Perplexity signs 15 more media outlets to share ad cash

The relationship between AI search engines and news publishers has spent the past year looking like a nonstop legal brawl. But while media giants line up lawsuits against tech firms for scraping their stories, Perplexity is betting that cutting publishers a check is a much better way to make friends.

Perplexity announced a major expansion of its publisher revenue-sharing program, bringing in 15 new media partners. The additions mark the program's first expansion into the UK, Japan, Spain, and Latin America, spanning over 25 countries across four continents.

From ad splits to free newsroom software

The new roster brings heavy hitters and influential niche players alike. On the general news side, the Los Angeles Times and The Independent have signed on. For specialized coverage, the list adds advertising trade ADWEEK, camera gear authority DPReview, lifestyle publication Gear Patrol, Spanish conglomerate Prisa Media, RTL Germany brands stern and ntv, and Japanese outlets like NewsPicks and Minkabu Infonoid.

They join earlier flagship partners like TIME, Fortune, and Der Spiegel. In exchange for access to their reporting, Perplexity is offering a package deal designed to appeal straight to publishers' balance sheets.

First, participating publishers get a direct cut of the advertising revenue generated when Perplexity answers reference their content. On top of that, Perplexity is giving their entire newsrooms a full year of free Enterprise Pro access, developer support with API access to build custom search tools, and continuous analytics tracking how their stories perform in AI-driven queries.

To manage the push, Perplexity hired Jessica Chan as its new head of publisher partnerships. Chan, who previously ran content partner programs at LinkedIn, noted that over 100 publishers have reached out to learn about the model since it was first unveiled in July.

Why it matters

We think this is one of the smartest diplomatic moves a frontier search startup could make right now.

OpenAI has spent the last year signing massive, eight-figure upfront licensing checks with a handful of legacy giants like News Corp and Axel Springer. That strategy is great for corporate behemoths, but it leaves independent publishers out in the cold and sets a precedent that smaller AI startups cannot afford to match. Perplexity is attempting to build an open, programmatic revenue-share model that scales without requiring billion-dollar bank accounts.

For newsrooms, the pitch is hard to ignore. Getting enterprise-grade AI tools for every reporter saves real budget today, while an ad revenue cut offers an upside hedge against declining search traffic. If search engines are going to summarize your reporting anyway, having an official dashboard and a cut of the ad action beats getting scraped for nothing.

Still, the open question is how big that revenue pie actually turns out to be. Revenue-sharing only works if Perplexity can build a thriving advertising business without ruining the clean user experience that made it popular. If ad payouts end up being pocket change, publishers may quickly decide that the courtroom is still their best leverage. But for now, Perplexity has managed to turn 15 potential adversaries into active business partners.