As a nonprofit newsroom, The Lens encourages wide distribution of our work. Though we reserve copyright to our stories, we allow others to republish them through a Creative Commons license.
This license applies to stories reported and published by The Lens, but not to opinion pieces or stories reported by other organizations and republished on our site.
There are some conditions:
- All stories must retain our byline, with our organization name. For example: “By La’Shance Perry, The Lens.” In the event that your content management system doesn’t allow this in the standard byline field, our byline and “The Lens” must appear prominently at the top of the story.
- If you republish this story online, we require that you retain all links within. These links are an essential part of our stories; we believe in linking to sources and primary documents. If you can’t do this, you are welcome to publish the first few paragraphs of the story and link to the complete story on our site.
- This note must be appended at the bottom of any story:
Online Newsroom: This story was originally published by The Lens, an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.
Print: This story was originally published by The Lens (thelensnola.org), an independent, nonprofit newsroom serving New Orleans.
- Other than minor changes to reflect your publication’s style, our stories must be republished in their entirety. This doesn’t include subheads, pull quotes and graphical elements.
If you have print space limitations that require a shorter version, we will consider allowing you to publish an abbreviated version. In some cases, we’ll work with you to shorten the story, and we may ask that the above note states that it’s an edited version of our story. This is done on a case-by-case basis, and any edited story must be approved by The Lens before publication. This means we need advance notice. To be clear: You do not have permission to publish a truncated version of a Lens story (with the exception of minor style changes) without our approval.
- We publish stories when we think they’re ready. You’re welcome to ask us any questions about our reporting or editorial decisions (email editor@thelensnola.org). However, we can’t accommodate requests for additional reporting or editorial changes. We also don’t allow others to add material to our stories.
- If we request it, you must provide us with metrics (page views) for any story you publish online. In the event we decide to start tracking republished stories automatically, we will ask you to place a simple embed code at the bottom of each story (if your stories are paginated, at the bottom of each page). This code will not interfere with your publishing system.
- You may run ads alongside our stories, as long as the ads are not specifically sold against them.
- Photographs taken for The Lens (noted with a “Lens” credit line below the photo) may be used with that story only. The photo must retain the original credit (photographer name and organization). We can’t extend permission for others’ photos that we use on our site.
Exceptions:
- Opinion pieces: If you would like to republish an opinion piece, contact us. We will make contact with the author to obtain permission.
- Stories reported by other organizations and republished by The Lens.
- Any story with a note stating that it is excluded from our republication license.
- Live blogs: Please contact us if you would like to embed a live blog.
Feel free to send us links to our republished stories; we like to see where they end up! Send the link or a PDF of your print publication to editor@thelensnola.org. You may mail print publications to:
The Lens
1025 S. Jefferson Davis Parkway
New Orleans LA 70125
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