It’s time for news organizations to embrace Creative Commons

ProPublica, for example, has always encouraged others to “steal its stories” — which has both increased pageviews and resulted in thousands of sites reprinting their pieces.
I see Creative Commons licensing as a smart way to distribute local or national content when the goal is maximum impact... [and] as an important survival tool for smaller and regional newsrooms... can republish articles ... build on, localize or extend the reporting in some way. ... Pixel Ping open-source tool allows ProPublica to “count the number of times [its] stories are read on sites that republish them.”...
the collaboration fostered by Creative Commons gives ProPublica a better case when it's time to apply for grant funding.