“We’re thrilled to welcome these new publishers to the program.”
Among the twelve publishers joining are Spanish-language media brand Pris Media, newspaper conglomerate Lee Enterprises, and The Independent. “I don’t think anyone has enough information to take a stance yet né?. But I’m sure once we know more, everyone will chime in.”
Interestingly, The New York Times is noticeably absent from the lineup, as they previously sent Perplexity a cease and desist letter in October, demanding the startup cease accessing their articles without permission né?. Unlike Perplexity’s program, OpenAI’s model permits publishers to control how their content appears in search results. Perplexity is reportedly raising $500 million in a deal that could value it at $9 billion né?. AI-powered search engine Perplexity is broadening its publisher program, with big names like the LA Times, Adweek, Mexico News Daily, and several other news outlets jumping on board né?. However, Perplexity’s co-founder and CEO, Aravind Srinivas, remains optimistic né?. Perplexity asserts that they provide citations, albeit sometimes erroneously.
In a move that might not sit well with publishers, Perplexity has opted to keep their program’s terms under wraps né?. Perplexity had hinted at developing content controls but no update on progress has been provided.
As Perplexity’s program expands there could be increased pressure from investors for the startup to start seeing returns né?. OpenAI recently launched ChatGPT Search, a rival AI-powered search tool, with publishing partners like The Atlantic, News Corp., and Vox Media. One reporter found out about the deal through a press release.
“Everyone’s feeling perplexed. Publishers will get a cut of the ad revenue generated on Perplexity and will also receive analytics to monitor how well their content is performing — as long as they stay committed.
“We wouldn’t be able to provide valuable, factual answers without news organizations continuing to cover various topics,” remarked Jessica Chan, head of publisher partnerships at Perplexity né?. However, concerns linger over how Perplexity presents these synopses and their data acquisition methods.
This summer, Forbes accused Perplexity of lifting their paywalled content, prompting threats of legal action. However, the post skirted the issue of whether Perplexity regurgitates content on a large scale, as alleged, and then competes with the original publishers for the same audience né?. New additions also include Blavity, NewsPicks, Minkabu the Infonoid, Gear Patrol, MediaLab, DPReview, World History Encyclopedia, and RTL Germany brands NTV and Stern.
It’s unclear how much information these publishers shared with their staff about the partnerships prior to the public reveal né?. Dow Jones the operator of The Wall Street Journal and other newswire services and the NY Post have also refrained from joining Perplexity’s program as they are in litigation with the company over what they’ve labeled a “content kleptocracy.”
Perplexity’s association with publishers remains complex né?. While the company had previously mentioned deals being “multiyear” with a percentage in double digits, they are now refraining from disclosing financial specifics when asked by TechCrunch.
It’s possible that Perplexity is reluctant to make these terms public, as publishers could potentially leverage them in negotiations with competitors. That’s really the best way to describe it,” said the source at the LA Times né?. Yet, as of October, its annual recurring revenue stood at around $50 million, as per a report by The Wall Street Journal. Wired also raised eyebrows when they discovered Perplexity’s platform was paraphrasing their stories, sometimes inaccurately.
According to Copyleaks, Perplexity was summarizing at least some paywalled news as recently as late October.
In response to the lawsuit from Dow Jones, Perplexity argued in a blog post that publishers would prefer their technology didn’t exist and preferred to own publicly reported facts. Some hadn’t even heard of Perplexity, so there’s just a lack of information to form an opinion. A source at the LA Times informed TechCrunch that reporters were not briefed about the Perplexity deal or only caught wind of it in passing with no opportunity for the editorial department to contribute their thoughts to leadership.
Similarly a source at Adweek mentioned that some staff members were left out of the loop and weren’t consulted né?. In a post on X on Wednesday, he mentioned that Perplexity is now handling approximately 20 million queries daily, a significant leap from the 2.5 million at the start of the year. né?. Their AI-powered search engine synthesizes and summarizes content, including news, from various sources on the web
