News pages from publishers with OpenAI licensing deals received an average of 10.2 citations each on ChatGPT in June 2026. Pages from publishers without those deals received 6.9.

That 48% difference is the headline finding in a joint study from Press Ranger and OtterlyAI, which matched 129.3 million citations across seven AI platforms against confirmed licensing agreements between AI companies and news publishers.

The gap was larger among publishers that had signed only with OpenAI. Those outlets received 112% more citations per page on ChatGPT than unlicensed publishers, according to a joint study from Press Ranger and OtterlyAI. Across all seven platforms measured — ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Google AI Mode, Perplexity, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Claude — publishers in the OpenAI cohort had 46% more citations per cited page.

But the study does not show that licensing deals caused those differences.

OpenAI has largely signed prominent, English-language news organizations that may already have been more likely to appear in AI answers. The researchers normalized the results by citations per cited page, rather than total citations, which helps account for publisher size. It does not control for every difference between licensed and unlicensed outlets.

The results also varied by platform. Google-licensed publishers were cited at a slightly lower rate than comparable unlicensed publishers on Google AI Overviews. Perplexity licensees were roughly even with unlicensed publishers on Perplexity. Those findings do not establish whether the deals affect visibility elsewhere.

OpenAI-licensed publishers also received 57.9% of their AI citations from ChatGPT, a more concentrated mix than the one recorded for unlicensed publishers. OtterlyAI CEO Thomas Peham described the result this way: “A licensing deal does one clear thing: it tilts your citations toward ChatGPT.”

That should still be read as a correlation, not proof that OpenAI changed its systems because publishers signed contracts.

The study also looked at what kinds of news content AI systems cited. Best-of lists, buying guides and product reviews accounted for 46.9% of citations to licensed publishers. The researchers said the broader pattern favored service journalism, but the data do not show that format matters more than licensing status or that other kinds of reporting are excluded.

There are other limitations. The study was released by two companies with products tied to media distribution and AI visibility. Press Ranger distributes press releases, while OtterlyAI sells AI search monitoring. The analysis covers one month, has not been peer reviewed and does not include a published methodology explaining how comparable unlicensed publishers were selected.

For publishers, the findings add another data point to a wider debate over how news organizations should deal with AI companies. Cloudflare has argued that crawler blocking can give publishers more leverage in licensing negotiations, Microsoft has built a marketplace to broker publisher-developer deals, and some groups are pushing statutory licensing proposals. None of those developments proves that licensing itself produces more AI referrals or meaningful revenue.

Citation volume also says nothing about accuracy. The Tow Center’s 2024 examination of ChatGPT citations, covered by TechCrunch, found the chatbot misattributing and fabricating sources, including for publishers with licensing agreements.

Separate Tollbit data analyzed by Press Gazette found publishers with OpenAI deals received roughly seven times the ChatGPT clickthrough rate of publishers without them. That is a different dataset, however, and the Press Ranger-OtterlyAI study did not analyze referral traffic or licensing fees.

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Apple is considering spending at least $100 million to license news for its revamped Siri assistant, with publishers paid based on how often their reporting is used, according to Nieman Lab.

Apple has discussed a variable compensation plan that would pay publishers when Siri uses their reporting, rather than the flat licensing fees common in many AI content deals.

Apple already uses a similar model with Apple News+. Payments to publishers are based in part on the share of engagement their content generates on the platform, an approach that has also drawn complaints from publishers.

Apple first announced the revamped Siri in 2024, but its release has been delayed several times. It is now expected later this year. Beta testers at WIRED and The Verge have reported significant improvements, increasing Apple’s need for reliable, up-to-date news sources that Siri can use to answer questions about current events.

Apple is not building the new Siri alone. The company has a deal to use Google’s Gemini models for the assistant, and the Apple-Google partnership has already drawn antitrust scrutiny. That means publishers licensing content to Apple could also see their reporting used by an assistant powered in part by Google’s technology.

Usage-based payments have support elsewhere in the AI industry. Sam Altman has backed micropayments for AI agents as a way to compensate publishers when their content is used. The model could lower costs for AI companies, but it would also make licensing revenue less predictable for publishers and raise questions about how usage is measured and verified.

For publishers, Apple’s proposal adds another model to a growing mix of AI licensing arrangements. Meta licensed Newsmax content for AI search across its apps on undisclosed terms, while Google has changed how publisher links appear in AI Overviews, including by adding Top Stories carousels to some trending news queries. The approaches place different values on publisher content, from licensing fees and clicks to citations and individual uses. For publishers negotiating with Apple, a key question will be how those uses are counted and whether they can independently verify the data.

The potential payments are also small compared with the traffic losses publishers are facing. A $100 million pool divided among dozens of outlets would do little to offset declining search referrals, including a drop among UK publishers

No deals have been announced. The Wall Street Journal reported that discussions are underway, and Apple has not publicly detailed the proposal. The final terms, if agreements are reached, could show how much leverage publishers have as Apple looks for news content to support the new Siri.

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Employees at USA Today Co. learned their company had hired Palantir roughly 20 minutes before executives told investors about it. Four days later, more than 800 of them signed on to a demand that the deal be scrapped.

The joint statement, published Monday by 31 unionized newsrooms and reported by Nieman Lab, says CEO Mike Reed’s revenue rationale doesn’t cover the cost. “While USA Today Co. CEO Mike Reed championed this partnership as a way to drive revenue, we believe it threatens to undermine trust in our news outlets and raises serious questions about the data security of our readers,” it reads.

Employees wrote that the company’s AI software “has been used to advance widespread surveillance and power immigration crackdowns,” and that partnering with a major player in the news they cover creates “an inherent conflict of interest.” The statement also cites the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s reporting that Palantir’s work with ICE conflicts with its stated human rights policy, and points to co-founder Peter Thiel’s asseertion that freedom and democracy are incompatible.

USA Today Co. announced the deal on its second-quarter earnings call on August 6, framing it as a way to “strengthen how we collect, connect and activate audience data to drive more effective and faster monetization across our platform.”

“Part of the problem is that we know very, very little about how Palantir’s software is going to be used,” said Mike Davis, an Asbury Park Press reporter and vice-chair of the NewsGuild of New York. He called it surprising that management would bring in “such a controversial partner” without a full explanation to employees, “most of whom are naturally skeptical journalists.”

Reed told investors the company retains ownership of its audience data. Amy Garrard, vice president of labor relations, said in a Monday statement that the agreement is “a business decision focused on strengthening how we connect and better serve audiences, advertisers, and subscribers,” that data “remains protected under our existing privacy commitments, contractual safeguards, and applicable laws,” and that “our journalism remains fully independent.”

Davis raised a second worry the company statement doesn’t address: reporters’ own files.

“An investigative reporter who keeps a ton of sensitive notes, source information, and confidential documents on their devices is going to be naturally concerned about protecting that information,” he said. He said the distrust reflects a broader pattern of shifting priorities, following years of cuts to local news and a growing focus on AI.

For publishers, the dispute opens a new front. Choosing a technology vendor was once largely a procurement decision. Here, it has become an editorial issue because the vendor is also a subject of coverage, and because the chain’s more than 200 US papers and Newsquest’s more than 150 UK titles report directly on immigration enforcement and surveillance. Newsroom unions have spent the past two years bargaining over issues such as AI bylines and disclosure. Now they are applying similar pressure to the technology behind their newsrooms, as the industry faces a broader contraction that has eliminated more than 2,300 newsroom jobs this year.

The unions may not have the contractual power to kill the deal. But with 800 signatures behind them, they have put the burden on USA Today Co. to explain publicly what, exactly, Palantir will be allowed to touch.

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Time Inc. is inserting ads into the markdown versions of its webpages, stripped-down formats that AI systems and agents can read. The ads are formatted as FAQs filled with a brand’s messaging and labeled as sponsored content. Time says it is the first publisher to sell advertising inventory in this format.

The idea has divided media buyers, Digiday reports. Some see it as a potential shortcut to a problem their clients are eager to solve. Others dismiss it as wishful thinking.

The problem is real enough. More consumers use tools like ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini for product research, and brands have almost no visibility into what those chatbots say about them. Most have turned to generative engine optimization, or GEO, pumping out branded content and using visibility trackers like Scrunch and Profound. Those tactics take time and guarantee nothing.

“Right now there’s a lot of testing based off of building content and hoping that it shows up within the LLMs,” said Jeff Eisenfeld, director of activation at Media by Mother. “Is that going to show up in the prompt? Is that going to have enough authority? Is that going to get crawled?”

That uncertainty makes a direct ad buy more appealing. Jonah Goodhart, co-founder and CEO of Mobian, the company behind Time’s inventory, told Digiday that paid ads can influence LLMs because the models seek out information from trusted brands.

Sam Huston, senior vice president of media at growth invention company Dept, said clients would consider testing the ads depending on the cost. He pointed to high-consideration purchases such as cars, where consumers may spend weeks researching a decision and increasingly turn to LLMs for help. Jaquie Hoyos, chief media officer at Moroch, said the key question is whether placing ads alongside high-quality information can actually influence how brands appear in AI results.

Skeptics are pushing back. Danny Weisman, co-founder of Obsessed Media, said brands would be better off investing in traditional brand-building advertising. He argued that markdown ads should be treated as an added value from publishers rather than a core part of an advertising campaign.

The data also raises questions about whether these ads can meaningfully influence AI visibility. A WARC study conducted by agency Charlie Oscar estimated that 63% of a brand’s LLM visibility came from long-term brand equity, compared with 26% from current marketing activity.

Stephan Kopp, managing director of Mediaplus Performance, was more skeptical, arguing that the ads are unlikely to influence AI models. He also warned that AI developers could eventually adjust their systems to ignore such tactics, much as search engines have changed their algorithms to prevent advertisers and publishers from gaming rankings.

For newsrooms, the debate matters because markdown inventory offers publishers a potential way to monetize the AI traffic already reaching their sites. Time’s experiment tests whether publishers can package and sell that traffic before regulators or AI companies set the rules.

The source of those test budgets is telling. Huston expects advertisers to shift money from programmatic display rather than search, despite the goal of improving AI search visibility. Some budgets could also come from the same experimental funds advertisers are using to test ads on ChatGPT.

Rita Steinberg, vice president of media at FUSE Create, summed up the view shared by many buyers: “You can influence AI visibility. I just don’t think you can reliably buy it yet.”

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A Google search for “Burnham social care” on July 30 surfaced something new at the top of the page: BBC, Guardian and Caring Times articles stacked in a Top Stories carousel directly inside an AI Overview, according to Press Gazette.

The placement is part of a broader shift in how Google handles breaking news in AI-generated search results—and it creates a new dilemma for publishers weighing whether to opt out of Google’s AI features.

Google began rolling out the embedded Top Stories carousel in June. When it appears, it replaces the standalone Top Stories box that traditionally sits below an AI Overview, putting publisher links closer to the top of the page instead of forcing users to scroll through AI-generated text to find them.

The format is already showing up at meaningful scale.

Data from news SEO firm Newzdash shows that 15.5% of trending-news searches in the US that triggered Top Stories displayed the module within an AI Overview rather than in its traditional position.

The analysis covered more than 17 million Top Stories appearances across 40-plus countries during the 30 days ending July 28. So far, Newzdash has observed the embedded format only in the US and UK.

Entertainment was the category most likely to trigger the placement, accounting for 35.1% of cases in the US and 31.5% in the UK World news and sports followed, with sports appearing more often in the UK than in the US.

Newzdash founder John Shehata described the change as a “double-edged sword.” Google has said it wants to make links more prominent in its AI search experiences, and embedding the full Top Stories carousel does exactly that.

“We do not yet have comparative clickthrough data, but it should create a stronger opportunity for clicks than pushing Top Stories further down the page,” Shehata said.

But the new placement comes with a catch: Publishers may have to accept AI-generated summaries of their content to qualify for it.

Breaking news was once relatively insulated from Google’s AI answers. That protection is fading. Nearly half of Google search results pages now carry an AI Overview, according to Semrush’s tracker, putting news publishers increasingly inside the AI-generated search experience.

Google recently added Search Console controls allowing publishers to exclude their content from AI Overviews and AI Mode. The UK rollout followed a ruling by the Competition and Markets Authority.

Newzdash found that Top Stories appeared either inside an AI Overview or as a standalone module — never both. That means publishers that opt out of Google’s generative AI features could lose access to the embedded placement, with no guarantee that Google will show the standalone Top Stories module elsewhere on the page.

Shehata said publishers should distinguish between two different Google controls.

Blocking Google-Extended in robots.txt restricts the use of content for model training and grounding and should not affect a publisher’s eligibility for Top Stories. The Search Console exclusion is different: It determines whether a publisher’s links can appear in Google’s AI features at all.

The trade-off lands amid a growing debate over whether publishers should block their content from AI search. Opting out can keep a publisher’s content from being summarized by Google, but it may also remove the publisher from one of the most prominent referral opportunities Google has introduced in years.

And in an AI search environment where being cited by name increasingly matters, the embedded Top Stories carousel is more than a technical change. It is a new strategic choice for news publishers: accept a place inside Google’s AI experience, or risk disappearing from one of its most visible news placements.

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UK publisher digital revenue fell 4.55% in the first quarter of 2026, ending four straight quarters of growth, according to the Digital Publishers’ Revenue Index run by the Association of Online Publishers and Deloitte.

The survey, reported by Press Gazette, covered 13 publishers, nine business-to-consumer and four business-to-business. Richard Reeves, managing director at the AOP, called the drop the “first tremors in an earthquake being felt across the industry” as AI-generated answers and shifting audience habits keep readers from clicking through to source sites.

The decline was uneven. Some 62% of respondents still reported revenue growth, the highest share in a year, which the AOP said points to the heaviest losses being concentrated among a minority of publishers most exposed to changes in the information ecosystem.

The numbers that fell fell hard. Recruitment classified revenue dropped 44.84%, other classified was down 38.17% and off-platform revenue fell 20.27%. The AOP attributed much of that to people getting what they need from AI answers without visiting a publisher. Digital audio revenue sank 46.98% year on year for the second quarter running.

The click-through data backs up the concern. Separate AOP research found only 26% of ChatGPT users say they would click at least one media link in a response, rising to 34% for a Google Search carrying an AI Overview. Users are 18% less likely to click through to a source when an AI Overview sits at the top.

The “miscellaneous” category, covering revenue that doesn’t fit the main buckets, posted the single biggest decline. The AOP suggested AI substitution of publisher content across referral channels was a factor. It also flagged agencies Dentsu and WPP pulling out of The Trade Desk’s OpenPath initiative over concerns about ad placement and hidden fees.

Not everything went down. Digital display advertising rose 5.06%, likely on the back of more direct-sold premium deals. Every respondent now ranks advertising a high business priority, up from 75% a year earlier. Online video grew 1.29%, sponsorship 0.91% and subscriptions a thin 0.63%.

Reeves said the display turnaround “must be commended and demonstrates the quality of the advertising product that premium publishers provide.” Andy Cowen, lead partner for telecoms, media and entertainment at Deloitte, said the display growth shows the value premium content still holds but warned the drops elsewhere point to an “urgent need for publishers to adapt.”

For newsrooms, the report reads as a warning about cost. Every publisher in the index now says it will prioritise cost reductions, up from 50% a year ago, and every one says acquisitions are a priority, up from 25%. That mirrors wider pressure across the sector, where journalism’s workforce is shrinking as AI and new consumer habits reshape the industry.

There is one thread publishers can pull on. AOP research found a reader’s trust in an AI answer depends on their perception of the news brand cited in it, which underlines how much AI companies still rely on verified publisher content even as they starve those publishers of clicks. Whether that dependency translates into deals or dollars is the next thing the revenue index will measure.

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ChatGPT has begun refusing requests to write in the style of named authors, marking a notable change in how OpenAI’s chatbot handles imitation prompts. As reported by Ars Technica, the system now steers users toward describing literary traits rather than directly invoking a writer’s style.

The Media Copilot was able to replicate the result on July 28. After asking ChatGPT to write a short story in the voice of Ernest Hemingway, the chatbot replied, “I can’t write in the exact style of a specific author or closely imitate a copyrighted work’s voice. I can, however, write an original passage that draws on some broad characteristics often associated with Ernest Hemingway—plain language, understated emotion, concrete observation, and spare dialogue—without closely imitating his distinctive expression.”

The change is less about the output than the prompt. Requests that explicitly name an author may now be refused, but prompts describing the same stylistic traits—such as minimalist prose, clipped dialogue or a gothic mood—can still generate comparable writing without invoking a specific writer.

The apparent shift comes as OpenAI continues to face multiple copyright lawsuits over its AI models and outputs. While those cases primarily concern training data rather than stylistic imitation, they have intensified scrutiny over how AI systems reproduce or emulate copyrighted creative works, prompting companies to adopt more cautious safeguards around requests that closely mimic identifiable authors.

Other chatbot makers have drawn the line differently. Ars Technica cites a No Latency study that found Google’s Gemini complied consistently with author-imitation requests, while Perplexity refused and redirected them. Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft Copilot fell between those positions, complying while adding qualifications. The uneven treatment means a refusal in one product does not prevent a writer or editor from trying the same prompt elsewhere.

For newsrooms and publishers, ChatGPT’s new author-style restrictions underscore the need for AI policies that govern editorial practices rather than any single technology provider. Internal guidelines should define whether staff may request imitation of living authors, deceased writers, competing publications or an organization’s own house style, while requiring disclosure and human review before AI-generated text is incorporated into published work.

OpenAI has not, based on the material cited here, announced a formal written-text policy that matches the chatbot’s current behavior. Until it does, publishers should expect the boundary to be defined largely by the product itself: prompts that explicitly name authors may be declined, while requests describing the same stylistic qualities in broader terms can still generate a response.

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Newsmax’s current and archived reporting will feed Meta’s AI-powered search and discovery tools under a licensing agreement announced Tuesday, giving the social media company another publisher partner as it builds news answers into its products.

The agreement reported by The Desk covers Meta services including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and extends to current and future consumer devices sold by the company. Meta will use the material to train its AI-supported search and discovery tools, while those tools will also link users to Newsmax stories and videos and generate short summaries from written work.

Christopher Ruddy, Newsmax’s chief executive, welcomed the deal in a statement to The Desk: “Newsmax applauds the significant resources Meta is putting into AI to keep America at the forefront of this emerging technology.” He added that the publisher wanted to help users reach timely, high-quality journalism through AI technologies.

The reported terms do not include a price or other financial details. That leaves a central question unanswered for publishers weighing similar deals: what compensation reflects the value of an archive, a daily reporting operation and traffic that may be intercepted by an AI-written answer before a reader reaches the original article.

Newsmax joins a growing group of right-of-center outlets that have signed Meta agreements, including Fox News Media, the Daily Caller and the Washington Examiner. The Desk also reports that Meta has reached content arrangements with News Corp, Warner Bros. Discovery, USA Today Company and People Inc.

Meta’s stated aim is broader than adding another political perspective. In comments cited by The Desk from December, the company said it wants Meta AI to become more responsive, accurate and balanced, particularly during breaking news events when its AI systems struggle to keep pace. Meta is integrating the assistant across its consumer products, placing search, recommendations and conversational answers inside the same ecosystem.

That goal remains untested. Licensing news publishers gives Meta a clearer legal basis to use their reporting than scraping the web or relying on unresolved fair-use claims. But it does not answer how Meta AI will choose sources, attribute reporting, summarize competing accounts or weigh conflicting information. Adding more publishers expands the pool of reporting. It does not, on its own, ensure balanced results.

For newsrooms and publishers, the Meta-Newsmax agreement underscores how AI licensing has become as much a distribution strategy as a rights negotiation. As more publishers strike AI licensing agreements, attention is likely to shift from financial terms to attribution, referral traffic, transparency and the distinction between training rights and real-time content use.

Meta’s next test is execution. The company will need to show that licensed journalism makes Meta AI faster, more reliable and better sourced without reducing publisher reporting to an invisible input. Newsmax has secured a place in that effort. The success of the agreement will ultimately be measured less by how much Newsmax content appears in Meta AI than by whether AI-generated answers still create an economic incentive to produce the original reporting.

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MIT Technology Review’s paywalled articles will now be available through Muck Rack‘s monitoring platform under a licensing deal that expands communications teams’ access to artificial intelligence and emerging technology coverage. In its announcement of the deal, Muck Rack said it is the first communications platform to license the publication’s content.

The agreement gives Muck Rack customers access to the publication’s full editorial output, rather than only material visible on the open web. That helps eliminate a blind spot created by paywalls, giving companies a fuller view of coverage, competitors and reputational risks.

Muck Rack has been building a roster of direct publisher deals, recently adding Bloomberg Media and STAT, according to the announcement. MIT Technology Review, founded at MIT in 1899, covers the business, policy and social effects of technology as well as technical developments.

Natan Edelsburg, Muck Rack’s chief partnerships officer, said the arrangement reflects the company’s effort to work directly with publishers while giving users access to trusted AI reporting. Ted Hu, senior manager of licensing at MIT Technology Review, said the deal takes the publication’s reporting to communications professionals beyond its usual journalist and technologist audience.

Muck Rack is pitching the deal as a way to help communications teams track how brands appear in both AI-generated answers and traditional news coverage. The company said earned media, referring to unpaid editorial coverage such as news articles, accounts for 84% of citations in responses from ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini, while journalism makes up 27% of sources cited by those AI systems. Muck Rack did not disclose its methodology, time frame or underlying dataset, so the figures could not be independently verified.

The licensing model is more concrete than those numbers. It gives Muck Rack permission to distribute and search reporting that would otherwise be restricted, while giving a publisher a commercial route into enterprise monitoring. It also differs from the unresolved question of whether AI companies need permission to train on publishers’ archives.

For publishers, the deal reflects a broader effort to monetize journalism beyond subscriptions and advertising. As news organizations challenge search engines and AI companies over the use of their reporting, licensing agreements provide a way to generate revenue while ensuring their content is available through enterprise platforms. The arrangement also highlights the growing value of credible journalism as AI systems and communications professionals increasingly rely on it.

Muck Rack’s next challenge is proving customers will pay for licensed access when many media monitoring tools still rely on publicly available content. If more publishers sign similar agreements, media monitoring could become a new licensing channel for news organizations rather than another way their content is used without compensation.

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Trust in AI answers rises and falls with the credibility of their sources. More than 90% of people trusted an AI response when they completely trusted its cited source, but that figure plunged to about 10% when they completely distrusted the source, according to new findings reported by Press Gazette.

The figures come from an Ipsos survey of 1,000 UK adults for the Association of Online Publishers’ Artificial Intelligence Publisher Impact Study. The findings show that AI can distill reporting into a polished answer, but users ultimately judge that answer by the credibility of the news organization it cites.

The effect extended even to publishers respondents felt neutral about. Trust in the AI answer was only about 25% when the cited source was rated neither trusted nor distrusted. The survey measures correlation, not causation, and reflects stated attitudes rather than observed behavior. Even so, the pattern is unmistakable.

Trust also affected reported willingness to visit the underlying publisher. Nearly half of people who somewhat or completely trusted a cited source said they would click at least one link in an AI response. That finding fits a wider pattern covered in The Media Copilot’s reporting on news brands and AI clicks: the publisher’s name may still be what persuades users to leave the chatbot, even as AI interfaces give them fewer reasons to click elsewhere.

There is an uncomfortable counterpoint. Even when users completely trusted the cited source, nearly a third said they would stop at the AI answer rather than click through. That figure was similar among those who completely distrusted the source. A citation alone can make an AI answer more credible without delivering the visit, subscription opportunity, or advertising impression that paid for the original reporting.

The study also found that 37% of respondents did not know AI tools can fabricate information or sources. That rose to about 45% among 45- to 54-year-olds. The result matters because a polished answer can borrow authority from reputable citations while still getting a claim wrong, omitting context or inventing a detail.

AI companies have good reason to seek current, attributable reporting. OpenAI’s partnership with News Corp is one public example of the licensing deals that give chatbots access to professional journalism. Yet the confidentiality of many licensing deals makes it difficult for publishers to know whether they are being fairly compensated for the credibility their reporting brings to AI answers.

For newsrooms, the immediate task is less about winning back every lost referral than preserving the conditions that make their reporting worth citing. Clear attribution, strong archive pages, distinctive analysis and direct audience relationships matter when an AI answer becomes the first read. Publishers also need to decide which crawlers and products earn access.

The survey’s implication is clear. AI platforms are borrowing trust that publishers spent decades building, while publishers risk capturing only a fraction of the value it creates. As AI answers become the default gateway to information, the rules governing licensing, attribution and publisher control will determine whether publishers can still turn trust into revenue.

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