Google is paying News Corp $6M for AI content

Big tech wants content to power its AI ambitions, and traditional publishers are looking for big paydays. Now, another quiet alliance is taking shape.

Google has agreed to pay News Corp between $5 million and $6 million annually to develop new AI-related content and products, according to a report from The Information citing an insider and a source close to the deal.

News Corp is the media powerhouse behind The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post. The new payout is reportedly folded into an existing, longstanding partnership between both companies.

Paying for products, not licensing

Curiously, News Corp quickly pushed back on the exact wording of the report.

A News Corp spokesperson told Reuters that the company absolutely does not have an AI content licensing deal with Google, while acknowledging that the two maintain several business partnerships across their operations. Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

That wording matters. AI companies have been racing to lock down publisher archives to train their LLMs legally. OpenAI, for instance, has already inked multi-million dollar data agreements with Axel Springer and the Financial Times.

Why it matters

At $5 million to $6 million a year, this is couch-cushion money for both Google and News Corp. But the strategic positioning is what makes it fascinating.

News Corp's aggressive denial of a content licensing deal shows just how toxic that label has become in media circles. Selling publisher archives to train chatbots opens the door to editorial revolts and legal complications. By framing the money around co-developing new AI products instead, both sides get what they want without triggering public backlash.

We think this arrangement feels like a playbook for how tech giants will handle resistant publishers going forward. Google gets a clean alignment with one of the most litigious media conglomerates on Earth, and News Corp gets a guaranteed check to experiment with AI without technically giving away the keys to its archive.

For readers, this likely translates into new experimental AI news features across News Corp outlets down the road. But make no mistake: the lines between building AI products together and feeding AI models are getting blurrier by the day.