Content Distribution and Licensing

Members of the Institute for Nonprofit News have the opportunity to distribute their content via third-party platforms, thanks to agreements negotiated by INN. These platforms provide publishers of all sizes and many different orientations with the opportunity to reach millions of potential new readers in their market and beyond. In addition to providing you access to new audiences, many of these distribution partners provide revenue based on the traffic your content generates on their platform. This revenue share can range from a few hundred dollars per year to a few thousand dollars per month, based on individual performance. And it’s not always the biggest organizations that do best on these platforms.

The INN team is always considering new opportunities for helping INN members take advantage of third-party platforms. That can include negotiating deals that members can opt into, as well as helping all members join platforms they haven’t previously has access to. If you’re interested in taking advantage of any of the opportunities listed below, please reach out to jonathan@inn.org. If you’re a platform that would like to work with INN members to distribute their content, you can also reach out to jonathan@inn.org. New opportunities are added often, so check back for updates.

In addition to content distribution opportunities, INN members also have access to content archiving and licensing deals by virtue of their INN membership. Learn more about those opportunities below as well.

Flipboard: Reach more than 145 million monthly active users on the web or from any mobile device with the Flipboard, a service that allows people to gather stories according to their interests. Flipboard links back to members’ websites and also provides analytics to members about how much their content is seen on the platform.

Sign up for a publisher account and then get in touch with INN to accelerate the onboarding process.

NewsBreak: Connect with more than 12 million daily active users on NewsBreak, a new app focused on making local news easily accessible. NewsBreak gives INN members two options for being on their platform — a link model, where the site funnels traffic to your site, or a hosted content model where your content is hosted by NewsBreak and you receive 70% of the ad revenue generated from your content.

Contact INN for an introduction to the NewsBreak team.

Nextdoor: Put your content in front of more than 27 million monthly active users near your newsroom by sharing your content with Nextdoor, a hyperlocal social networking service for neighborhoods. Local news organizations that are members of INN can have their content featured in relevant Nextdoor neighborhoods. 

Contact INN for more details on sharing your content with Nextdoor.

Patch: See your content on one or more of the 1,227 hyperlocal news websites across the US that are part of the Patch.com platform — and get paid for every pageview. INN members can distribute their content via Patch to expand the reach of their content. Patch pays INN members $.01 per pageview generated on their platform. 

Contact INN for an introduction to the Patch team.

SmartNews: Reach more than 50 million readers in 150+ countries by showcasing your content on SmartNews. SmartNews provides an option where publishers can host their content on SmartNews — called SmartView — or they can receive traffic on their own website via links. SmartNews doesn’t provide analytics or revenue share, but traffic driven to your own website can be monetized through your existing donation callouts or sponsorship messaging. INN members are featured in the Public Interest channel, as well as in channels that are geographically or topically relevant. 

Email partners@smartnews.com and reference your INN membership to get access to the platform.

Spotlight: Reach college students by sharing your content with Spotlight, a news aggregator that brings college students and staff all the stories they care about from the sources they can trust. Spotlight has worked with INN and members to develop special collections of member content and to highlight INN member content in interesting ways. INN members participate in Spotlight’s revenue share program and can also opt into Spotlight’s premium content program. 

Contact INN for an introduction to the Spotlight team.

In addition to third-party distribution, you can generate additional revenue by licensing your content to content archiving services. INN has relationships with two of the largest players in the space that you can opt into.

NewsBank: Newsbank gets your content archived and available to researchers — and pays you a small fee for that privilege. Newsbank serves content "aftermarkets" — they are not syndicating for real-time publication, but for research and reference markets. 

Fill out this form to take advantage of INN’s master contract with NewsBank.

NewsTex: By working with Newstex, you will generate revenue while your content is exposed to more people and lives on into the future for use by academics and researchers. Like NewsBank, NewsTex serves content “aftermarkets.” Newstex aggregates a variety of news and other information providers in feeds for reference services such as LexisNexis.

Fill out this form to take advantage of INN’s agreement with NewsTex.