as follows:
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CLA
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Copying for hard copy distribution
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5p
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Copying for web distribution
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10p
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NLA
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Copying of print publications for hard copy distribution
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3.8p
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Copying of print publications for web distribution
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9.4p
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Copying of web publications
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5p
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Scanning fees
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£19,000pa
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eClips fees
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£88,400pa
£239,200pa
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Audit fees
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£500.00pa
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Both the CLA and NLA charge end-user clients direct. They have complex charging mechanisms, especially the NLA, which are not liked. At the moment, UKMMA is talking to the NLA about the anomaly whereby an end-user sourcing content from Google pays less than one sourcing content through a PCA or aggregator. Meltwater, the news aggregator, is currently challenging the NLA's web licence through an action in the Copyright Tribunal.
A number of publishers sit outside of the NLA and CLA and operate via direct licensing only. They include the FT, Euromoney, and Financial News. These tend to be expensive licences for specialist titles.
