Scoopt, The World's First Citizen Journalism Picture Agency, Now Selling Blog Content To The Mainstream Media

Press Dispensary - June 23, 2006 - Scoopt.com, the 'citizen journalism' picture agency that gives the public the power to sell photos to the press, announces the launch of ScooptWords, its blog syndication service. Now bloggers can sell their writing to the mainstream media.

Graham Holliday, ScooptWords managing editor, explains: "There's a lot of great blog content out there. Some of it is every bit as good as content produced by professional journalists. However, there's no obvious route to market for the blogger or way to buy content for the editor. So we launched ScooptWords to make this connection. We offer bloggers a simple, free way to flag their content for sale – and we give publishers the means to license that content commercially. It's a win-win situation."

ScooptWords membership is free. A blogger simply registers one or more blogs with the scheme and carries a ScooptWords button on their blog(s). Any editor can then click this button to license content commercially at a fair market rate. The blogger receives 75% of the sales revenue.

ScooptWords is working closely with Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org), leading provider of flexible copyright licenses for creative works. ScooptWords believes that it is essential to preserve and encourage the free exchange of content for non-commercial use, and important that bloggers understand the different ways in which they can permit their content to be used. Creative Commons is the perfect partner for non-commercial licensing.

Creative Commons spokesperson Eric Steuer comments: "Within the Scoopt interface, you can easily add a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license to your blog right alongside a Scoopt commercial badge. Use the CC license to tell people how your work can be used non-commercially; use the ScooptWords badge to let editors know that your writing can be purchased for commercial use. There's so much great blog content being created every day - it'll be very exciting to see how it helps change the way newspapers and magazines are created."

Graham Holliday continues: "At the moment, everyone involved in media, from the small-town blogger with 10 readers to the heads of the world's biggest news organizations, is riding this huge tidal wave of change in media. That wave is just beginning to break and no-one – not the brightest media brains nor the smallest small-town blogger – has any idea what will be left standing once the wave recedes. But we believe that a paying market for good writing will survive. ScooptWords opens that market to everybody."

- Ends -

For further information please contact:
Graham Holliday, Managing editor, Scoopt
Tel: 07092 216363

Email: press@scoopt.com

Site: www.scoopt.com

Published by Press Dispensary

Press Dispensary Limited
The Old Star Brewery
Castle Ditch Lane
Lewes BN7 1YJ

Phone: 0845 430 4433
Fax: 0845 638 2258
email: ask@pressdispensary.co.uk
Site: http://www.pressdispensary.co.uk