N Newsworthyingest & licensing
Sign in Create account

Eyewitness media ingestion & licensing

Footage arrives as a file. It leaves as a story someone can find, verify and buy.

Newsworthy takes raw eyewitness video, audio and stills, reads what is in them, records where they came from, and puts them in front of the newsrooms looking for exactly that. Contributors get paid. Editors get something they can stand behind.

Create an account Sign in See how it works
  • Searchable by content — transcripts, summaries, tags, places
  • Provenance kept — capture evidence read before the file is scrubbed
  • Originals gated — previews are watermarked, raw files need a licence

How it works

Six steps run automatically on every upload. Nothing here waits for a human.

  1. 01

    Upload

    A witness drops in video, audio or stills. The file is hashed on arrival, so the same footage submitted twice is recognised rather than sold twice.

  2. 02

    Read the evidence

    Capture metadata is extracted before anything is altered: device, timestamp, GPS, and any signed Content Credentials. This is the provenance record, and it is taken while the evidence still exists.

  3. 03

    Scrub and derive

    Identifying metadata is stripped from the file itself, and a watermarked, downscaled preview is generated. Buyers evaluate the preview; the original never reaches anyone without a licence.

  4. 04

    Transcribe and index

    Speech is transcribed with timestamps, then summarised, tagged and filed against an IPTC category. Locations are reverse-geocoded to a place name a person would actually search for.

  5. 05

    Price

    A price is set from the media type, then moved by how fresh the footage is and how many people are licensing it right now, inside a floor and a ceiling. Every change is recorded with the inputs that caused it.

  6. 06

    License and settle

    A newsroom pays through the gateway, the licence is issued only once the money is confirmed, and the sale is split into platform commission and contributor earnings on the spot.

One rule sits under all of it: the original file is never served to anyone who has not licensed it. Previews are watermarked and downscaled, the uploads directory is closed to the web, and every delivery of an original passes a licence check first.

Who it is for

Three groups, three different problems. Here is what each one gets out of it.

Witnesses, stringers and freelancers

Contributors

You were there and you filmed it. This turns that into a sale without you having to know a single picture editor.

  • Your footage is indexed by what is IN it - what was said, where, when - so editors find it by searching for the story, not by knowing your name.
  • Identifying metadata is stripped from the file before anyone outside sees it, while the provenance record is kept privately against your upload.
  • Unlicensed buyers only ever see a watermarked preview. The original is served from behind a licence check, never from a public folder.
  • Pricing is automatic and explained: you can see the base price, the freshness and demand multipliers, and every change made to them.
  • Earnings are split the moment a sale settles and gathered into a monthly payout, at the commission rate in force when the sale happened.
Start contributing

Reporters, producers and picture desks

Journalists

You need footage of a specific thing, in a specific place, in the next twenty minutes. Search the content, not the filenames.

  • Full-text search across transcripts, summaries and tags, filtered by media type, capture window, category, or a radius around a point on the map.
  • A provenance signal on every item: what capture evidence survived on the file at upload. Evidence of origin, stated as exactly that and nothing more.
  • Evaluate before you buy. Watch the watermarked preview, read the timestamped transcript, check the device and the coordinates.
  • Clear licence tiers - single use, unlimited use, or exclusive rights - priced from the figure you were shown, not a higher one at the till.
  • Payment is taken on the gateway's own page. The licence, the reference and the raw download appear here the moment it clears.
Search the archive

Broadcasters, publishers and agencies

Newsrooms

A masthead does not buy footage one reporter at a time. Licences belong to the organisation, and the organisation controls who spends and who downloads.

  • Licences are held by the organisation. Everyone with a seat can use the footage, and it stays yours when the reporter who bought it moves on.
  • Optional spending approval: set a limit, and anything above it waits for a manager to approve the exact figure before a checkout can start.
  • Manage your own seats. Invite reporters, promote managers, suspend access - without going through us.
  • Every download of corporate-licensed media is logged, with who took it, when, and under which licence. Refused attempts are logged too.
  • Buy exclusivity directly from the contributor: a timed window while the story is live, or perpetual rights, at a price the two of you agree.
Set up a newsroom

Corporate accounts

When a newsroom signs up as an organisation rather than as individuals, four things change.

The licence belongs to the masthead

A reporter buys, but the organisation holds. Everyone with a seat can find, play and download that footage, including people who joined afterwards — and the licence stays with you when the person who bought it leaves.

Spending goes through approval

Set a limit per licence. Below it, reporters buy on their own. Above it, the purchase waits: a manager sees the item, the tier and the exact figure, and approves that figure. If the live price climbs past what was approved, the checkout stops rather than quietly charging more.

You manage your own people

Invite reporters to a seat, promote one to manager, suspend an account the day someone leaves. Seats are yours to run. Removing someone never removes the footage your newsroom paid for.

Every download is on the record

Each request for a corporate-licensed original is logged with the person, the time, the item and the licence it was served under. Refused attempts are logged too, and the whole log exports to CSV when someone asks you to account for it.

Exclusive access deals

Buy the story before anyone else can

Make the contributor an offer directly: a timed exclusive that keeps the footage off the market while your story runs, or perpetual rights if you want it for good. You set the price and the window; they accept or decline.

Exclusivity starts when the payment clears, never when the offer is accepted — an unpaid promise cannot take an item off the market. While the window is open, the item does not appear in any other newsroom's archive at all. Licences sold before the deal began are untouched: they were bought in good faith.

Set up a newsroom account

What this does not claim

The provenance score says what capture evidence was still attached to a file when it reached us — a device signature, a timestamp, GPS, signed Content Credentials. That is evidence of origin. It is not a verdict on whether the footage shows what it appears to show, and nothing in this application will ever present it as one. Verification is still editorial work, and it is still yours.

Ready to start?

Pick the account that matches what you do. You can change it later.

Create an account Sign in