This week’s Media Briefing covers publishers choosing up on Meta’s evolving message about AI content material licensing offers.
Publishers are choosing up new vibes from Meta, which they imagine sign that the platform could also be altering its stance on AI licensing.
To date, it’s extra rhetoric than actuality. However, if it have been to come back to fruition, it might reset the dynamic between Meta and publishers, a lot of whom nonetheless really feel burned by years of declining referral visitors from the platform.
When publishers, retailers and cloud edge firms gathered on the IAB Tech Lab’s first workshop in New York Metropolis on 23 July, to debate first steps in making a standardized framework for AI content material monetization and attribution, Meta and Google have been additionally current.
4 publishers Digiday spoke to mentioned that through the occasion, Meta’s message was that there’s now extra buy-in on the senior stage throughout the firm relating to the worth of doubtless forging nearer ties with publishers of high quality content material.
“[They] have been clear that the brand new management is aware of that AI runs on good content material, and that has moved Meta to interact extra,” mentioned a publishing exec of a serious media model who attended the occasion and agreed to talk beneath the situation of anonymity.
Of all of the platforms, Meta has the fewest AI licensing offers, having partnered with Reuters final yr to make use of its content material to reply person questions in actual time about information and present occasions.
Meta has radically reorganized its AI operations beneath a brand new division referred to as Meta Superintelligence Labs, consolidating all its AI groups — from foundational mannequin growth to product engineering — beneath one roof.
“Meta was very clear that with their new management – as a result of they’ve clearly been constructing a Superintelligence staff in a short time, and there’s utterly new AI management – they have been very clear that there’s a special perspective to accessing info going ahead than what that they had earlier than,” mentioned the identical publishing exec. “Though it turns into an entire totally different query. They have been very clear that their stance on this has modified, despite the fact that it might not have outwardly become motion but.”
Meta declined to remark for this text.
No street map is presently within the works and nothing formative has been established at Meta. No publishers are beneath any phantasm about the truth that Meta is within the information-gathering section. “My takeaway was that they’re now approaching issues in a different way and increasing how they supply their info past their platform,” mentioned one other exec who attended the assembly.
Earlier this yr, Raptive signed a contract with its creators and publishers, which suggests it might probably now deal with AI licensing negotiations on their behalf. Since then, it has acquired an inquiry from Meta across the potential AI licensing of certainly one of its publishers on the platform, although with none agency dedication, in response to Raptive chief technique officer Paul Bannister. “They weren’t, like, able to do a deal. They have been like, we’re simply making an attempt to determine the lay of the land right here and see what to do. So it does seem to be they’re making an attempt to determine it out,” he mentioned.
With no concrete particulars from Meta on what its Superintelligence unit will really ship, or what its urge for food for AI licensing offers will actually be, hypothesis is the one sport on the town for now.
However numerous trade execs Digiday spoke to imagine that so as to compete with AI rivals OpenAI, Google and Anthropic it must have its personal entry to new high quality content material – the kind premium publishers have in spades. Even Amazon has acknowledged its must intently pair with publishers, having lately signed AI licensing offers with the New York Occasions, Conde Nast and Hearst.
Regardless of what Google claims, publishers imagine they will’t absolutely block its AI crawler with out jeopardizing their search rankings, whereas there is no such thing as a such catch with their blocking Meta’s crawler. And a fast look on the robots.txt information of publishers together with The Guardian, Washington Submit, Monetary Occasions, New York Occasions and Information UK – writer of the Occasions of London and tabloid The Solar – reveals they’re all blocking the primary Meta Llama crawler.
“Practically nobody is obstructing Google from scraping their content material, as a result of in the event you block Google, you lose all of the search visitors, so nobody does it,” mentioned Bannister. “OpenAI has negotiated numerous offers with folks [publishers] so despite the fact that a bunch of persons are blocking them [OpenAI], they’ve entry to a big swathe of top of the range content material, and all people else, I believe, is getting blocked fairly closely lately, together with Meta, as a result of publishers don’t have any incentive to let Meta scrape their content material,” he added.
And relating to the AI race, neither Google nor Meta can afford to stay static. And Meta has some catching as much as do, confused a number of trade execs Digiday spoke to.
“The frontier fashions perceive that so as to be actually helpful, they want a mannequin to get contemporary information and information,” mentioned a publishing exec beneath situation of anonymity.
What we’ve heard
“Websites will likely be getting a lot much less visitors, and advertisers will likely be spending extra money per impression on websites, and extra share on Google and reply engines than they do now… It must be a paradigm shift with advertisers whereby they notice they are going to be paying extra for extra certified eyeballs, however received’t be losing their budgets on so many hit and run customers. Advertisers received’t come round to that paradigm quick sufficient so many websites will shutter. We’ve a bumpy street forward.”
– A head of web optimization at a big life-style writer.
IAB Tech Lab maintains momentum round AI remuneration requirements framework
Within the age of AI, “friction” has change into publishers’ buzzword for survival.
Publishers are leaning arduous into creating this – what is actually friction – or collaborating with tech gamers that may, round accessing their content material to power AI engines to pay up.
That’s an enormous purpose why the IAB Tech Lab is pushing forward swiftly with its framework to manipulate how publishers receives a commission when AI fashions scrape their content material — with or with out the AI firms’ cooperation.
The framework has been rebranded from LLM Content material Ingest API and can now be generally known as AI Content material Monetization Protocols (CoMP) with a remit to develop protocols for content material monetization, massive language mannequin discovery and bot and crawler visitors administration.
Presently, at the very least 50 firms have formally signed as much as be a part of the group forming the protocols, in response to IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur.
The primary workshop in July in New York Metropolis was attended by greater than 80 media executives, with retailers and different manufacturers, cloud edge firms (or content material supply networks) Cloudflare and Fastly, and Google and Meta additionally in attendance. A number of main worldwide publishers flew to NYC for the occasion, together with German media giants Bertelsmann and RTL and worldwide execs from Axel Springer and different titles attended remotely. There have been three noticeable absences: OpenAI, Perplexity and Anthropic didn’t present up.
“The LLMs aren’t cooperating,” Katsur advised Digiday. “OpenAI, Perplexity, Anthropic – they haven’t responded, and we’ve reached out a number of occasions.”
Whereas, regardless of wider tensions round how Google’s AI Overviews are affecting referral visitors, Google and certainly Meta, did at the very least present up – a reminder maybe that for all of the frenemy ups and downs over time, they’re invested within the open internet ecosystem and are long-time companions. In distinction, the AI firms are like the brand new youngsters on the block. “Publishers are form of this lifeblood [of the internet] and I believe Meta and Google perceive that implicitly,” added Katsur.
Regardless of the AI platform no-shows, Katsur is eager to keep up momentum and preserve pushing the group ahead. Katsur is cognizant of the challenges however is adamant that there’s energy in numbers.
“That is all moot if the AI firms don’t comply,” he mentioned. “The leverage there’s going to be working with the sting compute platforms – the Cloudflares, the Fastlys, the Akamis and [Amazon] Cloudfronts to dam them. And as soon as they’re blocked, then we’ll have their consideration. They should be blocked, full cease,” mentioned Katsur.
If there has ever been a time for publishers to band collectively and unite, huge and small, that is it, he added. “I believe that’s extra necessary than any technical framework, than any public coverage strategy or new laws down in DC, if publishers don’t lock arms and band collectively and block the crawling, then, you realize, they’re not all gonna make it,” he mentioned. — Jessica Davies
Numbers to know
52%: Forbes’ year-over-year visitors decline in July.
4: The variety of in-office days required at Penske Media, starting Oct. 20.
80%: The share of LA Occasions unionized staffers voting to strike.
Lower than half: The share of U.S. adults that say somebody who hosts a information podcast (46%) or writes their very own e-newsletter about information (40%) is taken into account a journalist, in a brand new Pew Analysis Heart examine.
What we’ve lined
Creators rent AI like interns as they give the impression of being to save lots of prices on the artistic course of
- For creators, AI expertise helps to chop out the necessity to rent further help they could have as soon as wanted.
- Some features AI can help with embody analysis assistant, copyeditor, social media guide and contract reviewer.
Learn extra right here.
VTubers are catching entrepreneurs’ eyes in 2025
- 2025 is shaping as much as be the yr of the VTuber – livestreamers or video creators who use digital avatars, slightly than their real-life identities, as their public personas
- Whereas VTubers aren’t typically pulling in the identical world numbers as high conventional influencers, they’re drawing loyal, hard-to-reach audiences who’re area of interest however deeply engaged. That opens up new collaboration alternatives for manufacturers
Learn extra right here.
Google AI Overviews linked to 25% drop in writer referral visitors
- New information from Digital Content material Subsequent reveals natural search referral visitors from Google to publishers’ websites is declining between 1% and 25%.
- Over eight weeks in Could and June 2025, the median Google Search referral was down nearly each week, with losses outpacing features two-to-one.
Learn extra right here.
What we’re studying
AI licensing offers are shifting to usage-based mannequin
AI search agency Perplexity is creating a brand new mannequin for paying publishers, partly based mostly on utilization, displaying some AI firms are open to this construction, The Info reported.
Time and Politico appoint new heads of AI
Time and Politico have employed new AI-focused execs. Michael Mraz is becoming a member of TIME as our new SVP, head of product and platform AI, who will report back to chief working officer Mark Howard. Francesca Barber is taking up a brand new position as evp, AI & innovation.
The Knight Basis races to save lots of public radio and TV stations
The Knight Basis and different organizations are aiming to supply $50 million to PBS and NPR stations damage by latest federal authorities funding cuts, The New York Occasions reported.
MSNBC adjustments its identify to MS NOW
MSNBC will change its identify later this yr to MS Now, as a part of adjustments in Versant’s upcoming cut up from Comcast’s NBCUniversal, CNBC reported.
Refinery29 shutters U.Okay. workplace
Refinery29 has laid off workers because it plans to close down its U.Okay. workplace, Axios reported.
