Scoopt, the world's first citizen journalism picture agency has launched ScooptWords, its blog syndication service. Now bloggers can sell their writing to the mainstream media and tag content with commercial or flexible licences...

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Scoopt.com, the 'citizen journalism' picture agency that gives the public the power to sell photos to the press, announces the launch of ScooptWords on 23rd June 2006. Its blog syndication service empowers bloggers to monetize their content and choose between commercial or flexible Creative Commons licences at www.scoopt.com/words

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."

Reveune from quality user-generated content

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 (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.

Levelling the playing field for content producers in the media market

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," Steuer continued, "it'll be very exciting to see how it helps change the way newspapers and magazines are created."

Graham Holliday added: "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."

About Scoopt:
Scoopt is a media agency that brokers commercial deals between content creators and content users. www.scoopt.com

About Creative Commons:
Creative Commons is a nonprofit organization that offers flexible copyright licenses for creative works. www.creativecommons.org