News outlets back online licensing body NewsRight

The Associated Press, Washington Post and New York Times are three of 29 news outlets who have invested in new independent rights clearance organisation NewsRight.

In a release, NewsRight announced the launch of the platform by the news organisations, which is being headed up by former ABC News president David Westin, and will enable news content from a total of 841 websites to be licensed by third parties.

It will also use Associated Press' news registry technology, developed to tag, track and measure the use of online content, to give participating publishers data on page impressions to show how content is being used.

Last year AP was given permission from its board of directors to build on this with an independent digital news licensing agency – at the time referred to as the News Licensing Group. It was today confirmed that this has now been made separate and developed into the newly-named NewsRight.

Other news outlets on board with NewsRight include Hearst Newspapers, Business Wire and the Axel Springer Group.

"Their initial investment demonstrates unprecedented support across the publishing industry for an easy method to license published digital news reports," the release said.

NewsRight's CEO David Westin added: "More news is available more ways than ever in history. But if reliable information is to continue to flourish, the companies investing in creating content need efficient ways to license it as broadly as possible.

"NewsRight’s mission is to make sure consumers continue to benefit from the all the original news reporting they want while ensuring those who republish content do so with integrity."

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