• by Laurie Sullivan , Yesterday

Publishers have finally gained a content-licensing framework that provides a new revenue stream.

During the past several months, Microsoft has been co-designing the “Publisher Content Marketplace” (PCM), announced Tuesday, to help publishers license their content to AI engines.

U.S. publishers such as Business Insider, Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, People, The Associated Press, USA Today, and Vox Media, among others are early adopters and developers of the project.

Their input helped shape decisions around licensing, pricing, governance, analytics, and onboarding that improved the product, according to Microsoft, which tested the framework with the company’s AI assistant technology Microsoft Copilot. The future goal for this framework, it appears, will have the ability to work with other AI-based engines. 

Microsoft also has begun to integrate partners such as Yahoo.

From the IAB ALM conference in Palm Spring, California, Richy Glassberg, co-founder of Safeguard Privacy, said the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has been working on supporting projects like this for publishers for months.

The open web was built on the implicit value exchange where publishers made content accessible, and distribution channels like search helped people find it.

That model no longer translates into an AI-first world, where answers are increasingly delivered in a conversation. Much of the authoritative content today lives behind paywalls or within special archives.

As the AI web grows, publishers need sustainable, transparent ways to govern how their premium content is used and to license it when it makes the most sense.

Through PCM, publishers are paid on the value of their content, as well as defined licensing and use terms, which each customizes. Those who are building AI engines gain access to licensed premium content that improves their products.

PCM also supports reporting to enable publishers to understand how content has been used in responses, and where it can provide increased value in the future. It’s done through a feedback loop in the marketplace.

AI engine query responses rely on trustworthy sources for accurate, relevant guidance when making decisions or purchases. It determines the ultimate decision, especially with agentic systems.

If someone asks an AI engine whether two medications interact or whether a financial policy applies in a specific situation, for example, the quality of the answer depends on access to content.

Microsoft said the framework supports publishers of all sizes, internationally and regionally.

Publishers retain ownership of their content, and are intended to balance projects and avoid challenges related to pairwise agreements between publishers and AI builders and agents.