Agency connects bloggers & press

June 07, 2006 - SpringWise

Scoopt, the world's first commercial citizen journalism photography agency (see our recent article for more), just launched ScooptWords to help bloggers find a commercial market for their writing.

Scoopt strongly believes that many bloggers produce content as good as or better than what appears in newspapers and magazines, and Scoopt aims to bring that content to larger audiences.

The process is simple: ScooptWords members place a "buy this content" button on their blog, indicating that an article is available for republication. Editors click on the button, and ScooptWords' system takes care of payment and licensing. As soon as payment has been confirmed, the publication can copy, paste and print the article. By default, content is licensed for one-time-only use in a single publication within a single territory, but flexible rights are available.

Scoopt takes a 50% cut for the first sale and 25% for subsequent sales, and bloggers are paid through PayPal. Publications don't necessarily credit the blogger, and are free to edit their articles without the blogger's explicit permission.

The benefit for mainstream publications is obvious: ScooptWords offers a simple way to license original, high quality content, without editors having to negotiate prices and licenses directly with bloggers.

In Scoopt's view, one that hardly seems unlikely, all journalists will be required to blog in the near future. Some bloggers will become journalists and some journalists will become full-time bloggers, and online and offline publications will be able to cherry pick the best content from both worlds.