Wrights Media image and the benefits of content licensing

Publishers are constantly trying to generate revenue for their stakeholders and staff. There’s a strategic solution, however, hiding in plain sight. Editors and creators are so busy making new content that they are overlooking content licensing, a strategic yet often misunderstood way to make their features and output work harder than ever before.

The best part is that a licensing agreement effectively benefits everyone involved. Brands gain clout while publishers boost revenue. It should be an easy sell, but in this ever-evolving media landscape, content licences haven’t gotten the attention they deserve.

First and foremost, publishers need to realise the evergreen potential of their features and accolades for brands that they mention. It can be game-changing for a company to land coverage in a major publication, and those same brands will want to leverage it.

A beauty, tech, or travel brand mentioned in a top ten list or a feature story will be eager to share their mention with audiences. Marketers work hard for coverage, and any positive, unbiased mention is a win for their PR efforts. It’s precisely the sort of earned media that marketing teams crave.

Moreover, it gives them clout vis-à-vis potential customers who create positive associations between your trusted publication and the brand’s product or service. Those same brands want to put your publication’s masthead on their website, reprint the article for an event, add a mention on product packaging, among other practices.

Imagine, for example, that a digital publication touts the best wearables from the tech industry in a new list. A smartwatch company featured on that list will want audiences to know about the mention. The brand’s marketers might share it on social media but they also might want to leverage the publication’s logo for an advertisement or post it on their website, to show potential consumers that the smartwatch has been recognised by a trusted publication.

But wait a minute — a publisher’s content isn’t free fodder for advertisements and marketing goals.

For publishers, this creates an opportunity. Like any intellectual property, that coverage can’t simply be reproduced for free. Publishers own that content and have a say in how it’s redistributed to the public. By inviting these brands to purchase rights to leverage it through a licence, however, a publisher can ensure that content is justly paid for, generating revenue on content that has already been created.

These new opportunities to use content via licensing agreements are both enticing and exciting. It means a publication can repurpose articles and lists well beyond the day it went live. If editors decided to develop an award list, this content opens up avenues to licensing those accolades to brands that are mentioned, multiplying revenue when traditional advertising revenue might be unreliable.

What this looks like concretely depends on the specifics of the licence, but the outcome for publishers is clear. They grow fresh revenue through existing content, representing the ultimate return on investment.

In the UK, of course, companies can buy a licence to reproduce editorial content from UK publications through NLA Media Access. But these licences don’t cover a brand’s usage of a publication’s masthead or award logo on an advertisement, website, packaging, or other marketing materials.

A content licence is the first step toward building a true win-win partnership. Brands leverage content to elevate their brand. Publishers create new revenue streams to maximise profits on their content. It’s synergy at its best.

Now that the value is clear, the real question is where to start. There’s no intuitive way to license content, which is why Wright’s Media has created diverse solutions for brands to use pull quotes for marketing, to reprint articles for educational purposes, or even to use logos on consumer packaging.

As the premier global content licensing agency with 25 years of industry experience guiding publishing clients, Wright’s Media develops cutting-edge licensing programmes, applies a proactive sales approach, and elevates brand visibility by monetising content.

Contact Wright’s Media to get your free licensing review from one of the most trusted authorities in the industry.

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