The Newspaper Licensing Agency (NLA) will next year extend its licensing reach to local and national newspaper Web sites, PR Week reported on Friday.

The NLA will also launch a business-to-business clippings database for online newspapers in January 2010. 'eClips' will provide cuttings aggregators and press cuttings agencies a direct feed of online content from newspapers.

'We have two aims: to contribute to the growth of Web monitoring; and to protect the rights of publishers,' said NLA Managing Director David Pugh. 'Research shows that 23 percent of newspapers' online content never appears in print and that the internet is growing in influence as a resource for news. So it is vital to have comprehensive monitoring coverage of newspapers' Web sites and vital that the publishers are properly rewarded for their work.'

Starting in September of this year, aggregators providing their service at a cost will need a NLA license and will themselves face charges from the NLA starting January 2010. Press cuttings agencies that 'scrape' content or purchase it from aggregators will also require a license and will be charged. The NLA will also request that companies that receive and pass on links from aggregators and cutting agencies have a license.

'We have consulted extensively across the industry and the incremental charges for Web cuttings will be low and manageable. I stress this is not about individuals sharing links as we think that's great for newspapers and promotes their Web sites and their readership. What we are doing is making sure that newspapers are rewarded fairly for professional use of their Web content by businesses,' Push said.