Can I Trust These Folks?

April 3, 2006 4:49 PM

Who can tell me anything about a company called Newstex? Are they legit?

I've been contacted by a company called Newstex, which describes itself as "an aggregator or wholesaler of real-time news, content and commentary that serves customers in the financial, government and entertainment markets." They say they want to license my blog.

They say they add value "by aggregating hundreds of digital news feeds from publishers and standardizing the content by adding industry-specific data, stock ticker symbols, keywords and other categorization fields. Newstex clients integrate Newstex's products into their commercial and proprietary applications for delivery to end-users..."

The deal, apparently, is that I give them rights to all of my blog content for resale, and I get 30% royalty on the gross revenues. Im not sure if "content" includes my digital photos, or just my writing.

I'm curious, but cautious.

posted by mmahaffie to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Are they asking for exclusive distribution rights? If so, run do not walk away from them.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:53 PM on April 3, 2006

I think they want to package and sell your RSS feed to corporate types, and keep 70% of the profit off your work.

I told them to screw off.
posted by mathowie at 9:08 PM on April 3, 2006

Newstex announced today that they signed blogs from Gawker Media and Corante and are distributing through LexisNexis.

Blog Content from Gawker Media and Corante Available Via Newstex Blogs On Demand:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/4/prweb367572.htm

LexisNexis Delivers Blog Content via Newstex Blogs On Demand
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/4/prweb367528.htm
posted by freshspot at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2006