As set out in NLA’s Membership Rules, Publishers directly represented by NLA undertake that they ‘own and/or control such rights as may be required to enable inclusion of their content in applicable NLA licences’. The terms of NLA’s ‘Publisher Mandate’ include that NLA is granted the rights to license the copying of all content in their publications and websites. Publishers represented by NLA therefore generally have standard rights management processes in place to clear the necessary rights for inclusion of third party content in NLA licences at the point of commission.
Notwithstanding this, it is acknowledged that there may be instances where the publisher has not acquired the necessary rights in third party content. To provide for this, NLA operates a survey (the ‘Special Contributors’ Scheme (‘SCS’)), with the aim of identifying whether any of the publishers content is uncleared, and if so, what proportion of the revenue received from NLA is attributable to the licensing of such content. The rules for the SCS (as approved by the NLA Board) are set out in the Publisher Mandate.
The NLA Board includes a ‘Special Contributors Director’ to oversee the interests of freelance and agency contributors. This role is currently held by Alan Geere. Magazine publishers represented by NLA through PLS are subject to the separate ‘Right Valuation’ arrangements operated by PLS (see PLS Distribution Charter for further details).
The Survey – Overview
2016 Survey
NLA conducted a survey in 2016 covering royalties paid in the years 2014-15;
Titles Surveyed
(Print and web)
All titles covered
(Print and web)
Items categorised
(Text and photos)
Revenue 2014-15
(Of Participating Publishers)
Attributable Revenue to third party contributors
Paid to contributers
Total % attributable to third party contributors
(Of Participating Publisher Revenue)
2014 Survey
The results for the survey conducted in 2014, for comparison, were:
Titles Surveyed
(Print and web)
All titles covered
(Print and web)
Items Categorised
(Text and Photos)
Revenue 2011-13
(Of Participating Publishers)
Revenue Attributable to third party Contributors
Paid to Contributers
Total % Attributable to third party Contributors
Of Participating Publishers Revenue
(Publishers participating in the 2014 survey were:
Express Newspapers; Financial Times; Mirror Group; News UK; Aberdeen Journals, CN Group; City AM; Clyde & Forth; Express & Star; Independent News & Media; Johnston Press; K M Group; Newsquest; Scottish Provincial; Shropshire Newspapers; Tindle; Trinity Mirror; Century Comm; D E Alexander; Heads Congleton; Hirst, Kidd, Rennie; Jewish Chronicle; NW Ireland Printing & Publishing)
In light of the 2016 survey results, which substantiate that publishers mainly own / control rights for NLA licences, NLA is now investigating alternative survey methods to reflect current publisher rights clearance procedures.