Amazon is planning to launch a marketplace where publishers can license their content directly to AI firms, according to publishing industry executives who spoke with the company about the project.
Publishers have increasingly raised concerns that the growing use of AI chats and search summaries is resulting in fewer people actually visiting their sites, affecting their readership and ad revenue. Amazon thinks it can help solve that issue.
Amazon has not officially announced the project, but the company confirmed that it is actively collaborating with publishers across AWS, advertising, and its AI initiatives.
An Amazon spokesperson told TechCrunch:
“Amazon has built long-lasting, innovative relationships with publishers across many areas of our business, including AWS, Retail, Advertising, AGI, and Alexa. We are always innovating together to best serve our customers, but we have nothing specific to share on this subject at this time.”
Microsoft also recently launched a project called Publisher Content Marketplace that aims to address these problems for publishers as well.
Microsoft wrote:
“PCM is designed to empower publishers with a transparent economic framework for licensing premium content into AI products. The result is a direct value exchange: publishers will be paid on delivered value, and AI builders gain scalable access to licensed premium content that improves their products.”
The publishing industry has changed drastically in my lifetime.
When I was a kid, my parents subscribed to paper newspapers and magazines! Then it shifted to digital format, with the norm becoming that content was free and ad-supported. After a while, the ad revenue began to dry up, and some publications like New York Times began to own their revenue again through subscriptions. (I should know. I pay for a lot of them!)
Now the industry is about to face another major evolution as publishers figure out the best way to form relationships with AI firms.
