Syndicate your original content to professional audiences

What is Newstex?

Newstex is a leading provider of high-quality news and commentary to information libraries and content marketplaces around the world.

We have license and distribution agreements with over 5,000 digital publications and we syndicate over 1 million original articles per month via our distribution partners.

Why are you interested in my content?

Our mission is to support individuals and entrepreneurs who aspire to inform their readers through the quality of their writing and the originality of their voices.

If we receive permission from you, we will distribute content from your website to information databases and content marketplaces for professionals who need high-quality news and commentary to stay informed and make better decisions.

Who are Newstex’s distribution partners?

Here are a few of the companies within our syndication network:

• LexisNexis.com provides law firms, corporations, government agencies and academic institutions with news and business insights.
• Thomson Reuters Westlaw offers a proprietary database for lawyers and legal professionals available in over 60 countries.
• Proquest.com provides information comprehensive discovery services to academic libraries across the globe.
• Refinitiv.com is a world-leading provider of financial news and insights for asset managers, bankers, financial traders, and treasury and compliance professionals.

We are always expanding our syndication network.

In the future, you can expect to see us working with,

• digital information services that provide tools to gather information and provide accurate answers for their customers,
• online portals for businesses, and
• research platforms and database providers.

Many of these distribution partners operate worldwide.

LexisNexis, for example, serves 175 countries across legal, corporate, government, and academic markets.

Can you provide me with references from content creators who currently use the Newstex syndication service?

Due to confidentiality concerns, we do not distribute our content creators’ contact details.

However, our website contains testimonials from a few well-known brands.

How will my content be used?

Your content will appear in premium information databases and content marketplaces via our platforms.

What is an information database?

An information database is a subscription-based platform where users can find content through search-based queries.

Many information databases contain a wide variety of content: to give just one example, LexisNexis’s Nexis database includes more than 83 billion public records from over 10,000 sources, as well as court filings and a diverse range of news content. Because they offer curated content, information databases can be an attractive alternative to the open web.

What is a content marketplace?

A content marketplace is a venue for offering licensed content to companies or brands.

Many companies are looking to appeal to a broader audience but they don’t necessarily have the resources to create all of the content themselves.

Content marketplaces are a great way for them to build trust, increase SEO rankings, and earn new customers without having to handle everything in-house.

Who will read my content?

A wide variety of professionals need high-quality news and commentary to do their job every day.

Here are a few examples:

• Journalists, who use  public records when researching their stories.
• Corporate intelligence analysts, who seek information about specific companies and industries.
• Development professionals, searching for high-value donors.
• Lawyers, who must follow case law and commentary to hone their strategies in court.
• Consultants, who analyze business competitors.

Can I control which distribution partners receive my content?

When we pay you, you’ll receive a report showing which distribution partners have picked up your content.

You may restrict the distribution of your content to certain distribution partners only if you wish, but this may reduce your earnings.

If you are worried that one of our clients is using your content in an inappropriate way, please notify us right away at support@newstex.com.

How does Newstex make money?

Newstex receives payments from its distribution partners based on how often the content that we distribute is used.

What kind of value does Newstex add?

Newstex allows your content to be easily discovered and accessed for professional use.

We categorize each individual story entry, not just a publication as a whole. For example, a client looking for any form of telecom news and commentary will receive a telecom story entry even if the publication normally covers a different topic.

Each publication's overall topic is also categorized at the product level, so that publications covering a given topic (such as gourmet food) are packaged and delivered as a product to some Newstex clients that seek complete content about the topic, even when scattered entries from a website are off-topic.

Newstex also receives a variety of feeds and formats which our clients cannot take directly because their systems are designed around a specific technical standard. We standardize these feeds and deliver them to our clients in specific formats that they can accept, verifying that they will be able to process each and every story without issues.

In some cases, Newstex will encode media elements such as photos or videos and deliver them directly to our clients along with the original story. This also limits the strain you might see on your own systems when thousands of users try to access your content all simultaneously.

Newstex markets publications to audiences that would otherwise be unaware of titles that are relevant to their needs. Various financial institutions' security measures, for example, limit direct access to online content. In fact, certain professional audiences are unable to access your website directly from work if they do know about your publication.

How will my content be used?

Your content will appear in premium information databases and content marketplaces via our distribution partners.

What is an information database?

An information database is a subscription-based platform where users can find content through search-based queries.

Many information databases contain a wide variety of content: to give just one example, LexisNexis’s Nexis database includes more than 83 billion public records from over 10,000 sources, as well as court filings and a diverse range of news content. Because they offer curated content, information databases can be an attractive alternative to the open web.

What is a content marketplace?

A content marketplace is a venue for offering licensed content to companies or brands.

Many companies are looking to appeal to a broader audience but they don’t necessarily have the resources to create all of the content themselves.

Content marketplaces are a great way for them to build trust, increase SEO rankings, and earn new customers without having to handle everything in-house.

Who will read my content?

A wide variety of professionals need high-quality news and commentary to do their job every day.

Here are a few examples:

• Journalists, who use  public records when researching their stories.
• Corporate intelligence analysts, who seek information about specific companies and industries.
• Development professionals, searching for high-value donors.
• Lawyers, who must follow case law and commentary to hone their strategies in court.
• Consultants, who analyze business competitors.

Can I control which distribution partners receive my content?

You may restrict the distribution of your content to certain distribution partners only if you wish, but this may reduce your earnings.

When we pay you, you’ll receive a report showing which distribution partners have picked up your content.

If you are worried that one of our clients is using your content in an inappropriate way, please notify us right away at support@newstex.com.

How does Newstex make money?

Newstex receives payments from its distribution partners based on how often the content that we distribute is used.

What kind of value does Newstex add?

Newstex allows your content to be easily discovered and accessed for professional use.

We categorize each individual story entry, not just a publication as a whole. For example, a client looking for any form of telecom news and commentary will receive a telecom story entry even if the publication normally covers a different topic.

Each publication's overall topic is also categorized at the product level, so that publications of a given topic such as gourmet food are packaged and delivered as a product to some Newstex clients that seek complete content about the topic, even when scattered entries from a website are off-topic.

Newstex also receives a variety of feeds and formats which our clients cannot take directly. We standardize these feeds and deliver them to our clients in specific formats that they can accept, verifying that they will be able to process each and every story without issues.

In some cases, Newstex will encode media elements such as photos or videos and deliver them directly to our clients along with the original story. This also limits the strain you might see on your own systems when thousands of users try to access your content all simultaneously.

Newstex markets publications to audiences that would otherwise be unaware of titles that are relevant to their needs. In fact, certain professional audiences are unable to access your website directly from work if they do know about your publication. Various financial institutions' security measures, for example, limit direct access to online content.

What is content licensing?

Content licensing means giving another person or company permission to make use of your content, usually in exchange for financial compensation.

For more information on how you can earn money by working with Newstex, please see the FAQ section on content fees.

Do I retain full ownership of my content?

Our contract is non-exclusive. It does not impact any other content licensing or distribution arrangements that you have now or will have in the future.

You retain sole ownership of your content, and our distribution partners maintain attribution to your publication as the information source. We have no editorial control over your content, either.

You may limit the distribution of your content to certain distribution partners only if you wish, but this may reduce your earnings.

My content uses the Creative Commons license, so it is a free resource. You may distribute it to anyone you like, as long as you provide ownership attribution. How do I sign up under the Creative Commons license?

We syndicate many publications who normally operate under a Creative Commons license, but because syndicating with Newstex means generating earnings, you’ll still need to sign a separate license agreement with us.

If you do not wish to receive content fees, we can license your content using a special, no-fee licensing agreement or we can donate your earnings to charity.

I already offer a full-text RSS feed on my site. Why don’t you just get my content from there without any license agreement at all? What’s the difference between Newstex and “free” aggregators?

For the most part, “free” aggregators take in publishers’ RSS feeds without their permission. Newstex, on the other hand, is working with clients who require reliable service and proper licensing. We choose to bring in content that does not expose ourselves to any copyright issue or potential legal action.

What about the copyrights of the images I use? Am I covered under “fair use” if I am syndicating with you?

If you are not comfortable with syndicating images in your feed due to copyright concerns, then you should create a feed for us that is stripped of images. If you need help with this, please contact us at support@newstex.com.

How are content fees generated?

Content fees are generated when a subscriber to an information database or content marketplace uses your content.

How much money can I earn?

There is no easy way to forecast the content fees that any given content creator might earn, but generally they range from tens of dollars per month to hundreds of dollars per month.

Here are a few ways how you can maximize your content fees:

• Write lengthy posts. More words increase the odds that your articles will be picked up in keyword searches.
• Update frequently. Frequent posts also increase the likelihood of being discovered.
• Write about emerging trends or or present unique perspectives that are not often covered by others.
• Mention the names of companies, organizations or notable individuals within your articles.
• Provide us advance notice when you make technical changes such as switching hosting platforms or altering. This way, we can ensure continued delivery of your content.
  

In short, the more posts that we get from you that match the needs of a professional audience, the more you are likely to earn.

Which categories generate the most revenue?

Content covering current events in business, law, politics, health, education, lifestyle, and technology are most in demand among our distribution partners.

How are content fees calculated?

Content fees are calculated based on the popularity of your content with our distribution partners’ audiences.

Here is an example:

• To keep things simple, let’s say we distribute content from 10 publications.
  

• Let’s also say that our distribution partners send us $10,000 USD to be passed on to those 10 publications.
  

• If, for example, our distribution partners find that all 10 publications (including yours) received 1,000 pageviews in a given month, then your publication had 10% of the pageviews, so you get $1,000 USD for the month.
  

• If, for example, our distribution partners find that 9 out of the 10 publications received 1,000 pageviews in a given month, but your publication also received 9,000 pageviews on its own, then your publication had 50% of the pageviews, so you get $5,000 USD for the month.
  
  

Of course, these numbers will vary from month to month and your content fees will fluctuate accordingly. We do not usually receive pageview statistics from our distribution partners, so we are unable to report this information back to you. In general, though, the more content you produce, the more you are likely to earn.

When and how will I be paid?

Once your content is accepted by our distribution partners, you will start to earn content fees based on usage. We report your earnings on a monthly basis and we pay you via bank transfer, check, or PayPal.

I can’t receive content fees because of prior agreements or because I am part of a non-commercial organization. Can I still use the Newstex content syndication service?

If you cannot receive content fees for whatever reason, we can still license your content using a special, no-fee licensing agreement. We can also donate your earnings to charity.

I am worried about companies stealing my website’s traffic or using copies of my content to generate ad revenues. Would any of your distribution partners do those things?

Most of our distribution partners are not in the business of buying content to generate ad revenue. In fact, most are presenting the content within a subscription or password-protected closed environment such as an information database.

While many marketing strategies aim to generate high-volume traffic to your website, content syndication is different. Syndicating with Newstex is about making sure your content reaches the right audience.

Will syndicating with Newstex negatively affect my Google ranking?

SEO is often a concern with publishers, but we have never seen an incident of negative SEO impact in over 20 years of doing business.

Google and other search engines give credit to original sources. They are extremely good at identifying original sources of content when attribution is clear. In fact, most of our distribution partners distribute their content to “closed sites” such as subscription-based platforms or paywalled environments.

In the case of “closed site” distribution partners, syndicated content is not indexed by Google at all.

Some of our distribution partners distribute their content to “open sites”, usually large corporations seeking good content for their website. These “open site” distribution partners make it easy for search engines to know the right source to index as a higher result. Your content always receives attribution which allows search engine algorithms to understand which story was published first and to give proper credit.‍

Where possible, we use a Canonical URL to direct Google and other search engines back to your site as the original source of for your blog post. We'll never take credit from you.

Will content syndication with Newstex bring new visitors to my website?

While content syndication with Newstex may encourage new visitors to visit your website, this is not the main purpose of our service.

Content syndication pushes your full-text articles to potential readers. This does not directly generate traffic to your website, but it does expose your brand to a professional audience. Readers who encounter your content via our distribution partners will be able to follow a link to your website.

How do I contact Newstex Support?

Newstex support is available at support at newstex.com by sending an email to support@newstex.com. We will respond within 1-2 business days. When contacting support, please use the email address you signed up with, and indicate the full name of your publication.

What is content syndication?

Digital publications are traditionally delivered to interested subscribers by means of a process called syndication. Publishers choose what subscribers may receive and subscribers obtain the subscription through a web feed.

The web feed is a file stored like an common web page at an ordinary web address such as www.your-publication.com/feed. But instead of the HTML found in a regular web page, the feed file is automatically created using an XML format such as Atom or RSS.

It is easy enough for a company to subscribe to a handful of publications. But the syndication and for-profit resale of thousands of ever-changing publications requires much effort -- more than most companies are willing to perform. Newstex bridges that vital gap between thousands of talented publishers and the audiences who are willing to pay for high-quality information.

How do I set up a web feed for syndication?

You won’t need to change anything about your website to work with Newstex.

All you need is to activate a setting that is available on most websites, known as an RSS feed. (RSS stands for “really simple syndication”.) An RSS feed is just a URL that presents the content of your website in a standardized format.

Newstex then pulls the content from your RSS feed into its system. We then tag your posts with metadata to make it easier for professionals to discover your content. This is a set of background labels that categorize articles by topic and identify keywords like company or product names. Metadata makes it easier for professionals to discover your content.

Once we have prepared the content from your RSS feed, we make it available to our distribution partners.

Great, I've signed up for content syndication! What happens now?

Once a publisher signs on with Newstex, Newstex generally makes the publication available for syndication within 30 days.

Important note: Newstex has no control over which of its distribution partners chooses to syndicate your content.

After they choose to syndicate a publication, it usually requires at least an additional 30-90 days for this content to be discovered by audiences. At the earliest, first revenues for publishers are reported 90 days after signing.

Going forward, new articles in your feed are delivered swiftly to clients, and publishers accrue any revenue from each post about 90 days after its publication.

Do you syndicate content that has been published in the past?

We will syndicate all content that is in the feed at the time of integration. We will not syndicate any previously published articles unless they are in the feed.

Do I get approval over where my content appears?

You may limit the distribution of your content to certain distribution partners only, but this may reduce your earnings.

Is it possible to retract an article that has been syndicated?

Yes. Just let us know the headline and the date of publication, and we’ll ask our content distribution partners to remove it from their databases as soon as possible.

Does Newstex reformat my content in any way?

In most cases, the HTML formatting in your feed will be preserved throughout the content syndication process, including tables, block quoting, bold/italic text, and hyperlinks. You may also make use of HTML5 tags.

In some cases, we may strip out certain HTML elements, like navigation bars or footers, in order to conform to our distribution partners’ wishes. We also do our best to remove any ads from your feeds, as our distribution partners will not accept stories with advertising. Any form of JavaScript, or any iframe, object or embed tags are not allowed and will be removed if found.

If you feel strongly about preserving specific formatting, our technical team is happy to evaluate this on a case-by-case basis.

Do you bring in content archives?

We will pull in the stories that are in the feed at the time of integration. If your feed includes the last 30 blog posts, then we'll bring it in. We do not bring in content archives unless they are in the feed.

How can I verify that my RSS feed is valid?

In order to provide Newstex with the best chance of properly receiving and delivering your content to clients, it's important that you follow the latest RSS standards.

Today, RSS has become the global standard for delivering blog articles on the internet. There are many software applications which can be used to read RSS feeds, so we recommend using software such as Feedly to verify your RSS feed is valid. The most important parts of any story are:

1. title
2. globally unique identifer (GUID)
3. link
4. body
5. publication date

All RSS feeds must be encoded in UTF-8 format.

Here is an example, which is the RSS feed for the Newstex blog: https://www.newstex.com/blog/rss.xml

What kind of metadata should I add to my articles?

Newstex allows you to add a number of different metadata tags to your stories.

Categories

If you provide an RSS feed, you may add categories to your feed by adding the <category> tag to each story:

<category>Food</category>

<category>Pizza</category>

You may add up to 10 categories per story.

‍

Tickers

If you're providing an RSS feed, you may add tickers by adding a special tag to each story:

<company:symbol>NASDAQ:GOOG</company:symbol>

You must also map the company prefix (or whatever you choose to use) to the following URL:

http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/company

This can be done anywhere in the XML file above or at this symbol, for example on the <channel> tag:

<channel xmlns:company="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/company">

Can I secure my feed with a username and password?

Newstex supports requiring a username and password for any feed provided to us over standard HTTP.

We support both Digest and Basic HTTP Authentication schemes. We also support HTTPS so you may ensure that your data is transmitted securely over SSL.

How often do you pull from a publisher's feed?

Newstex polls roughly twice a day on each feed. We can specify a given feed to poll more, or less often, but we cannot specify set times for when a feed is polled.

If a feed is unavailable for more than 2 weeks, we will request a new feed from the publisher.

What happens if there are updates to the content?

If you update your stories after they are pulled in by us, we can enable a process that enables us to replace the original story with the updated one. If, for example, we pull in a story that isn't complete and/or is later updated, we would grab that update. We require that the GUID is not a link and does not change between updates.

If you would like this feature to be activated, you must notify us at support@newstex.com.

After we poll your feed, it can take up to 6 hours for our distribution partners to process it.

What languages and character encodings are supported?

Newstex supports any UTF-8 encoded format. This encoding supports almost all languages.

The full list of languages supported by UTF-8 Encoding can be found at: http://www.unicode.org/standard/supported.html

HTML formatting is allowed and encouraged. Special characters may also be supplied using HTML-encoded formatting in ASCII encoded feeds.