Technology & Digital

Rules for news agencies and information services

If you run a news agency, a media-monitoring or press-clipping service, or another information service, your specific rules centre on copyright — in both directions. You own copyright in the news you create and license to subscribers, and you must license what you copy from other publishers. Most news publishers also join a press self-regulator (IPSO or Impress) voluntarily — there is no statutory press licensing in the UK — and a news agency's own website is generally outside the Online Safety Act.

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News agencies and other information services — media monitoring, press clipping, information brokerage, telephone information services — share the duties in run a compliant information service business. The rules specific to this work centre on copyright, in both directions: protecting and licensing what you create, and licensing what you copy from others.

Own and license the copyright in your output

A news agency owns copyright in the articles, photographs and footage it creates, and licensing that output to subscribers is the business model — so record authorship and ownership, set clear licence terms for syndication, and respect third-party rights in any material you syndicate onward. Copyright arises automatically in the UK; there is no register. A compiled news feed or database may also attract database right under the Copyright and Rights in Databases Regulations 1997. This applies UK-wide.

License what you copy from other publishers

Media monitoring, press clipping and news aggregation copy other publishers' content — and that copying needs permission. Collective licensing bodies cover most of it: NLA Media Access licenses copying from newspapers and many news websites, and the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA) covers books, journals and magazines. Your clients receiving monitored content typically need their own end-user licences too — make clear in your contracts who licenses what. Check the terms of each source you monitor; relying on linking alone does not cover reproducing extracts or full text.

Decide your press self-regulation position

There is no statutory press licensing regime in the UK. Press standards are governed by voluntary self-regulation: most news publishers are members of IPSO and follow the Editors' Code of Practice, while a smaller number use Impress. Membership is a commercial and editorial decision, not a legal requirement — but editorial liability still arises under the general law of defamation, contempt of court and data protection, where the journalism exemption in the Data Protection Act 2018 gives limited special-purposes protection.

Check your Online Safety Act position

A news agency's own website is generally not a regulated service under the Online Safety Act 2023 — recognised news publisher content, and below-the-line comments on it, benefit from exemptions. But if you operate a separate user-to-user platform — a forum or community service distinct from your news output — the regulated-service duties apply to that service. Scope per service; see understanding the Online Safety Act if you are unsure.

Next steps

Make sure the cross-cutting duties for your business are in place — see run a compliant information service business — then confirm everything with the information services compliance checklist.