Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the Fair Syndication Consortium (FSC)?
2. Why would I join?
3. What do I need to do to join?
4. How does this handle Fair Use?
5. How big is the revenue opportunity?
6. How can I find out how much I could earn?

1. What is the Fair Syndication Consortium (FSC)?
The FSC is a group of publishers of all sizes who are seeking a self-service syndication platform that enables publishers to let the Internet do what it does best – distribute content everywhere so people can consume it wherever they want. Whenever full copies of articles are read, the original creator receives a share of ad revenue—whenever it appears and without hampering people from consuming content wherever they want.

2. Why would I join?
Different content producers have different objectives and different monetization methods. Fair Syndication is designed to work for producers of all sizes and accommodate multiple business models.

Some publishers like Thomson Reuters and the Washington Post have existing syndication revenue streams and licensing agreements. Fair Syndication offers these publishers new incremental revenue which can be used in tandem with existing monetization methods. All this can be done in a way that protects destination site CPMs while providing brand controls.

Other publishers like ScienceDaily may not have any existing revenue, or may only advertise on their own site directly but without syndicating their content to others. For these publishers, Fair Syndication offers a self-service syndication engine providing top line growth as adding syndication partners requires no additional effort - no need to hire a sales force; no need for complex licensing agreements.

3. What do I need to do to join?
The first step is to sign up at fairsyndication.org. This adds you to the mailing list, through which you will receive meeting invitations, meeting updates, and other news as this effort progresses. If you are a content producer and are interested in understanding how your content is spreading and what that could be worth, sign up at FairShare (it's free), provide a feed of your content and select the option to get paid when others make money from your work.

4. How does this handle Fair Use?
The FSC is intentionally avoiding situations of reuse that get into Fair Use territory; instead, it is concentrating on the situation in which full copies are reused and monetized without compensation to the original content owners. This is simplest way to start as these cases are non-debatable.

5. How big is the revenue opportunity?
Based upon data from variously sized publishers, traffic data based on Compete.com's audience measurements, and remnant ad CPMs, estimates indicate that the opportunity for U.S. publishers is hundreds of millions of dollars annually. others' content in full without permission.

6. How can I find out how much I could earn?
It's easy...sign up for FairShare (it's free) and provide a feed of your content and select the option to get paid when others make money from your work. This is all that is required to get the ball rolling.