Repurposing Our Archival Assets Summary

2003 Special Libraries Association Annual Conference
News Division Session

Tuesday, June 10, 2003

Leigh Montgomery of The Christian Science Monitor gave some background about repurposing archival assets and trends in doing so. Based on a recent survey, about one fourth of the 33 respondents were not archiving their materials. An informal survey of Newslib members indicated that about 90% of 27 respondents have some kind of revenue stream from archived assets.

Sharon Clairemont of the Orange County Register spoke about her efforts to develop guidelines for reusing content. She emphasized the importance of those guidelines because of situations when a news outlet may not want its content used in certain contexts. Reuse must indicate that it is used with permission, the selection must be used in its entirety and used in context, and the financial arrangement must not jeopardize the Register's independence. The content center has a voice in approving the use.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution's Ginny Everett showed several examples of how the newspaper generates revenue from reusing its archival content. The Stacks Information Service sells books, photos, archived stories, and more. Ginny also talked about their marketing efforts and how successful their efforts have been.

The Toronto Star also markets their photos sales and page reprints, according to Claire Wollen. They sell electronic photo files to commercial image buyers, but they will only sell prints to the general public. Claire talked about how they compete with stock image houses and have established relationships with Zuma Press and DoctorStock. They are actively scanning older stock photos and will scan prints for their commercial partners.


News Division Program, SLA 2003 Annual Conference
SLA News Division Home

Last Updated: 09/05/03
Jessica Baumgart
newsdivisionweb@yahoo.com