News Corp and OpenAI announce a multiyear agreement to bring News Corp's news content to OpenAI; sources say the deal could be worth $250M+ over five years
Agreement could generate over $250 million over five years for News Corp in cash and credits — Wall Street Journal owner News Corp struck …
Wall Street Journal
Context & Ripple Effects
News Corp's agreement follows months of reported negotiations between OpenAI and major publishers, including News Corp, over licensing terms and price, as well as Google's separate AI-content arrangement with News Corp. It turns those exploratory publisher talks into a named, multiyear commercial relationship.
The deal matters because it establishes a substantial reported value for a publisher supplying material to a frontier AI company. Later reporting of Meta's separate News Corp licensing agreement suggests the company can pursue multiple AI buyers rather than rely on a single platform.
First-order effects
News Corp gains a multiyear revenue stream, split between cash and OpenAI credits, while OpenAI obtains contractual access to News Corp news content.
Other publishers gain a concrete reference point for negotiating AI licensing, though the reported headline value includes credits and may not map cleanly to cash-only deals.
AI companies seeking reputable, current news material face added pressure to secure rights directly, while News Corp can compare OpenAI's terms with offers from other platforms.
Third-order effects
If such agreements proliferate, publisher archives and ongoing reporting could become a distinct input market for AI systems, with rights scope, attribution, and product use becoming central deal terms.
The pattern may favor large publishers with broad portfolios and negotiating capacity, while leaving unresolved whether licensing revenue can be distributed broadly across the news industry.
The trend: AI developers are moving from informal access to publisher material toward negotiated, multiyear licensing of content as an inference input.
Looks like @axelspringer_EN struck a $30 mm/3-yr deal and @FT a $10 mm / yr ... so at $50 mm / yr, Murdoch netted a decent rate, but it's a bundle of at least 7 publications. Looks like @OpenAI is offering $7 mm to $10 mm/yr/pub as the going rate:
The big, old publishers grab their bag o' gold from OpenAI et al, leaving out all of local, Black, Latino, digital, and new media and the needs of the public. The industry should instead band together for a news API. But it's every mogul for himself. — https://www.wsj.com/...
And another big publisher in the bag for OpenAI. Nothing substantially new to say really. OpenAI cementing its position, publishers making money while they can, smaller publishers losing out, further inequalities in the info ecosystem. It's “platform” darlings, the sequel.
I have the opposite view: AI may be more of a threat to fans of conservative media. The big AI players are all training on or licensing the AP, Reuters, Axel Springer, the FT, Dotdash Meredith. They don't seem to be lining up to do deals with Breitbart, the Daily Caller, or Fox..
Inbox: News Corp and OpenAI announce a historic, multi-year agreement to bring News Corp news content to OpenAI, which now has permission to display content from WSJ, NY Post, Times/Sunday Times and more in response to user questions and to enhance OpenAI products. [image]
News Corp earned $9.9 billion in revenue ($1.4 bil in profit) in 2023. This deal, according to WSJ, is worth around $250 million over 5 years ... The value for OpenAI is clear, but why is that worth it for News Corp? Makes me wonder what OpenAI's been offering smaller media