The New York Times, The Economist and Agence France-Presse joined a publisher coalition pushing AI companies to pay for news, lifting its membership to about 80.
Key Points:
- The New York Times, The Economist and AFP were among more than 40 new members that signed on Monday.
- The coalition is building standards to track how AI systems use journalism and to support licensing deals.
- Google search referrals to more than 2,500 websites fell 33% in a year, adding pressure on publishers.
SPUR Membership Doubles
The three outlets joined SPUR, short for Standards for Publisher Usage Rights, on Monday among more than 40 new members. The expansion roughly doubled the group and brought in The Atlantic, ITV News, The Observer and the Brazilian Association of Newspapers. SPUR now has about 80 members in more than 20 countries.
The Guardian, the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the BBC and Sky News launched the coalition in February. It is building technical standards that show publishers how AI companies use their journalism and help them strike licensing deals.
The Times brings its own legal fights with AI developers to the group. It sued OpenAI and Microsoft in December 2023 over the use of its articles, then filed a suit against Perplexity two years later. It also licenses content to Amazon under a May 2025 deal.
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Grossman-Cohen On Copyright
"Intellectual property protection and technological advancement can and must co-exist," said Rebecca Grossman-Cohen, the Times' senior vice president of strategic partnerships and executive operations. She said tech platforms alone should not set rules for copyrighted content.
SPUR co-founder David Buttle said publishers have no way to ensure fair pay and that, in many cases, their work is being stolen. Traffic data shows the strain. Google organic search referrals to more than 2,500 websites fell 33% between November 2024 and November 2025, according to Chartbeat figures, as search engines added AI-generated answers.
SPUR Telemetry Standard
The coalition's main tool is an open-source Content Telemetry Standard, which asks AI agents to log when they retrieve, ground, cite and display news content. SPUR said it is building tools to ease adoption.
The standard came together quickly. SPUR released version 1.0 after a public comment period that ran from Jun. 12 to Jul. 24 and produced 29 specification threads. The Associated Press signed on as a founding member in July, a status that Mediahuis and CMA Media also hold and that carries higher fees.
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