The NLA has been reminding aggregators they could face legal action by not signing up—and NewsNow confirms in a statement that it is “refusing” to sign what it calls a legally “questionable” agreement. That leaves just Meltwater as the last paid-for news aggregator to either remove newspaper links or sign up to the new deal.

An angry NewNow MD Struan Bartlett calls the NLA licence “not fit for purpose” and writes: “In spite of the NLA’s claims to the contrary, we continue to maintain that what they are demanding of ourselves and our customers is unacceptable and of questionable legitimacy.”

He says it’s not just about the charges companies like NewsNow would incur, but the fees placed on their PR clients for sharing links. Bartlett previously called on the NLA to stop its “indiscriminate attacks” on linking companies. NewsNow will continue to publish links on its free news site—but the NLA doesn’t have a problem with linking generally, just people making money from it.

Other organisations that have signed up to the new rules—including Digital Media Services, Durrants, MediaGen, Precise Media, Press Data, PressIndex and the WPP-owned TNS Media Intelligence—only did so reluctantly and “under pressure”, according to Bartlett.

But it’s nevertheless a victory for the NLA, which is owned by the main eight national newspaper publishers. NLA commercial director Andrew Hughes told us: “We are pleased that NewsNow recognises publishers’ right to charge aggregators who offer paid for services. With all of the major paid-for UK web aggregators except Meltwater now having agreed licenses, NewsNow’s stance does not have a material impact on the market.”