Media Monitoring Organisation and Media Intelligence Licence FAQ's
Yes, the CLA MMO licence is still required – even if the client does not see the original article or snippet link.

As a regulated, not-for-profit organisation. CLA is recognised by the UK government as a collective management organisation for published material. We exist to support knowledge sharing, protect your company, and champion the creative ecosystem. Our revenue is distributed to our member organisations who pay royalties directly to copyright owners – authors, publishers and visual artists. CLA has generated more than £1.5bn in licence revenues over 40 years, and distributed to over 200,000 publishers and content creators.

The CLA has an MMO Licence for organisations that copy, scrape or index print or online publisher content for the supply of commercial monitoring or aggregation services. The MMO Licence applies to anyone holding a database or index of CLA publisher content for the purpose of providing paid-for services. An application form, which includes Terms & Conditions, can be found here:

NLA Media Access and CLA are mandated by different publishers to represent different content sets. CLA also works with NLA to act as the exclusive agent for all NLA’s UK education licensing.

Print publications are included in the licence on a blanket basis, which means that all UK print magazines and periodicals are included unless they have been explicitly excluded by the rightsholder. With the CLA MMO Licence, you can:

  • Photocopy or scan single articles containing items of news or current affairs

  • Distribute paper copies to your customers

  • Store web snippets or digital copies of websites for up to 13 months

  • Make digital copies of web content available to your customers on a secure web portal for up to 13 months

If you have selected 'Licence for cuttings and for website monitoring’ on the application form, you may:
  • Index the website content
  • Store website content for up to 13 months for evaluation purposes
  • Email your customers links to single articles containing items of news or current affairs, accompanied by a headline or extract of no more than 256 characters
  • Where the website is free-to-view and the publisher has indicated that this is permitted, create and make available PDF copies of articles on a secure web portal
  • The licence does not permit storage of print or web cuttings for longer than 13 months.
  • You must hold a valid subscription to any website that is not free to view.