12 hours ago
News Publishers Are Rethinking How AI Firms Should Pay for Their Content
As OpenAI and other AI companies make more money, news publishers are starting to rethink how they get paid for their content. So far, many have signed flat-fee deals to license their work for training AI models. But now, some are asking whether they should be paid based on how often their content actually shows up in AI responses. Indeed, this idea is gaining traction, and companies like Perplexity are working on usage-based payment systems that reflect how frequently a publisher's content is used to answer user questions.
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Interestingly, several factors are driving this shift. For one, AI firms are growing fast and using much more web data than before. For reference, OpenAI's web crawlers, which scan websites to collect information, saw their traffic increase by over 300% from May 2024 to May 2025. As a result, publishers say that this puts more strain on their servers, thereby increasing their costs. This has led organizations like Cloudflare (NET) to propose tools and standards that would let AI firms pay publishers per web crawl or per question answered.
Nevertheless, flat-fee deals still dominate the industry. In fact, OpenAI has signed many licensing agreements, including a major deal with News Corp (NWSA) that is worth over $250 million over five years. But most of these deals don't depend on usage, and publishers say they're hesitant to accept complex deals until the market settles. In addition, some who tried calculating how much their content was worth based on Google-referred traffic found that the numbers far exceeded what OpenAI was willing to pay. Therefore, some publishers are now suing AI firms for using content without fair compensation.
Is NWSA Stock a Good Buy?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on NWSA stock based on five Buys, one Hold, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. Furthermore, the average NWSA price target of $36.95 per share implies 24% upside potential.
