Around 30 European and North American media outlets have joined a coalition launched by Britain's BBC, Sky News, and The Guardian, aiming to secure fair payment for news content from artificial intelligence giants. The coalition, named SPUR (Standards for Publisher Usage Rights), welcomed new members including France's CMA Media, Switzerland's Ringier, and Canadian groups such as The Globe and Mail and CBC/Radio Canada.
Call for a 'New Deal'
CMA deputy chief Jean-Christophe Tortora addressed a gathering of global news publishers' association WAN-IFRA in Marseille, France. He urged French President Emmanuel Macron to raise publishers' concerns at the upcoming G7 leaders' meeting in Evian, eastern France. Tortora emphasized the need for "a 'new deal' based on fair value sharing, content protection, and the defense of reliable and independent journalism."
SPUR's Founding and Expansion
SPUR was co-founded by the BBC, Financial Times, Guardian Media Group, Sky News, Telegraph Media, and Belgium's Mediahuis. The coalition argues that news content offered by media outlets comes at a high cost, and tech and AI firms should pay a fair price for its use. Initial aims include developing infrastructure to measure how AI systems use publisher content and planning licensing talks.
"The world's leading publishers are determined to open a new chapter in their relationship with technology platforms and public authorities," Tortora said. He highlighted that tech giants "strip-mine news websites without permission or compensation" to provide training data for large language models, a concern echoed by New York Times publisher Arthur Gregg Sulzberger.
Global Mandate
Guardian Media chief and SPUR founding member Anna Bateson stated, "Welcoming 30 new members gives SPUR the scale required to turn its mission into a global mandate. This collective strength will help legitimize the standards we create, safeguarding the intellectual property of publishers and providing AI developers with a route to scalable, sustainable licensing."
The three-day WAN-IFRA meeting was dominated by media sector fears about business model survival amid AI emergence. SPUR's expansion signals a unified front to confront AI challenges and secure fair compensation for news content.
