SCOOP: a collaborative solution for UK journalism
SCOOP is a cross-industry initiative designed to sustain news journalism in the UK by ensuring freelance journalists receive fair compensation for their work.
The Challenge
While credible journalism remains vital to democracy, fundamental changes in how news content is accessed and consumed online have transferred significant value from publishers to tech platforms. This has led to mass redundancies — 2,681 journalism jobs lost in 2023 alone — and increased reliance on freelance journalists who earn below the national living wage and receive nothing for secondary use of their content. Current agreements between publishers and tech companies fail to address freelance journalists’ rights, creating legal uncertainty around payments estimated to be worth hundreds of millions.
The Solution
SCOOP provides a comprehensive solution for scalable rights clearance and payment distribution to freelance journalists, while offering partnership opportunities for training and development initiatives, particularly for underrepresented communities. This voluntary approach operates within existing regulatory frameworks to ensure journalists are fairly compensated for their work.
Our Brief
Established as a joint venture between non-profit licensing agencies representing freelance journalists and photojournalists: ALCS, DACS, and PICSEL, alongside the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), SCOOP needed an identity that could launch this important initiative while remaining flexible enough to evolve over time.
Our Approach
Inspired by the name’s organic letter forms, we created a bespoke typeface that captures SCOOP’s collaborative essence, representing unity and strength within the community. We developed a distinctive colour system that brings fresh vibrancy to all applications, complemented by a series of supporting pattern assets to reinforce the brand’s communications and to be developed over time.
The result is an identity system that reflects both the serious nature of SCOOP’s mission, and the energy needed to drive meaningful change in the industry.
