AI licensing

Guess there’s no pleasing investors. Despite Reddit delivering an objectively solid Q2, its stock cratered, in part because of search-related headwinds and low referral traffic.

The SAIL initiative compensates publishers when AI scrapes their content and guarantees the outputs adhere to the same cultural standards they apply to their own coverage.

Rather than fighting the rising tide of AI search engines and agentic tools, Microsoft AI’s Nikhil Kolar says publishers and retailers should license access to their sites and create content that speaks directly to AI crawlers.

The AI content licensing boom is real. But without neutral, scalable infrastructure, it’s on track to repeat programmatic’s trust and transparency failures.

Enjoy this weekly comic strip from AdExchanger.com that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem … 

The future of publishing won’t be defined by where content lives, but by how it’s created, licensed, distributed and valued, writes David Kohl.

Amazon teases an AI licensing marketplace for publishers; not every country is fine with targeted gambling ads; and YouTube’s ad revenue share isn’t enough for its entrepreneurial creators.

The Economist is charting its own course in the age of AI, says Nada Arnot, the 182-year-old publication’s EVP of marketing. It’s steering clear of licensing deals and lawsuits and partnering with Claude on its own terms.

The layoffs reflect a strategic decision on People Inc.’s part to free up money to invest in growth areas, according to CEO Neil Vogel’s memo to employees.

Publishers must coalesce to gain a credible bargaining position and stop the bleeding caused by AI search. From there, we must put the processes in place to actually operate a licensing mechanism.

AI app marketplace Dappier ensures that chatbot responses using Benzinga’s data link back to the original source, and it also shares revenue from ads placed in these responses.

Curation is amazing – for SSPs. The question publishers continually ask is, “Is curation good for us?” That’s the wrong question. 

It’s time for advertisers to get more nuanced with their approach to brand safety, says Mia Libby, The Wall Street Journal’s SVP of enterprise. It’s okay to be cautious, but excluding all news from programmatic media plans isn’t the answer.

The company’s total revenue was down 1% YOY due to a decline in ad revenue across its News Media and Dow Jones publishing groups.

Advertising accounted for $222.7 million, up 39% YOY. CEO Steve Huffman attributed this growth to a boost in search traffic from Google.